As a nation confronts electoral chaos, potential civil disorder and the threat of nuclear war, the renewal of its most revered athletic rivalry promises to provide a welcome distraction.
Yankees v Dodgers. Whether in the Bronx, Brooklyn or Los Angeles, both teams have combined to write an encyclopedia of memorable, magical moments during their World Series confrontations going back more than eight decades. This year’s renewal, which began Friday night at Dodger Stadium, has already made a unique mark.
Related: Freeman’s walk-off grand slam lifts Dodgers over Yankees in World Series opener
Freddie Freeman became the first player in major league history to win a World Series game with a walk-off grand-slam home run, giving the Dodgers a 6-3 victory in 10 innings.
“It might be the greatest baseball moment I’ve ever witnessed,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “and I’ve witnessed some great ones.”
Freeman is one of six former Most Valuable Players on the two teams’ combined rosters, a Series record. Two, the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, won the American League’s three previous MVP awards, with Ohtani representing the Los Angeles Angels. Both belong to a galaxy of stars that includes Juan Soto, Mookie Betts and Gerrit Cole.
Yet before the first pitch of the first game, the sellout crowd of 52,394 focused on mourning.
Fernando Valenzuela, revered by Dodger fans as an All-Star pitcher and a Spanish-language broadcaster, died Tuesday from cancer at the age of 63. The American and California flags in center field and on top of the upper deck flew at half-mast. At the main entrance to Dodger Stadium, the large sign welcoming visitors turned into a miniature shrine with flowers, votive candles, Mexican flags and banners.
Before the game, a tribute video accompanied by live Mariachi music featured photo montages of Valenzuela pitching, hitting, signing autographs and even jumping over lassos with Mexican vaqueros. Dodger players wore uniforms with a black sleeve patch featuring his name in white above his jersey number, 34, in blue with white trim.
Instead of throwing out the first pitch, two of Valenzuela’s former teammates, Steve Yeager and Orel Hershiser, both wearing jerseys with his number, commemorated his career by placing the baseball at a “34” stenciled on the back of the mound. Then followed a moment of silence, which fans ended by chanting Valenzuela’s nickname, “Toro, toro!”
No sporting event in Los Angeles would be complete without entertainment figures observing the action. Friday night’s crowd included Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Lawrence, John Legend, Billie Eilish and Finneas, and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
No sporting event in Los Angeles would be complete without twists, turns and plot complications befitting Hollywood. Game 1 featured all sorts of them. A taut pitching confrontation between the Yankees’ Cole and Dodgers’ Jack Flaherty. A chess game with relief pitchers serving as the pieces. Judge – who led the major leagues in home runs, runs batted in, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS – striking out three times in five at-bats. Leads taken. Leads lost.
No sporting event in Los Angeles would be complete without the locals displaying some of their laid-back attitude. In the sixth inning, after Giancarlo Stanton’s two-run home run gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead, some fans in the stands near the left-field foul pole continued a well-known local tradition. They tossed a beach ball among themselves.
Even the home team’s video hosts became impatient.
“I need you to act like you’re at the World Series. This is what you wanted,” yelled a female video host into her microphone as the Yankees made a pitching change in the bottom of the seventh.
The ending of a recorded, animated message before the bottom of the eighth sounded more emphatic: “Wake up, LA!”
The fans awoke that inning when Ohtani lined a double off the top of the right-field wall, then took third base when second baseman Gleyber Torres mishandled Soto’s throw. Betts followed with a sacrifice fly that sent Ohtani home and forced a 2-2 tie.
The Yankees regained a 3-2 advantage in the top of the 10th. But in the bottom of the inning – with the bases loaded, two out and the fans chanting his first name – Freeman provided the ultimate stimulant by propelling Nestor Cortes’ first pitch, a 92mph fastball, halfway up the right-field bleachers.
As the crowd erupted, as the ball soared, Freeman held his bat high and started walking to first base. Once the ball cleared the outfield fence, Freeman started trotting. He exchanged a low five with first-base coach Clayton McCullough, pointed toward left field and smiled, tossed his batting helmet off as he jogged down the third-base line, stomped on home plate and received exuberant hugs from teammates.
Then Freeman went to his father sitting near home plate. The two men clasped hands through the netting in celebration.
As he was savoring his home-run trot, the Dodgers’ first baseman was “just kind of floating”, he said. “Those are the kind of things, the scenarios you dream about when you’re five years old with your two older brothers and you’re playing wiffle ball in the backyard: two outs, bases loaded in a World Series game.”
Freeman’s father did his part to help his son advance beyond wiffle ball.
“If he didn’t throw me batting practice – if he didn’t love the game of baseball – I wouldn’t be here playing this game,” the first baseman said. “He’s been throwing me batting practice since I can remember. He still throws me batting practice. My swing is because of him. My approach is because of him. I am who I am because of him.”
Yet three days before Freeman made his contribution to America’s most storied athletic rivalry, Flaherty essentially said that one home run does not a Series make.
“It’s going to be a grind,” Flaherty said. “It’s going to be hard fought between both sides, and at the end of the day, we’re going to give everything that we got.”
Elated fans along the left-field concourse – including strangers exchanging high fives – might reply with the word they were chanting as they were leaving Dodger Stadium.
“Fred-dee, Fred-dee, Fred-dee!”
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