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Dodgers-Yankees World Series is a dream game for the MLB and its fans

Vaseline October 25, 2024

After what feels like an interminable wait, the World Series, Major League Baseball’s biggest showcase, begins Friday evening with perhaps the best game in a generation. The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, who will meet in the World Series for the 12th time, the first time since 1981, will likely have 20 players between them who have made at least one All-star team. That list includes Dodgers unicorn Shohei Ohtani and his teammates Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. For the Yankees, the All-Star players include Aaron Judge, who will likely be named the American League’s Most Valuable Player, soon-to-be half-billion dollar man Juan Soto and potential Hall of Famer Giancarlo Stanton.

The World Series starts Friday evening with perhaps the best game in a generation.

This could be the most consequential World Series in decades as MLB battles the headwinds of declining viewership. There was an average of 41 million viewers per game for that 1981 World Series. Keep in mind that there were only about thirty cable networks at the time and the audience was much less fragmented. But since the 2000s, only four World Series have averaged more than 20 million viewers per game. Last year’s game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Texas Rangers had record viewership, with just over 9 million viewers per game.

Juan Soto. — Juan Soto of the New York Yankees on October 19 in Cleveland.Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

That shouldn’t be the case for a series that features two of the sport’s most successful franchises. The Dodgers have won the World Series seven times and the Yankees a historic 27 times. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has his dream match.

Ohtani is coming off one of the best regular seasons in MLB history, becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season. Betts will one day be inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, along with first baseman and all-around good guy Freddie Freeman. The Dodgers are a MASH unit when it comes to their starting pitching. And even with that, they’ve recorded four shutouts in their 11 postseason games.

Besides Judge’s MVP-caliber season, the big story for the Yankees this season was Soto, who came to New York via a trade with San Diego before the season started. So many star transplants have struggled after the pinstripes, but Soto has not been a withering flower. His three-run homer in the 10th inning was the blow that eliminated the Cleveland Guardians in five games, and he is poised to become one of the highest-paid players in the game’s history this season. Will that be with the Yankees? That remains to be seen. He could choose to take his talents elsewhere, possibly to New York’s other franchise, the Mets, who have extremely deep pockets, or build a legacy in pinstripes.

Is it crazy to think that with enough storylines for a feature documentary, the Dodgers and Yankees could average 35-40 million viewers per game? When you look at the way the schedule is set up for the best-of-seven series, it’s not surprising. It should draw a lot of viewers if we still choose to believe in baseball as America’s pastime.

Ohtani’s record-setting season began in a tornado of controversy after it emerged that his then-interpreter and friend Ippei Mizuhara had stolen $17 million from the Japanese star, which was used to bet on sports. Mizuhara later pleaded guilty. Bringing a collective sigh of relief from fans, MLB determined that Ohtani was a victim and was in no way involved in the gambling controversy.

The Dodgers won the 2020 World Series with some of the same players. That was the Covid-shortened season with only 60 regular season games and neutral sites in the postseason. But just one World Series for manager Dave Roberts with such a great group of players could be considered a disappointment considering he has won eight division titles in Los Angeles and this is his fourth trip to the World Series. The Dodgers look a bit like Bobby Cox’s Braves teams of the 1990s. Cox went to the playoffs eight times that decade and appeared in the World Series five times, but won only one.

Those are just a few of the storylines when this series kicks off Friday in Los Angeles. This could be the series that puts baseball back behind the NFL for the most popular sport in the country. The two biggest teams from the two biggest markets. Can they deliver an all-time classic? Everything suggests yes. But that’s why they play the games.