THREE IN FOUR
Steve Cutler (9/29/2019)
In 2004, Hollywood made their first World Series appearance. The series was tied 1-game a piece and It was game 3 that I will ever remember as pivotal. Hollywood was working on a combined no-hitter, handing the ball to the highest grade reliever in MWBL that season (23*), Eric Gagne. Gagne got 2 quick outs, holding onto a 2-0 lead. As Geoff Jenkins steps to the plate, I will never forget what Tempe owner Chris Douglass Im’d me – “I have you right where I want you.” Those words haunted me for a long time. Geoff Jenkins walked, Jeff Bagwell got the team’s first hit of the game and Richard Hidalgo knocked them both in. After a stolen base by pinch-runner Chris Stynes, Aubrey Huff, the man traded for Eric Gagne earlier in the year singles home Stynes for the game winner. Tempe goes on to win the series 4 games to 1 and Hollywood would start their rebuilding process a year later, after the 2005 season.
Hollywood wouldn’t make it back to a World Series for 8 more years, 2012, where they faced off with the returning champions, Sacramento 
Capitals. Th Capitals and Werewolves played possibly the most competitive sweep is MWBL history. Sacramento swept the series 2-1, 2-1, 1-0, 1-0. Hollywood scored 1 earned run the entire series. The pitching was amazing, but the hitting was something to be desired.
Hollywood would get knocked out in a hard fought ALCS vs Chicago (4 games to 3) in 2013, but would return to the World Series in 2014 to play the returning champion, Tempe Tempers. 2011-2015 World Series’ were unique. In 5 World Series games, there were only 2-different NL opponents and 3-AL opponents. Sacramento went back-to-back in 2011 & 2012. Tempe won in 2013 and attempted to go back-to-back in 2014. Ah, 2014…Hollywood had a feeling this was not going to go well when, after the first pitch of the ballgame, one of their aces, Cliff Lee, had to leave with a shoulder issue. He would be lost for 6 games, which could have been disastrous. Enter the Elder Stateman of the 3-Horseman – Jered Weaver. Weaver was brilliant, going 5 innings of 1-run ball. The bullpen holds back Tempe and Hollywood takes game 1. David Price is hammered in game 2, which evens the series. As in 2004, game 3 turns into the pivotal game. With the #2 Horseman hammered in the previous game, Hollywood sends #3 Horseman, the future Cy Young and 29 game winner, Clayton Kershaw to the mound. To be the best, you have to beat the best and to do that, you need to throw your best. Kershaw was staked with a 1-0 lead early and after he gives up a homer in the bottom half of the first, he goes into shutdown mode. Kershaw goes the distance and a Jay Bruce homer in the top of the 9th gives them the 3-1 lead and victory. For the first time in their 3 World Series appearances, Hollywood leads a series. After Tempe ties the series 2 games apiece, they send David Price out in game 5. Hollywood deploys the bullpen behind Price and Hollywood takes the game 4-2 to lead the series 3 games to 2. As we shift back to Hollywood, word breaks that Cliff Lee is ready to go. Hollywood debated sending Kershaw back out on short rest, but felt that if they had to go 7 games, they would want their best on the mound to go the distance once again. Lee was brilliant. He 2-hit Tempe thru 8, with 1 of the hits a homer by Troy Tulowitzki in the 8th. Hollywood felt they needed to bring in their closer in the 9th to shut it down, and that’s when the fun started. Up 4-1, Hollywood thought they had brought in Ryan Hanigan as a defensive replacement for Wellington Castillo, but there was a mistake on the lineup card and Hanigan had in fact been brought in as a pitcher. After pleading with the umpire, they had to send Koji Uehara back to the pen so Hanigan could face 1 batter. Hanigan walks his batter, Uehara comes in and, luckily for Hollywood pitches out of the jam and Hollywood wins their first World Series.
In 2015, Hollywood would appear in it’s 3rd World Series in 4 years. They would attempt to go back-to-back and would face The Tempe Tempers once again. Pitching was on display in this World Series which featured 4 out of 5 games as 1-run games, with the 5th game a 2-0 Tempe shutout. Tempe would raise the flag for the 9th time (in 2017 they win #10) as Hollywood fails in their bid for the back-to-back. Three World Series appearances in 4 years are unheard of for the competitive American League. As of 2018, Chicago’s three in five years is the closest anyone has gotten. The National League? Well that’s been dominated by 2 teams and 2 teams only, Tempe and Sacramento. Since 2011, Tempe has made 4 and Sacramento, 3, World Series’. Can Hollywood get back? Only time will tell….