This article is also featured on FarFromProfessional.com.

Is this the way it’s going to be now?

If you have a sibling, you might be able to relate to this. Let’s say that you and your siblings were (or still are) competitive with each other. I’m a middle child in one of those large families that has multi-generational siblings, but we didn’t all grow up together in the same house. There are layers to this, but I’m not getting into it because that’s not my point. My point is that if you grew up with siblings, at some point you went head-to-head with them, whether it was playing Mario Kart or playing basketball or just straight up slapping the shit out of each other, and I can relate to being both the younger sibling who always got my ass kicked by my older brothers and as the older brother who handed out ass-kickings to his younger bros.

Older siblings usually have the outright advantage because they’re bigger, stronger, and smarter, but there comes a time, or perhaps just one moment in time, when the younger sibling gets the better of the older one. It doesn’t have to be a complete changing of the guard; it just has to be that one time, that first victory. There’s nothing like that first time and seeing the absolute shock on your older sibling’s face. All the years of demoralizing trash talk are vindicated. The scars from the psychological damage your asshole older siblings inflicted heal. Even if it only happens once, and it always happens at least once, that winning feeling will fuel decades of friendly banter at holiday gatherings.

Younger siblings usually don’t come out of the gate beating and beating up on their older siblings, but there always comes a time when they one up their older sibling/s, and for the older sibling — for me at least — that first “L” stings something fierce. It’s a blow to the ego and to the entire psychological dynamic. If you’re an older sibling, you know what I’m talking about. Maybe it only happened once; maybe your younger sister got lucky with a last-minute Red Shell that tagged your ass within eye-sight of the finish line, and she blew by you for the win. And she talked all kinds of trash because she’d earned it.

The San Diego Padres, mocked long and mocked hard by Dodgers fans for being the cocksure yet unseasoned “little brothers”, just smacked the shit out of big bro in the best of five National League Division Series to punch their ticket to the league championship. They are one step closer to winning their first World Series title, and congratulations to them because they sure as hell deserve the privilege to continue playing for that title. They had been dominated by the Dodgers, my Dodgers, all season long, but the won when it mattered the most. The Dodgers have no excuses. They choked.

As to whether there’s been a changing of the guard in the NL West going forward, it’s too early to call, and it doesn’t matter right now anyway. The Padres went all in to win, and they look like they have all it takes to get the job done. The Dodgers had talent, but they didn’t have heart. Now, they enter the off-season with a lot of questions about their roster and rotation. It’s a guarantee that familiar faces will be gone, and new faces will be brought in, and that could be just what this Dodgers team needs.

Next season never felt so far away, though.