LOS ANGELES — The party returned to Los Angeles on Monday, and really, it never ended. For a Los Angeles Dodgers team now etched into history as a dynasty, with the first consecutive World Series titles in 25 years, the latest coronation was even sweeter than the first. As players rode through the streets of downtown Los Angeles for the second consecutive year, they were already planning for a euphoric trilogy.
“I’m already thinking,” Shohei Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, “about the third time we’re going to do this.”
Why would any of the 52,073 fans who packed Dodger Stadium want this party to end? There were thousands more on the streets on Monday morning to rejoice after a ridiculous World Series. The preposterous seventh game delivered the Dodgers’ second consecutive title, third in the last six years and ninth in the franchise’s history. The Dodgers played the hits, enlisting DJ Mustard to provide the soundtrack for yet another Los Angeles conquest, this time over Toronto. The Dodgers held off the Blue Jays over 73 heart-pounding innings.
Ice Cube returned, delivering the Commissioner’s Trophy in a Dodger blue Chevy Bel Air. Kiké Hernández brought out the camcorder he used to record the club’s season-opening trip to Tokyo, looking to take in yet another celebration.
They reveled in what they’d accomplished, with Hernández bringing the house down by using the microphone to proclaim the Dodgers as “a mother f—ing dynasty.” No team in baseball had repeated as champs since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees.
Dodgers fans took to the streets for a second consecutive championship parade. Players told them to be ready to do it again in 2026. (Luke Hales / Getty Images)
It wasn’t easy, though. The Dodgers were two outs away from joining the host of reigning champions who had fallen short. That’s when Miguel Rojas’ ninth-inning home run off Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman carved his name into franchise history. The crowd roared for Will Smith, the steady franchise catcher whose go-ahead home run in the 11th inning stands as one of the most impactful swings by championship win probability in baseball history. Players heaped praise on Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the World Series MVP who did the unthinkable, recording the final eight outs of Game 7 a night after throwing 96 pitches to keep the Dodgers’ season alive in Game 6.
“Hey, Los Angeles, you know what? Losing isn’t an option,” Yamamoto said in English, later adding that his arm felt good after 235 pitches in the six-day span that made him a Los Angeles legend forever. As Monday’s celebration continued, Orel Hershiser — the 1988 icon against whom all Dodgers postseason pitching legends are compared — donned Yamamoto’s No. 18 jersey.
Monday hardly felt like a culmination. The Dodgers hope the dynasty is nowhere near its end.
“All I have to say to you is, we’ll be back next year,” Dodgers owner Mark Walter told the packed crowd, beginning the procession of messages expressing hope that the golden era of Dodgers baseball will keep going strong.
“I’ve got a crazy idea for you,” said president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. “How about we do it again?”
As the Dodgers flew back Sunday afternoon from Toronto, their season ending on international soil just as they’d started it, manager Dave Roberts exchanged texts with Hall of Fame coach and executive Pat Riley, whose Los Angeles Lakers brought “Showtime” to this city decades before the Dodgers brought similar dominance to the Southland. Roberts, whose third World Series title as manager now passes the legendary Tommy Lasorda, asked Riley if he could use the word that was on the tip of everyone’s tongues when the Dodgers won two in a row: a three-peat.
“What’s better than two?” Roberts said. “Three. Three-peat. Let’s go.”
The season ended with Mookie Betts in an unexpected place, with the six-time Gold Glove right fielder playing a brilliant shortstop and adding to a lengthy Hall of Fame resume after starting the game-ending double play. No active player in the majors can claim more rings than Betts’ four — one with the Red Sox and three with the Dodgers. He’s eager for more.
“Now it’s time to fill the hand all the way up, baby, with five,” Betts said. “Three-peat ain’t ever sounded so sweet. Somebody make that a T-shirt.”
Same for Freddie Freeman, who followed up his MVP turn in last October’s World Series against the Yankees with another walk-off blast to add to his legacy in Los Angeles. This year, he brought a marathon 18-inning Game 3 to an end and set the stage for something potentially even more historic.
“Job in 2024 done,” Freeman said. “Job in 2025 done. Job in 2026 starts now.”
This was the team that was supposed to ruin baseball. So they celebrated like it.
Max Muncy donned a letterman’s jacket commemorating the team’s consecutive titles. Tanner Scott wielded a megaphone, pressing his phone to the speaker to blast Roki Sasaki’s entrance music, “Bailalo Rocky,” to the thousands of fans lining the streets. Rojas pressed his thumb against a bottle of booze, spraying alcohol onto a series of onlookers. A shirtless Hernández took a swig of alcohol and sprayed it from his mouth in the front of the bus. A fan tossed a beer up to Tyler Glasnow, who came in for the save in Game 6 and pitched on consecutive days for the first time in his life in Game 7, and the pitcher proceeded to drop it. Blake Snell did the “6-7” dance, then looked at the crowd surrounding him and called it all “lit as f—” before apologizing.
Clayton Kershaw called this ‘the perfect way to end it.’ (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
The Dodgers sent off a franchise icon, blasting Clayton Kershaw’s music, “We Are Young,” for one final send-off. His last pitch came on the Dodger Stadium mound, a 3-2 slider that Nathan Lukes pounded into the ground to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the 12th inning of Game 3. Kershaw nearly got one more chance as he was on a bullpen mound for Game 7 at the Rogers Centre, preparing to enter should Yamamoto not be able to get out of one final jam.
On Monday, he returned to the place he called home for 18 years and, through tears and joined by his family, got to say thank you one last time.
“For us to bring home another championship, and get to do that and celebrate, and for me to be a part of it, and be on this team, it’s just the perfect way to end it,” Kershaw said.
This is a party the rest of the Dodgers want to keep going. They’ll still have Ohtani, the likely MVP. Betts, Freeman, Smith and Teoscar Hernández will remain part of the lineup. Their starting pitching remains the envy of the sport. As they’ve occupied a different realm in this city (“There’s no question in my mind it’s now a Dodger town,” Friedman said a friend texted him) and in this sport, the Dodgers look as fearsome as ever.
“We’re gonna be extremely driven and do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position to do it again,” Friedman said of a potential three-peat with this core.
Such are the proclamations that come from the top of the baseball world, again.