World Series: Eight it great — the Dodgers champions
by Mark Langill
There are two natural questions facing Dodger fans the morning after Los Angeles completed a World Series victory in five games over the New York Yankees.
Will we repeat? Is this our best team ever?
The simple answer is just be glad you’re a Dodger fan.
This is your moment.
Pound your chest. High-five a stranger. Paint yourself blue for Halloween. Load up on the merchandise.
Keep telling yourself you had absolutely no doubts since the first day of Spring Training.
OK, nobody’s going to believe that one.
Did you forget dreading that NLDS Game 4 elimination game in San Diego? How about the Mets’ Sean Manaea pitching like Lefty Grove in NLCS Game 2 in Los Angeles.
The 2024 season that began in South Korea and ended in the Bronx now takes its place alongside the other magical years in Dodger history: 1955, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1981, 1988 and 2020. For those wondering which of the eight teams is the greatest, ask the head of a large family to please rank their children in order of significance.
A championship is a championship.
There won’t be a golden reunion for the 2022 Dodger team that won 111 regular-season games, only to be swept in the first round of the playoffs. The near misses become heartbreaking footnotes.
You can truly compare Freddie Freeman with Kirk Gibson because both Game 1 walk-off home runs led to a World Series title. Dave Roberts joins Hall of Famers Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda as the only three Dodger managers to win it all twice.
This 26-day postseason journey seemed like an eternity compared to the five days it took the Dodgers to sweep the Yankees in 1963.
While advocating that your 2024 is just as special as the other seven titles, I’ll admit the 2020 season felt a little surreal with the cardboard cutouts at Dodger Stadium during the regular season. The 1981 strike-shortened season was one for the books when the Dodgers punched their postseason ticket in August as the retroactive “first-half champions.”
How will we remember these 2024 Dodgers?
Shohei Ohtani, the likely National League MVP and the first 50–50 player in Major League history, just finished the first year of a 10-year contract. Freeman and Mookie Betts are still among the game’s brightest stars.
It took 43 years for the Dodgers and Yankees to play in a World Series after facing one another 11 times between 1941 and 1981. Look around the sport and there are many current droughts.
The Padres are 0–2 in the World Series, losing in five games in 1984 to the Detroit Tigers and getting swept by the Yankees in 1999. The American League Mariners have never reached a World Series. Cleveland’s last championship occurred in 1948.
The Dodgers lost their first seven World Series between 1916 and 1953. The first championship in 1955 turned out to be the only World Series title in Brooklyn’s history. The cries of “Wait ’til next year!” became real tears when the Dodgers left town after the 1957 season.
Win a World Series and you quickly forget about your opponent’s postseason journey.
The Twins came so close in 1965, winning the first two games against the Dodgers in Minnesota. Sandy Koufax finally won the decisive Game 7 on two days’ rest, 2–0, thanks to a Lou Johnson home run and timely defense by third baseman Jim Gilliam. The Twins didn’t reach another World Series until 1987.
A championship seemed so easy to Southern California fans in 1959 when the Dodgers won the Fall Classic in their second season on the West Coast. Their opponent, the Chicago White Sox, would have to wait 45 years for another World Series appearance.
What a ride in the 1960s with Koufax, speedster Maury Wills and Don Drysdale. After losing a playoff to the Giants in 1962, the Dodgers made three World Series appearances between 1963 and 1966.
The infield of first baseman Steve Garvey, second baseman Davey Lopes, shortstop Bill Russell and third baseman Ron Cey appeared in four World Series between 1974 and 1981. The Dodgers in 1974 lost in five games to the Oakland A’s. Yankees’ superstar Reggie Jackson became “Mr. October” when New York defeated Los Angeles in 1977 and 1978.
The veteran Dodgers finally enjoyed their last hurrah in 1981, defeating New York in six games. In the ninth inning of Game 6 at Yankee Stadium, Jackson reached base on a two-out error. Trailing 9–2, he told Garvey, “Now it’s your turn.”
There were 12 Dodgers who played in Game 6: Lopes, Russell, Garvey, Cey, Derrel Thomas, Dusty Baker, Pedro Guerrero, Rick Monday, Ken Landreaux, Steve Yeager, Burt Hooton and Steve Howe. Their respective careers totaled 19,458 games, including the postseason. And Game 6 was their only championship.
So savor all the memories from the 2024 season, the exhilarating and excruciating, because you now know how the movie ends. And you have permission to look ahead to something 36 years in the making.
Hope you like a parade.
World Series: Eight it great — the Dodgers champions was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.