The Dodger players were introduced coming out from behind a curtain in center field, with players trotting from dead center to join their teammates along the third base line. I’m not sure the blue carpet works as well on Opening Day in The Ravine as the red carpet does on, say, Oscars night.
But there was the trophy, and the hoisting of the 2024 championship banner on one of the center field flagpoles, conducted by members of the Guggenheim ownership group including controlling owner Mark Walter, Todd Boehly, Magic Johnson, Billie Jean King and her partner, Ilana Kloss. (Hall of Famers Magic and Billie Jean seemed to be doing most of the heavy work). There was the unveiling of the 2024 championship icon down the right field line by Pasadena Fire Department captain Jodi Sicker and Los Angeles fire captain Jerry Puga, an appropriate nod to what L.A. has had to deal with in the first three months of this year.
And while I hate to bring this up, those eight championship icons have a pattern: Two from the 1950s (’55 in Brooklyn, ’59 in L.A.), two from the ’60s (’63 and ’65), two from the ’80s (’81 and ’88) and now two from this decade (2020 and ’24). That historic pattern doesn’t bode well for a repeat in ’25, but who’s superstitious?
But even running that flag up the pole wasn’t the piece de resistance. TV play-by-play guy Joe Davis brought out Freddie Freeman and his family, had a brief chat with Freddie’s dad, Fred Freeman, and then referenced his call for Fox last fall of Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 — “Gibby, meet Freddie” — by beckoning ... guess who, to greet Freeman and throw out the first ball?
Right. And it will say here that Kirk Gibson, whose original World Series Game 1 walk-off homer in 1988 also led to a World Series championship, threw a perfect strike to Freeman. Yeah, in reality it was a little low, but why spoil a good story?
Baseball, in many ways, is all about the story — the history, and the indelible moments we witness firsthand and still have in our mind’s eye three decades or so later. Ceremonies like these resonate in a ballpark far more than they would in any other sports venue.
So consider this a double celebration. Friday night the Dodgers get their championship rings. Manager Dave Roberts said he hadn’t seen them yet, but expect gaudy. And a multi-day celebration is certainly in character for an organization that, decades ago, decided a one-day helmet giveaway wasn’t enough and turned it into Helmet Weekend. (Sold out the weekend, too, as I recall.)
“I think it gives the fans an opportunity to have something unique and special for two days in a row,” Roberts said. “And the fans that aren’t here today, that can come tomorrow, get something unique as well.”
Given that those fans haven’t had a chance to have their own mass celebration since last November’s parade, back-to-back ceremonies actually make sense.
Then again, baseball is also about the here and now.
Blake Snell was OK in his five innings of work Thursday, getting out of a first and third jam in the second, loading the bases and wild-pitching a run home in the fourth and giving up two hits, a walk and a scoring fly ball in the fifth before calling it a day. He still got the win, thanks to Hernández’s three-run homer off reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal in the bottom of the fifth.
And while Tanner Scott appeared to be signed with the closer role in mind, Roberts isn’t afraid to shuffle things at the back end. Scott pitched the eighth and gave up a triple to former Dodger Zach McKinstry and a scoring fly ball to make it 5-4. Blake Treinen pitched the ninth, put the tying and go-ahead runs on base and wiggled out of the jam.
Teoscar was the only Hernández on the premises, since Kiké Hernandez was home sick with what appeared to be some of the same symptoms that had laid Mookie Betts low. Teoscar also hit in the No. 3 spot in the lineup ahead of Freeman, and that could be an interesting wrinkle. Roberts talked before the game of a “Teoscar tax” for any pitcher having to wade through that lineup and face Freeman for a third time, and it was Hernández’s third at-bat when he picked on Skubal’s first pitch for that three-run homer.
“In that situation, because I know I have Freddie behind me, they’re not going to pitch around me too much,” he said.
That would be taxing for any pitcher.
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