Many times in sports, frustrated fans expect talent to equal success. At the professional level in any sport, the difference in talent level between two teams is more marginal than it seems. After all, the organizations that win games are the ones that build a team rather than just recruiting talent.

The batting lines for the 2024 World Series show: New York Yankees may have won against Los Angeles Dodgers. New York finished with a .212 average, nine home runs and 24 runs batted in. Los Angeles finished with a .206 average, seven home runs and 25 runs batted in.

But in the end, the World Series wasn’t decided by those numbers. The decision was not made based on the money spent on the staff. Even Shohei Ohtani didn’t decide this. The deciding factor was the fundamental difference between the two clubs: While the Yankees accumulated talent, the Dodgers built a team.

The Dodgers told their players in scouting meetings that the Yankees were based on talent rather than fundamentals. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported. Los Angeles knew the Yankees would beat them with their own mistakes. All they had to do was put the ball in play and watch the Bronx Bombers explode.

The Dodgers noted that the Yankees were the worst baserunning team in the Majors by nearly every measure. The team’s analysis also found that the Yankees have the worst positioned outfield in the majors. There was no command in the relay throw and Jazz Chisholm Jr. Players like these often stood motionless.

In the end, it’s details like these that make the difference. Even after the Yankees took a five-run lead in Game 5, all the Dodgers had to do was wait for New York to blow it themselves. Aaron Judge hit a routine line throw to midfield. Chisholm couldn’t catch Anthony Volpe’s jump shot on the force attempt in the third. Gerrit Cole stopped Mookie Betts’ pursuit of a grounder to first base.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers stifled the Yankees.

“Baseball is all about execution, right?” Nestor Cortes said after Game 5: “If you don’t make the play and the other team does it better than you, then they’re definitely going to win. And that’s what we faced in the series, they ran a lot of plays. And since Games 1 and 2, Mookie Betts I felt like he was in right field and every ball was off the wall, he kept it to one play and stuff like that, it’s like you can’t take advantage of them and when we made (mistakes) they capitalized on it, so that’s it. It’s a big deal.”

“It always comes down to this: you need to limit errors.” The judge said. “You don’t give your opponent a chance to breathe.”

After a roller-coaster season, it was Freddie Freeman’s magical performance along with execution and fundamentals that helped the Dodgers capture their eighth World Series title.