The Los Angeles Dodgers will celebrate their eighth World Series championship with a downtown parade and a stadium gathering featuring Shohei Ohtani and other star players on Friday.
The Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in five games, clinching the title with a 7-6 victory in the Bronx on Wednesday.
The team said that because of logistics, traffic and timing, fans won’t be able to attend both events. People dressed in blue Dodgers gear began gathering along downtown streets hours ahead of time.
The parade will begin mid-morning at Gloria Molina Grand Park in front of City Hall with Mayor Karen Bass in attendance. It will continue on a 45-minute route that culminates at the intersection of 5th and Flower streets, with the Dodgers traveling atop double-decker buses.
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The celebration at Dodger Stadium will begin shortly after noon. The parade will be carried on the stadium’s videoboards ahead of the team’s arrival.
A portion of the proceeds from the ticketed stadium event will be donated to the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation.
There were more than a dozen arrests during informal celebrations after the team’s comeback win to clinch the Series. Burglaries, vandalism and fires occurred in some parts of the city.
NEW YORK — The feeling of heartbreak consumed the Yankees as they said their goodbyes.
Players were still in full uniform 55 minutes after they saw their championship dreams come to a halt, giving long hugs and clapping hands with the trainers, staff members, coaches, and clubhouse attendance who were on the 170-game journey with them. Some players had tears in their eyes as they embraced each other, others were still in shock. Some of them smiled in gratitude for how far they had come, others were static and pissed off at the bitter end.
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“I think falling short in the World Series will stick with me until I die,” Aaron Judge said.
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“This is as bad as it gets,” Gerrit Cole said. “It’s the worst feeling you can have.”
“I’ll remember the way I feel right now for the rest of my life,” Anthony Volpe said.
The loss desolated the clubhouse. A special season that started 5-0 effectively ended in the fifth inning of Game 5 of the Fall Classic. The worst defensive inning in World Series history will stick in the minds of the Yankees and their fans for however many more Octobers it will take for the club to follow through on its promise to deliver the franchise’s 28th championship. Yes, the cracks that led to their tragic ending were that unforgettable, that unforgivable.
Judge’s dropped catch on a routine fly ball to center field. Volpe’s fielding error at shortstop. Anthony Rizzo’s unhurried reaction to a ground ball. Cole’s failure to cover first base.
The Yankees became the first team in Major League Baseball history, across the regular season and the postseason, to blow a five-run lead, surrender at least five unearned runs, commit three errors, a balk and a catcher’s interference all in the same game. Any one of those misplays would be bad enough in the excusable setting of a 162-game season. But this was a World Series game where the Yankees were facing elimination, and they embarrassed themselves out of a chance to extend the series back to Los Angeles. The Dodgers will be enjoying a championship parade on Friday, the same day Game 6 of the World Series was supposed to occur.
When asked what the Yankees have learned from the World Series, Giancarlo Stanton said: “Just never to have this feeling again. Any type of focus, miscues, or anything, just to up the level in all aspects.”
Aaron Judge’s error in the fifth inning of Game 5 helped open the floodgates for a five-run Dodgers inning. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) <!–>
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The 2024 Yankees entered the postseason as one of the worst defensive teams in the major leagues. Their 93 errors were the third-most in the American League, and seventh-highest overall. All year long, we saw New York’s stars take bad angles on fly balls and commit fielding and throwing errors in the outfield and the infield. Judge had the worst metric on the team for Outs Above Average with -6, and Juan Soto was right behind him with -5. Gleyber Torres‘ 18 errors were the most among all qualified second basemen in the majors. Judge’s -9 Defensive Runs Saved ranked 14th out of 16 qualified center fielders in MLB. Their .984 fielding percentage as a team ranked 24th in MLB.
The Yankees left the World Series showing the national audience that, until the very end, they were incapable of playing sound fundamental baseball.
“I think from a PFP (Pitchers Fielding Practice) standpoint we’re pretty good,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on that horrific fifth inning. “It’s always magnified when obviously in a moment it doesn’t happen. I’d have to look for sure, but from a pitching standpoint, we’re pretty good at those kinds of things. Those are tough plays to be super consistent at, especially when you have 12, 15, at times 20 different pitchers kind of rolling through with different skill sets. Some we work hard at. Obviously, we had a rough inning tonight.”
Where do the Yankees go from here?
What’s next for the Yankees after their World Series defeat?
They can start by cleaning up their act. As much as Boone is beloved in the Yankees organization, his response to his team’s inability to play sharp baseball is as much a problem as his apparent indifference to their lack of discipline and preparation. The Yankees need a fearless leader and a coaching staff that will criticize their misplays and help fix the smaller details that can prevent a meltdown like the fifth inning of Game 5. We saw too many mental mistakes and lapses in focus this season that could’ve been avoided. The Yankees need someone to keep applying pressure in order to maximize their efforts, not someone who will nonchalantly accept the status quo.
This was the final guaranteed year of Boone’s three-year deal. The Yankees have a team option on him for 2025, and it remains unclear if they’ll take it.
Beyond leadership, the Yankees face questions about the strength of their roster with key players hitting free agency.
Soto, the guy who had the best OPS (1.085), the highest batting average (.313), drew the most walks (7) and scored the most runs in the World Series for the Yankees no longer has any loyalty to the team. It will be brutal for the Yankees if they lose him to another club (worse still, if he goes to the crosstown rivals) this winter. Outfielder Alex Verdugo could also leave in free agency, so the Yankees could be faced with the task of replacing both of their corner outfielders, with only top prospect Jasson Dominguez as an obvious alternative.
Torres has been involved in trade rumors seemingly every offseason in his seven years with the Yankees. He’s now a free agent, and even though he was solid in the final month of the regular season and in the playoffs after moving up to the leadoff spot, it has always seemed likely that he would sign with another team. Rizzo likely played his final game in pinstripes, too. With the calamity of that fifth inning fresh in their minds, it would be in the Yankees’ best interests to prioritize a younger, faster, and more athletic first baseman to post up every day.
Cole could theoretically opt out of his contract and reach the open market. But since he’s in line to continue earning $36 million every year through 2028, he seems likely to stay with the Yankees. It’s tough to imagine a scenario where another team matches or tops that average annual value. Right-hander Clay Holmes is now a free agent, and after the Yankees demoted him from closer duties for the more lights-out performances of Luke Weaver, it’s unlikely there will be a reunion in the Bronx.
There will be a lot of changes this offseason.
Dodgers vs. Yankees: MINI-MOVIE of 2024 World Series
“The way we handled ourselves in the clubhouse, I think it was really special for me,” Soto said. “That was one of the things I enjoyed most. Coming in every day and hanging out with guys that I literally can call them family.”
The 2024 Yankees family went through it all this year. Volpe broke out in the playoffs, and he and rookie catcher Austin Wells provided hope for the future. Stanton became the first Yankee player ever to hit seven home runs in a single postseason. Weaver’s unexpected late-game dominance was a welcome surprise. Right-hander Luis Gil could be an important staple of the Yankees rotation for years to come. Jazz Chisholm Jr. fit right into the mayhem that is the Bronx scene, and he’s under team control for two more years.
So, it’s not all doom and gloom for the Yankees, even though it might feel that way for a while. But they have a lot of work to do this offseason and beyond to get back to the World Series and try and close the gap with the Dodgers. Once pitchers and catchers report to spring training in a few months, the Yankees will have no choice but to turn their pain into motivation and try to move on from a feeling they said they’d remember forever.
Deesha Thosar is an MLB reporter for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
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The Dodgers’ 8-7 victory over the Yankees in Game 5 for their eighth World Series title and second in five years averaged 18.6 million viewers on FOX, FOX Deportes and streaming, according to Nielsen.
That is the most-watched game in the Fall Classic since Game 7 in 2019 when the Washington Nationals’ victory over the Houston Astros averaged 23.22 million.
The series averaged 15.81 million, its best performance since 2017 when Houston’s victory over the Dodgers in seven games averaged 18.93 million.
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Its also quite a turnaround from last year, when the Texas Rangers’ title over the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games averaged a record-low 9.11 million. The Dodgers-Yankees series was a 67% increase over that mark.
Additionally, the complete 2024 MLB Postseason on FOX and FS1 averaged 7,485,000 viewers, up +42% over last year’s average (5,265,000) and FOX Sports’ best Postseason through Game 5 of the World Series since 2017, per FOX Sports PR. There was also a 101% increase in viewership among adults 18-34.
The audience Wednesday peaked at 21.27 million from 11:15-11:30 p.m. EDT.
Dodgers vs. Yankees: MINI-MOVIE of 2024 World Series | MLB on FOX 🎥
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The game had a 21.1 rating and 55 share in Los Angeles and 14.8 rating and 39 share in New York.
The rating is the percentage of television households tuned in. The share refers to a percentage of the audience viewing it at the time.
Freddie Freeman authored a World Series MVP performance for the ages, and not just because the Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman dealt with a badly sprained ankle throughout the team’s playoff run.
Freeman also suffered broken cartilage in his rib just before the Dodgers began their postseason in the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres, ESPN and The Washington Post reported.
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The 35-year-old Freeman was diagnosed with the injury on the night of Oct. 4, one day before the start of the NLDS, per ESPN. Yet Freeman remained on the Dodgers’ roster while also dealing with the aforementioned ankle injury, plus a broken finger suffered in August that had not fully healed. He was in the lineup for that game, and still contributed through the first two rounds of the playoffs. This despite noticeable pain that required him to sit three different times during the Dodgers’ NLDS win over the Padres and NLCS win over the New York Mets.
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The four days of rest between the Dodgers’ clinching Game 6 of the NLCS and Game 1 of the 2024 World Series helped Freeman make a noticeable improvement, and not only physically. He also tweaked his swing to recover his power stroke. Still, the type of rib injury Freeman was dealing with usually sidelines players for months, ESPN reported.
Instead, roughly three weeks after being diagnosed with that broken rib cartilage, Freeman hit the first and only walk-off grand slam in World Series history:
And Freeman added on from there, hitting home runs in each of the Dodgers’ next three games to solidify his World Series MVP case. Freeman also broke the record for most consecutive World Series games with a home run (six, dating back to the end of the 2021 World Series he won with the Atlanta Braves) and tied the record for most RBIs in a single World Series (12).
Check out Freeman’s full World Series MVP trophy ceremony and sit-down interview with the “MLB on FOX” postgame crew below:
Freddie Freeman named World Series MVP
Freddie Freeman on Dodgers’ grit, playing through injuries and more
Shohei Ohtani added the one major accomplishment that had eluded his already illustrious career on Wednesday night.
The two-way superstar won his first World Series title, helping the Los Angeles Dodgers take down the New York Yankees in five games. As Ohtani suffered a shoulder injury late in Game 2, he didn’t have his best showing at the plate in the Fall Classic. He went 2-for-19 (.105) at the plate, failing to register a home run or an RBI.
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Of course, Ohtani was arguably the biggest reason why the Dodgers were even in the World Series to begin with. He became the first player in MLB history to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a regular season, making him the likely NL MVP winner. He also hit .364 with two homers in the Dodgers’ NLCS win over the New York Mets.
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At 30, Ohtani has already built a strong case as one of the best players in MLB history. He’ll obviously have plenty of time to add to his case as well, and he’ll make his return to the mound in 2025 after rehabbing from elbow surgery he underwent in late 2023.
As Ohtani looks to add to his legacy, the future Hall of Famer actually mapped out his career when he was a high schooler in Japan. In the list, Ohtani wrote down each goal he’d like to accomplish at each age. The list included professional and personal goals, which could maybe serve as a guideline for what Ohtani still wants to accomplish in his career.
• Age 18: Join an MLB team • Age 19: Master English and reach AAA • Age 20: Called up to the Majors, make 1.5 billion JPY (translates to $13 million in US) • Age 21: Starting rotation, 16 wins • Age 22: Win the Cy Young Award • Age 23: Member of Japan WBC team • Age 24: Throw a no-hitter and 25 wins • Age 25: Throw fastest pitch in the world 175 kph (or 108 mph) • Age 26: Win the World Series and get married • Age 27: Member of Japan WBC team & MVP • Age 28: 1st son is born • Age 29: Throw 2nd no-hitter • Age 30: Get most wins by a Japanese pitcher • Age 31: 1st daughter is born • Age 32: Win 2nd World Series • Age 33: 2nd son is born • Age 34: Win 3rd World Series • Age 35: Member of Japan WBC team • Age 36: Break the strikeout record? • Age 37: 1st son starts baseball • Age 38: Stats drop, start to think about retirement • Age 39: Decide to retire at end of next season • Age 40: Throw no-hitter in my very last game • Age 41: Return to Japan • Age 42: Introduce the American system to Japan?
So far, Ohtani has accomplished six of those items on the list. He made his MLB debut in 2018, checking off another goal when he earned $30 million in arbitration when he was with the Los Angeles Angels in 2023. He made Japan’s World Baseball Classic team in 2023, winning the MVP of the tournament with his two-way prowess helping his native country beat the USA in the final.
Ohtani was a few years off on when he would win his first World Series, predicting he’d win it as a 26-year-old in 2020. However, he was correct that he would win the World Series within a year of getting married, as he wedded Japanese basketball player Mamiko Tanaka ahead of the 2024 offseason.
Dodgers vs. Yankees: MINI-MOVIE of 2024 World Series
Even though most of the records Ohtani has made have come at the plate or on the basepaths, many of his individual goals list were focused on the mound. He rose to prominence in high school due to his pitching ability, throwing the fastest pitch ever for a Japanese high schooler at 99 mph.
As Ohtani prepares to return to the mound in 2025, some of those pitching goals seem obtainable while some of them might be a bit out of reach. His career-high in wins is 15, which he accomplished in 2022. So, 16+ wins in a season seems doable. But 25 wins in a season is probably unlikely, as former Athletics pitcher Bob Welch was the last pitcher to reach that number, doing so in 1990.
Throwing a 108 mph pitch is also probably unlikely to happen. He threw a 102 mph pitch during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, which was the fastest pitch he’s ever recorded. For perspective, the fastest pitch ever recorded in the modern era belongs to a 105.8 mph fastball from Aroldis Chapman in 2010. Ohtani’s former Angels teammate Ben Joyce is one of the few who has even come close, firing a 105.5 mph pitch in September.
Ohtani will almost certainly not set the strikeout record, either, especially if he plans to retire at 40. He’s recorded 608 career strikeouts, which is 5,000 fewer than Nolan Ryan’s record (5,714). Ryan played for an MLB record 27 years.
A few of the other pitching goals seem plausible, though. If Ohtani averaged roughly nine wins per season over the next 10 years, he’d break Hideo Nomo’s record for most wins ever by a Japanese pitcher (123). He finished fourth in the AL Cy Young vote in 2022, showing he has the upside to possibly win the award. Ohtani has only thrown one complete-game shutout in his career, but he only allowed one hit in that start. So, he’s already come within reach of pitching a no-hitter.
Shohei Ohtani joins ‘MLB on Fox’ crew to discuss Dodgers winning the 2024 World Series
Of course, the other professional goals that Ohtani had on his list were to win a second and third World Series title. He seemed to amend those goals following the Dodgers’ World Series victory on Wednesday.
“In his first year [with the Dodgers], he won a championship,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters of Ohtani. “He’s like, ‘This is easy. We’re just gonna do it again nine more times.'”
As Friedman is referring to, Ohtani still has nine seasons remaining on the 10-year, $700 million contract he signed with the Dodgers last offseason. If Ohtani miraculously wins a title in each season remaining on his contract, it won’t matter if he accomplishes the individual goals on his list. He’d almost certainly be viewed as the best player in baseball history if he won 10 titles in a row.
Nine-inning games in the World Series averaged 3 hours, 19 minutes in the second year of the pitch clock, up from 3:01 in 2023.
The Series average was 3:24 in 2022 and 3:38 in 2021, the last season before the PitchCom electronic pitch-calling device. The 2023 average was the fastest since 1996.
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Mid-inning pitching changes increased to 5.2 from 3.8 in 2023 and 2.5 in 2022. World Series runs per game rose to 10.0 from 9.3 in 2023 and 5.8 in 2022. Pitches increased to 315 from 298, the highest total since 2018.
The overall postseason game average remained at 3:02, down from 3:23 in 2022 and 3:37 in 2021.
This season’s regular-season average of 2:36 declined four minutes from 2023 and 28 minutes from 2022. It had not been this low since 1984’s 2:35.
MLB shortened the pitch clock with runners on base by two seconds to 18 ahead of the 2024 season while keeping it at 15 seconds without runners on base.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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Keyshawn Johnson asks former MLB player Dontrelle Willis to rank Freddie Freeman’s World Series MVP performance. They delve into the impact of his play on the Dodgers’ championship win and discuss what it means for Freeman’s legacy in baseball.
Things move fast in the world of professional sports.
Not even a day after the 2024 season came to an end, with the Dodgers winning the World Series over the Yankees 4-1, it’s time to turn the page to free agency.
And the biggest free agent on the market is Yankees superstar Juan Soto.
During the Yankees’ postseason run, Soto hit four home runs and totaled nine RBIs in 14 games.
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Who will next acquire Soto’s services? Let’s take a look at the odds at DraftKings Sportsbook as of Oct. 31.
Juan Soto next team:
Yankees: -225 (bet $10 to win $14.44 total) Mets: +380 (bet $10 to win $48 total) Dodgers: +650 (bet $10 to win $75 total) Blue Jays: +1500 (bet $10 to win $160 total) Cubs: +1500 (bet $10 to win $160 total) Giants: +1800 (bet $10 to win $190 total) Red Sox: +1800 (bet $10 to win $190 total) Nationals: +2500 (bet $10 to win $260 total) Mariners: +2500 (bet $10 to win $260 total) Padres: +2500 (bet $10 to win $260 total)
Soto is a four-time All-Star and twice was named to the All-MLB first team. He played for the Washington Nationals from 2018-2021 and part of 2022, before being traded to the San Diego Padres, where he finished the 2022 season and played a full season in 2023.
Soto was once again traded, this time to the Yankees, and he’s spent the last two seasons in New York.
Over the last two seasons, he’s hit 76 home runs and amassed 218 RBIs. He was walked more than any other player in the major leagues in 2023, and in 2024, he led the American League in runs.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers already crushed the New York Yankees‘ spirit by rallying from a five-run deficit Wednesday to clinch the 2024 World Series in five games. It was a series in which the Dodgers outplayed the Yankees in all facets, according to FOX Sports analyst and Yankees legend Derek Jeter, a point driven home by New York’s stunning defensive miscues in the fifth inning of Wednesday’s Game 5.
But there is one way in which the Dodgers could really pour salt into the Yankees’ wounds — by signing Juan Soto in free agency — and Colin Cowherd argued Thursday that it would be great for the sport if L.A. did just that.
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“[Freddie] Freeman, [Mookie] Betts, [Clayton] Kershaw, Soto — it would be the ultimate villain [team] outside of Los Angeles,” Cowherd said. “Couldn’t take your eyes off it. Major League Baseball has not had a dynasty since the early 2000s and, by the way, go look at the NBA. Last time they got great ratings — [Michael Jordan’s] Bulls, [the] Kobe [Bryant]-Shaq [O’Neal Lakers], Steph [Curry]’s Warriors. I think the Dodgers should make a run this [offseason]. The Dodgers led baseball in home attendance, and they also led it in road attendance. They’re interesting. It’s a star-studded machine. Add another star. We’re all distracted — you have to create urgency.”
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Cowerd continued to talk about the value of the sport having a villain.
“[It] would create a special and unique experience you can’t get anywhere else. Everybody got mad when [Kevin Durant] went to the Warriors — they watched. [The Warriors] were a villain. It was unique. We were calling them the greatest basketball team of all time. There’s a million platforms, a million channels, a million places for your eyeballs to go. People are not watching good — they’re watching Caitlin Clark because there’s never been anything like it in women’s basketball.”
Cowherd’s argument is rooted in the belief that the only way for MLB to make a resurgence in popularity is to have a dynasty like the NBA teams he outlined, or the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots and Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL. MLB has not had back-to-back World Series champions since the Yankees won three World Series in a row from 1998-2000.
Dodgers win World Series 4-1 over the Yankees
“Mahomes and Brady’s dominance has not hurt the NFL whatsoever,” Cowherd said. “I think Major League Baseball needs a dynasty, and nobody has the wherewithal and the passion and the attendance and the inertia and the momentum and already a launching pad of a franchise like the Dodgers. I would go after Soto. You’ll probably have to let somebody go. Okay, but when the Warriors went and got KD, Adam Silver was very uncomfortable, and then people stopped watching the Denver Nuggets win a title. I know it makes you uncomfortable — that’s an unfair advantage. Sports is all unfair.”
Ironically, it’s the Yankees who have established themselves as MLB’s preeminent team because of the dynasties they’ve enjoyed virtually constantly from the 1920s to the late 1970s, and again in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They’ve won 27 World Series titles in the process, way more than anybody else — the St. Louis Cardinals are a distant second, with 11.
Keeping Soto in the fold would give the Yankees a much clearer path for a return to that former glory, after they just snapped a 15-year streak of not even reaching the World Series.
Soto is fresh off a superstar first season in the Bronx after arriving in a trade with the San Diego Padres last winter, and is expected to earn one of the biggest contracts in MLB history this offseason. It was a common occurrence to hear Yankees fans, both in Yankee Stadium and at road games, chant “re-sign Soto” during the latter part of the regular season and throughout the Yankees’ playoff run.
The reasons are obvious — Soto, who was already a superstar before arriving in New York, put up the best numbers over a 162-game season in his career this past season. He slashed .288/.419/.569 with a .989 OPS and had the fifth-lowest strikeout rate among all MLB hitters. His Wins Above Replacement on Fangraphs, or fWAR, was the fourth-highest in the majors behind only current Yankees captain Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals, and Ohtani.
Dodgers vs. Yankees: MINI-MOVIE of 2024 World Series
And that was all before a postseason in which he improved on those numbers, including a 1.102 OPS, and hit four home runs, including the decisive blast in the 10th inning of a clinching Game 5 of the American League Championship Series.
But while Soto has expressed fondness for his time as a Yankee, he also spoke about the team in the past tense when talking to reporters after New York’s Game 5 loss and said he would “be available for all 30 teams” in free agency. And the Dodgers are reportedly interested in Soto.
Could he take Cowherd’s advice and spurn baseball’s so-called “Evil Empire” to create a new dynasty out West?
The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in a 4-1 series gentleman’s sweep, claiming their 8th World Series and first since 2020. Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes ask if the Dodgers are on the precipice of a dynasty.
