The silent, somber Bronx suddenly was bathed in joyous dancing blue, a screaming scrum leaping and bouncing and hugging into history.
The Dodgers did it. They really did it.
The hallowed New York Yankees stood frozen in their dugout, stripped of their aura and bludgeoned at their essence, painfully demolished pinstripe by pinstripe.
The Dodgers did it. They really did it.
The team that chokes swallowed swords. The team that crumbles spit fire. The most teeth-grinding great team in baseball chomped through a legacy of frustration on the sort of October night that, while once forgettable, now will live forever.
The Dodgers won the World Series. They really won the World Series.
They didn’t just win it, they dominated it, they debilitated it, they freaking owned it, finishing a five-game beating of the disintegrating Yankees on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium with a five-run comeback and a 7-6 victory to clinch the title four games to one.
While it ended here with the Dodgers joyfully engaging in a group hug that transformed this weathered urban field into blue heaven on earth, all hell surely was breaking loose on the other side of the country, the celebration of a connection that 2,792 miles could not fray.
Go ahead, Los Angeles, dance with your Dodgers. Hug your Koufax-jerseyed neighbor, scream up to Fernando and Scully and Lasorda, maybe even cry a little. It’s OK, you deserve it, you earned it. You weren’t here for the finish, but you were here for the journey, best fans in baseball, filling Chavez Ravine all summer, shaking the ancient stadium with your unconditional support, your lingering roars, your love.
Yeah, the Dodgers really did it, and in a manner in which no Dodgers team from Jackie to Bulldog to Kershaw had done before.
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This was the greatest team in Los Angeles Dodgers history, soaring through the greatest postseason in Dodgers history, cementing the greatest Dodgers dynasty.
This was World Series most valuable player Freddie Freeman slugging, and Mookie Betts scampering, and Teoscar Hernández spraying, and Tommy Edman scooting and sore-shouldered Shohei Ohtani making a difference by just standing.
This was a shaky rotation that turned to gold and a bullpen that turned to steel, with Blake Treinen dealing late and Walker Buehler providing the finishing touch with a strikeout of Alex Verdugo.
This was traditional Dodgers talent mixed with newfound Dodgers tough, the combustible combination exploding across the baseball world, leaving teams in tatters from the Pacific Ocean to the Hudson River.
This was the seventh championship in Los Angeles and eighth in franchise history, the first since the abbreviated season in 2020 and first full-season title since 1988.
Most gratifying, because COVID-19 emptied the stadiums in 2020, this is the Dodgers’ first title run in front of their home fans since that Orel Hershiser-led group of 36 years ago, which means they also will be holding their first parade since then.
How cool is it that they will host the celebration Friday? That’s the birthday of the late Fernando Valenzuela, who died three days before the World Series began and whose inspiration was visible on their uniform patch and in their fight.
In all, the 2024 Dodgers season was a vision met and a promise kept, finally fully fulfilling the expectation inherent in 12 consecutive playoff berths that included 11 National League West titles.
All that hardware and only one freaking crown until now, when Wednesday’s emotional ending completed a crazy, compelling trip through their best autumn ever.
They were down to their last outs against the San Diego Padres, then won two straight games to capture the National League Division Series.
They outscored the New York Mets, 46-22, to win the National League Championship Series in six games that included the Dodgers pitching staff completing a 33-inning scoreless streak.
They defeated the Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series with a walkoff grand slam by Freeman and never looked back, gave away Game 4 to ruin a sweep but rebounded to close it out in Game 5.
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Whew. Gasp. Screams. Tears. The Dodgers never have had four weeks like this.
Yes, the 1963 Dodgers swept the Mickey Mantle-Whitey Ford Yankees in the World Series, but that postseason lasted a week.
Indeed, the 1988 Dodgers stunned both the heavily favored Mets and Oakland Athletics to win the title, but that postseason was only two rounds.
This autumn was the ultimate obstacle course for a group that began the season as the ultimate team, stumbled throughout the journey with countless injuries then, finally, with toughness to match the talent, they cleared the ultimate hurdle standing on their heads.
The titles of greatest Los Angeles Dodgers team and greatest Dodgers postseason thus cemented, their two championships and four pennants in the last eight years also establish them as the greatest of Dodgers dynasties.
“My ultimate, kind of big-picture goal is that when we are done, that we’re able to look back and say that was the golden era of Dodger baseball,” baseball president Andrew Friedman said.
No need to look back. It’s true now. This is the golden era of Dodgers baseball.
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It reached that peak this fall appropriately with major contributions from the three leaders who have spent the last decade trying to win this thing.
It starts with Mark Walter, the understated chairman and controlling owner of the Dodgers as the chief executive of Guggenheim Partners.
Walter is not around much, but his wallet never leaves, and with his approval the Dodgers annually have one of baseball’s highest payrolls. This winter he signed off on more than $1 billion in contracts for the likes of Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and you know what happened next.
Ohtani was the National League’s best player and the biggest difference between this successful playoff team and failures of the past; witness his NLDS Game 1 home run that got this party started. Yamamoto was injured for much of the summer, but he beat the Padres in the NLDS elimination game and was an October revelation.
Complementing Walter’s generosity has been the renowned acumen of Friedman, baseball’s best executive who had a stellar season that far exceeded even the signings of Ohtani and Yamamoto.
Don’t forget, last winter Friedman also signed Teoscar Hernández, the team’s second MVP. Then, at the summer trading deadline, he hit the trifecta by dealing for Edman, Michael Kopech and Jack Flaherty, all three giant October contributors.
Finally, bringing the gifts of Walter and Friedman together was manager Dave Roberts, who went from the hot seat to a possible spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame by deftly managing this diverse group to his second title in nine seasons.
Throughout a summer filled with pitching injuries and Betts position intrigue, Roberts was a steady force, consistently positive, unflinchingly steady, ultimately steering the team through waters that occasionally have troubled him.
Translated, he did a terrific job managing his October bullpen, pushing all the right buttons and smartly leading them through four bullpen-only games necessitated by starting pitching injuries.
“I think it’s individual-based,” Roberts said Tuesday when describing his managerial style. “I think that — you know, I just try to be sensitive to kind of where they’re at in the moment personally, trying to get the best out of them.”
He indeed got the best out of them. After a month that used to be hell and suddenly became heaven, their best was more than enough to finally give them the title of baseball’s best.
The Dodgers won the World Series. They really won the World Series.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
