BLUE BLOODS
New-look Dodgers depart on world tour with MVPs and superstars in tow
BOB NIGHTENGALE,
USA TODAY SPORTS • MARCH 14, 2024
PHOENIX — The Los Angeles Dodgers, surrounded by suitcases and boxes throughout the clubhouse, cleaned out their lockers, double-checked to make sure they had their passports, and prepared for the longest flight of their lives.
After playing their final game of spring training Wednesday, were instructed to be at their spring-training complex at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, board buses at 7 to travel to Sky Harbor Airport at 9 a.m. for a 6,277-mile flight to Seoul, Korea. They’re scheduled to land at 2:30 p.m. PT Friday, where they will open perhaps their most-anticipated season in franchise history on March 20 in the Gocheok Sky Dome against the San Diego Padres.
This is a team that spent a record $1.1 billion in free agency, building a team that could be the envy of baseball, filled with future Hall of Famers, MVPs and All-Stars.
The Dodgers, who had thousands of fans each day just watching them work out on the back fields of their spring-training complex, are expected to draw a franchise-record four million
fans at Dodger Stadium this season, and will be baseball’s No. 1 road attraction.
They are the Beatles in spikes.
“Let’s be honest,” says former MVP Mookie Betts, “we all know why they’re here. It’s not like they’re coming to watch me, you know what I’m saying. We all know why people are coming.”
Yes, their names are Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, two international stars who have captivated the sporting world.
“It’s cool being on a team like this, and you just embrace it,” Betts says. “You don’t have to do anything else but just take care of your job, and let everyone watch.”
Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts have a combined four MVP awards.
They watched Ohtani dominate at the plate all spring, hitting .500 with two homers, nine RBI and a 1.476 OPS. They watched Yamamoto’s talent electrify at times, striking out 14 batters and walking four in 9 2/3 innings. They watched Tyler Glasnow, acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in December,
pitch like a potential Cy Young winner, ending his spring with 8 1/3 hitless innings.
And, well, they just watched Ohtani’s comings and goings all day long, whether it’s driving up to the complex, walking from the cage or just swigging water.
“It’s been crazy,” Dodgers outfielder James Outman says. “The first day he was here, even before spring training started, I see cameramen and reporters lined up behind the fence at 6 in the morning. It’s been going on like that every day, just trying to capture anything they can.
“I’m telling you, he’s like Elvis. Everyone screams just getting a glimpse of him.”
Says Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman: “There are thousands of people here every day. There’s cameras filming cars driving in here. So, yeah, it’s a little different. But that’s a good thing. It means something good happened in the offseason.”
With this Dodgers’ team, it may be breaking news any time they lose a game.
“There’s definitely a different buzz for sure,” three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw, who’s expected to join the team after the All-Star break, tells USA TODAY Sports. “I mean, expectations have been there every year, but this year is more. I know that our team’s going to be one that people are watching. I think it’s a good thing.
“I think Shohei can handle it. He seems like he’s singularly focused on being really good at baseball and can handle all of the outside noise. He’s like the shiny new toy, I don’t see that wearing off anytime soon. Last couple of years, it’s been Mookie and then Freddie [Freeman]. There’s a lot that comes with it. Everybody’s kind of looking to you, looking at you.
“Now that you’ve been around, it’s not that like you’re not any more important, but it’s just that somebody’s mew that catches your eye. It’s going to be like that for at least a year, especially next year when he pitches.”
The Dodgers already are the best team money can buy with a payroll projected to be a franchise-record $313 million, more than three times the size
OPPOSITE: Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) signs autographs prior to the game against the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz., on Feb 27, 2024. JOE CAMPOREALE / USA TODAY SPORTS
‘The MVP version of Mookie Betts’: Dodgers superstar finds another level after shortstop move
GABE LACQUES, USA TODAY SPORTS • APRIL 26, 2024
WASHINGTON — The subject was Shohei Ohtani, as it so often is around the Los Angeles Dodgers these days, and for once, Mookie Betts was left to ponder what he can’t contribute to the team.
Betts takes a back seat to few, if any, in Major League Baseball, but perched atop a batting order that starts with three former MVPs, comparison can be the thief of joy.
“I can’t do 90% of the things he can do,” Betts mused about the two-way superstar reduced to the game’s most dominant slugger this season. “I don’t even try. I just gotta be Mookie.
“I gotta be the best Mookie Betts I can be. I can’t grow six inches and gain 50 pounds.”
Literally, no.
Figuratively? No one’s been bigger for the Dodgers this season.
Betts, 31, has always cast a longer shadow in this game than his 5-9, 180-pound frame might suggest, and his likely Hall of Fame career is
unfolding in chapters. The first installments were authored in Boston, where he was 2018 American League MVP and won the World Series that year with the Red Sox.
The next episode, after a trade to L.A. and his signing of a 12-year, $365 million contract extension, might be more impressive.
Newer stars — Ohtani, say — will always come around and command currency. Enduring greatness is eventually rewarded, as Betts’ 10 consecutive seasons with an OPS of at least .800 surely will.
But on a team that won its only World Series title in a bubble and has been snakebit by early playoff exits in the face of great expectations since, Betts’ worth can be taken for granted.
This spring, though, Betts has shown how a fearless and selfless mentality and endless desire to learn might be the ultimate value.
When the Dodgers, midway through spring training, requested he play
shortstop for the first time at the big league level, it was an ask many superstars might have quietly declined.
Betts, after all, won six Gold Gloves as an outfielder was already helping the Dodgers out by filling in at second base.
But shortstop? The most demanding position on the field, one that might compromise an elite hitter’s offensive ability, particularly when his experience was limited to 13 games in low-A ball more than a decade ago?
Well, what’s happened in the season’s first month has been remarkable.
Betts is not only handling the position capably, he’s also leading the major leagues in batting average, onbase percentage and OPS and enjoyed significant bumps in several peripheral categories.
All while bailing the Dodgers out of a tight spot in February, when projected starter Gavin Lux’s bounceback from knee surgery didn’t go as smoothly as the club hoped — and Betts filled the gap.
“I feel like we’re seeing the MVP version of Mookie Betts,” says Dodgers closer Evan Phillips. “And I feel like this is who he can be for us, hopefully throughout the whole year.”
‘True with his emotions’ Betts was musing the other day to his wife, Brianna, that he can’t believe it’s already his fifth year with the Dodgers. Yet his L.A. story quietly has levels to it. And this year, he’s gone from teacher to student.
Sure, Betts’ elite athleticism gave the Dodgers little pause to make the switch to shortstop. But playing the position at the highest level is an entirely different proposition.
And how Betts has gone about mastering the task taught the Dodgers a few things about their leadoff hitter, too.
“I feel proud and happy and grateful that I have the opportunity to work with him,” says infielder Miguel Rojas, like Betts an 11-year major league
OPPOSITE: Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts (50) throws to first against the Toronto Blue Jays during the sixth inning at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, on April 26, 2024. KEVIN SOUSA / USA TODAY SPORTS
NLCS GAME 6 • DODGERS 10, METS 5
‘What the people wanted’: Dodgers deliver dream World Series vs. Yankees
BOB NIGHTENGALE, USA TODAY SPORTS • OCT. 21, 2024
LOS ANGELES − The Los Angeles Dodgers, their shirts stripped off, wading in a pool of beer and champagne nearly up to their ankles in the clubhouse Sunday night, were drunk with emotion trying to explain what this meant to them.
They had just pounded the New York Mets 10-5 and won the National League pennant at Dodger Stadium, but this title was nothing more than the warmup act.
Now comes the moment that Major League Baseball, its TV partners, its corporate advertisers and millions of baseball fans have been clamoring for the past 43 years.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, for the first time since 1981, will face each other in the World Series.
Hollywood vs. Broadway. Rodeo Drive vs. Fifth Avenue.
Shohei Ohtani vs. Aaron Judge. Mookie Betts vs. Juan Soto.
Freddie Freeman vs. Giancarlo Stanton.
The rich vs. the richer.
Two of the most iconic franchises in sports playing for baseball’s ultimate prize.
“As a fan of baseball, how can you not be excited about this?” Dodgers infielder Max Muncy asked. “You’re talking about two of the biggest franchises. The biggest stars in the sport.
We got Shohei, Freddie and Mookie.
On the other side, you got Aaron Judge, Giancarlo, Juan Soto, Gerrit Cole.
“The game’s biggest stars on the absolute biggest stage.
“So how can you not be excited about this? This is the World Series.”
Said Betts: “It’s what the people wanted. What we all wanted.”
Just the idea of Judge and Ohtani being on the same stage, the two MVP favorites, could cause an international meltdown with all of the hype.
“I can’t even imagine how excited
the whole nation of Japan is now,” said Dodgers shortstop Tommy Edman, the MVP of the National League Championship Series with 11 RBI, tying a postseason franchise record. “If they weren’t already fans of baseball before, even more so now. Everybody wants to see these two teams play on the biggest stages. It’s a World Series full of superstars.”
Judge, who led the American League with 58 homers, and Ohtani, who led the National League with 54 homers, will mark the World Series’ first matchup between home run leaders since the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle and the Dodgers’ Duke Snider met in 1956. It will be the first time Ohtani and Judge have ever played in a World Series.
“I really feel like we finally arrived, I finally arrived at this stage,” Ohtani said. “The goal was to get this far. I also pictured myself getting this far with the contract that I’ve signed (10
years, $700 million). Just being able to play on this kind of stage with the team effort, and all the games were really hard. But I’m just glad that we’re at this stage right now.”
When the Dodgers won the 2020 World Series, they passed out masks instead of champagne bottles. There was no parade in downtown Los Angeles, or anywhere else.
Now there will be a parade for the ages in New York or Los Angeles, with the Yankees hoping to celebrate their first championship since 2009 and the Dodgers their first in a full season since 1988.
The World Series starts Friday night at Dodger Stadium, and when the two teams see each other and exchange pleasantries, they will share a deep appreciation knowing what it took to get there.
The two teams have been carrying a heavy burden with enormous expectations and pressure to win the World
OPPOSITE: Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández (37) runs home to score on a double by shortstop Tommy Edman (not pictured) in the first inning against the New York Mets during Game 6 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Oct. 20, 2024. JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA / USA TODAY SPORTS
WORLD SERIES GAME 1 • DODGERS 6, YANKEES 3
Freddie Freeman’s grand slam
may be the ‘greatest baseball moment I’ve ever witnessed’
BOB NIGHTENGALE, USA TODAY SPORTS • OCT. 26, 2024
LOS ANGELES — It was Kirk Gibson all over again.
It was Roy Hobbs in “The Natural.’’ It was classic Hollywood.
“It might be,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “the greatest baseball moment I’ve ever witnessed.”
Freddie Freeman, who could barely walk a week ago with his badly sprained ankle, who left the team this summer and didn’t know if he’d return with his 3-yearold son fighting for his life, stepped to the plate Friday night in front a screaming crowd of 52,394, and produced one of the most dramatic events in World Series history.
With one swing of the bat, Freeman created a memory that may never be forgotten in Dodgers lore, a two-out, walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning, leading the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series.
Freeman, swinging on the first pitch from Yankees left-hander Nestor Cortes, hit a 92-mph fastball that soared high into the right field pavilion, nearly the exact spot that Gibson homered to in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
It was the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history, and the first walk-off World Series homer on a first pitch since Mickey Mantle for the Yankees in Game 3 of the 1964 World Series.
Freeman stood at home plate, raised his bat into the air, tossed it aside, and slowly ran around the bases as Dodger Stadium literally shook.
“It felt like, just kind of floating,” Freeman said. “Those are the kind of things when you’re five years old with your two older brothers and you’re playing wiffle ball in the backyard. Those are the scenarios you dream about, two outs, bases loaded in a World Series game. …
“You dream about those moments even when you’re 35 and been in the league for 15 years. You want to be a part of those.
“For it to actually happen, and get a home run and walk it off, that’s as good as it gets right there.”
Only three Dodgers players — relievers Blake Treinen, Daniel Hudson and Ryan Brasier — were even alive for Gibson’s dramatic homer, but oh how they’ve ever seen the highlights over and over.
“No shade at Kirk or anything, but I don’t know him,” Dodgers All-Star right fielder Mookie Betts said. “That was before my time. I’m looking at the Freddie Freeman history.”
The 2024 Dodgers indeed are making their own history and will be able to tell their kids and grandkids about the night.
Dodgers infielder Max Muncy — who has met Gibson a few times — still had trouble coming up with the right words
OPPOSITE: Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman (5) hits a grand slam home run in the 10th inning against the New York Yankees during Game 1 of the 2024 MLB World Series at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 25, 2024. JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA / USA TODAY SPORTS
OPPOSITE: Fourth inning between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers during Game 2 of the 2024 MLB World Series.
KIRBY LEE / USA TODAY SPORTS
ABOVE LEFT: Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Michael Kopech (45) reacts in the eighth inning against the New York Yankees during Game 2.
JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA / USA TODAY SPORTS
ABOVE RIGHT: Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts (30) reacts in the ninth inning. JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA / USA TODAY SPORTS
LEFT: New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (99) reacts after striking out in the ninth inning.
JAYNE KAMIN-ONCEA / USA TODAY SPORTS