{"id":264477,"date":"2025-11-06T00:53:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T00:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264477\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T00:53:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T00:53:15","slug":"magic-johnson-sends-clear-message-on-narrative-dodgers-are-ruining-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/264477\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic Johnson Sends Clear Message on Narrative Dodgers Are Ruining Baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> became MLB’s first back-to-back champions in a quarter-century, but many around the baseball world see this as a negative. <\/p>\n

Since the Dodgers led the league with a $350 million payroll in 2025, a narrative that started to swirl was that the Dodgers were ‘buying championships.’<\/p>\n

LA was one of three teams to exceed $300 million in payroll, and one of five that eclipsed $250 million (including the Toronto Blue Jays’ $255 million). Despite a World Series that dominated television ratings and a Game 7 that was the most-watched MLB game since 1991<\/a>, the narrative soldiers on. <\/p>\n

Dodgers part-owner and Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson<\/a>, however, isn’t buying into that reality. <\/p>\n

More news: Blue Jays\u2019 Shane Bieber Makes Surprise Contract Decision Before Free Agency<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said we ruined baseball,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWell, I guess we didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson has the unique experience of being a Hall of Fame basketball player and a five-time NBA champion. He noted the similarities between what the Dodgers are bringing to the table to what he helped orchestrate back in his playing days.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the Celtics and Lakers were able to do, and Michael Jordan\u2019s Bulls, was to bring in new fans \u2014 fans that were, \u2018Oh, I don\u2019t know about the NBA,\u2019\u201d Johnson said, \u201cbut the play was so good, and the Celtics and Lakers and Bulls were so dominant, people said, \u2018Oh man, I want to watch them.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same thing happening here.\u201d<\/p>\n

More news:\u00a0Blue Jays\u2019 Max Scherzer Receives Major Contract Prediction After World Series Loss<\/a><\/p>\n

Johnson emphasized that the same was happening with him personally after the thrilling Game 7, as people who didn’t tune in to an MLB game recently were brought back in by the Dodgers’ run.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy phone was blowing up with people who hadn\u2019t watched baseball for a long time,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThey were watching this series.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was good for baseball around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays also played their part in the global ratings, given that they are the sole MLB representative of Canada, but the Dodgers have also drawn a significant portion of viewers in Japan since acquiring Shohei Ohtani. <\/p>\n

Regardless of where the viewers are coming from, eyeballs are returning to the baseball diamond, and the Dodgers have demonstrated just how significant their role in the shift has been.<\/p>\n

More news:\u00a0Shohei Ohtani Sends Clear Message to Dodgers Fans After World Series Win<\/a><\/p>\n

For all the latest\u00a0MLB<\/a>\u00a0news and rumors, head over to\u00a0Newsweek Sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Dodgers became MLB’s first back-to-back champions in a quarter-century, but many around the baseball world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,487,29907,462,82],"class_list":["post-264477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-magic-johnson","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}