| America's pastime, meet your future. After an astonishing World Series featuring a team of stars from Los Angeles and another of admirable working blokes from Toronto, Canada, baseball feels more winning, and more international, than ever before. |
| What's not to love about an L.A. team featuring a trio of players made in Japan? And a slugging right fielder heralding from obscure Cotui in the Dominican Republic? And a Puerto Rican with rock star hair who plays any position? And a substitute second baseman from Venezuela who fielded like a Gold Glover and hit a movie-moment homer to force the final game into extra innings? That's not to mention teammates from Cuba, South Korea and, yes, Louisville, KY. (That's the hometown of catcher Will Smith, who hit the winning homer early Sunday morning in Toronto, to launch the Dodgers to a 5-4 victory.) |
| The irrepressible Dodgers bonded in America's city of migrants, Los Angeles. They took a path prepared for them by pioneers like the great Fernando Valenzuela. The native of the state of Sonora, Mexico hurled ungodly stuff, as his eyes rolled toward the heavens, making Fernando a star throughout America and the Spanish-speaking world beyond. |
| The following decade, Hideo Nomo, the son of a Japanese fisherman, dominated so thoroughly that his 11 strikeouts-per-nine-innings average broke a more than three-decade-old record held by the legendary Sandy Koufax. |
| The 2025 Dodgers dialed up a Japanese trifecta — the incomparable Shohei Ohtani, the often-unhittable Yoshinobu Yamamoto and their spiritual kid brother, Roki Sasaki, whose 100 mile-an-hour fastballs provoked equal parts awe and anxiety (over whether they'd find the strike zone) among his fans. |
| A favorite among the many joyous Dodger tableaus this World Series came at the end of Game 3. Ohtani and Sasaki ran from the dugout toward the bullpen to celebrate with their countryman, Yamamoto, who'd volunteered to join the bullpen less than 24 hours after his brilliant complete-game victory in Game 2. The three Japanese players huddled tightly and bounced up and down like schoolchildren. They had even more reason to celebrate Yamamoto after midnight Saturday, when his 2 2/3 shutout innings closed out the Dodgers win and secured his place as Most Valuable Player in the World Series. |
| Even die-hard Dodger fans have to acknowledge the Blue Jays for their pluck and passion. The team from Toronto represented a nation tormented by tariffs and insults at the hands of the president of a country once considered their closest ally. Canadians responded by rallying around the Blue Jays like never before. |
| They built a love affair with a team that includes only one Canadian, Vlad Guerrero Jr. (That matched the Dodgers, whose Freddie Freeman holds both U.S. and Canadian passports.) The Jays went all the way to Tijuana, Mexico to pick up one their most engaging players, Alejandro Kirk. He might look like a roly-poly little hobbit — gone missing from the Shire — but Kirk hits like a God from the land of Aztlán. |
| The Dodgers of 2025 transcended, and not just with their performance between the lines. Ohtani epitomized a team with a friendly, untraditional affect. The pitching-hitting phenom excels with an understated machismo, tilting more heavily toward sportsmanship and even kindness. |
| A couple of signature Ohtani moments this season: The first came in June, when the Dodgers played the rival Padres. After the teams exchanged bean-balls, a Padres pitcher retaliated by drilling the Dodgers superstar squarely in the back. The incident might have touched off a brawl. But Ohtani waved to the Dodgers to stay in the dugout, then turned toward the Padres dugout, to offer words of conciliation. |
| A couple of months later, Ohtani absorbed merciless heckling from a Padres fan sitting beside the dugout. The Big Sho offered the only fitting rebuttal — hitting another of his towering home runs. After rounding the bases, he strode directly to the heckler and offered his hand. The chagrined fan bowed his head and waved, recognizing greatness. |
| So thanks to Shohei, Yoshi and the rest of the Dodgers for another night of transcendence, including a season of moments that went beyond baseball. More than just Ohtani's civility, there was American-born Mookie Betts conducting relentless gab-fests with opposing base runners, Dominican-born Teoscar Hernandez raining sunflower seeds on his home run- hitting teammates and Miguel Rojas, a native of Venezuela, speaking with post-game fervor about how his teammates had brought their city together. |
| It's no surprise that some of America love to hate the Dodgers, with their huge payroll and dynastic ambitions. But you can't say they aren't great guys. And now they're indisputable role models and the reigning masters in a new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. |
The week's biggest stories |
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| Dodgers manager Dave Roberts embraces two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) after winning Game seven of the 121st World Series between the Dodgers and the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) |
How the Dodgers won the 2025 World Series |
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| | | The Bruins coach let the honorable mention All-American know that if he wanted to play in the NBA, his defense would have to improve and he'd be held accountable. | | | |
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| (Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Richard Shotwell / Invision / AP) |
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| | | He looked 20 years older than he did four years ago. In my head, I thought, 'This makes sense. The ugliness within him has deteriorated his physical body.' | | | |
Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team |
| Jim Rainey, staff writer
Hugo Martín, assistant editor
Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters |
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