TORONTO — An all-time World Series. An all-time Game 7. What a win for baseball. <\/p>\n
The $509M Dodgers became the first team in 25 years to repeat as World Series champion, stunning the devastated Blue Jays, 5-4, in an 11-inning thriller Saturday at Rogers Centre. It was a fitting conclusion to the first season in MLB history to both start and finish outside the US. <\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d Dodgers part-owner Magic Johnson said in the confetti-filled outfield. \u201cThis was a world-wide World Series. I can\u2019t even wait to see what the viewership was.\u201d <\/p>\n
After touting increases in national television viewership across several of its partners all season, it\u2019s possible that the Game 7 number reaches 40 million across the U.S., Canada and Japan. The conversation on social media was also dominated by baseball amid all the early fireworks and late-game drama. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just unbelievably great,\u201d Dodgers owner Mark Walter, who only just wrapped up his purchase of the Lakers, told SBJ. \u201cThe game today, anybody could\u2019ve won it. It\u2019s extra-innings, it\u2019s nip and tuck, but we pulled it out somehow.\u201d <\/p>\n
Johnson believes a Dodger dynasty could have a similar impact to his Lakers, rival Larry Bird\u2019s Celtics and Michael Jordan\u2019s Bulls, drawing casual fans to the sport. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy phone was blowing up with people that hadn\u2019t watched baseball for a long time, and they were watching this series,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cGreat job by the Dodgers and Blue Jays, and this was good for baseball around the world.\u201d <\/p>\n
Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten dismissed the narrative that his team is \u201cruining baseball\u201d as labor issues hover over the sport. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the owners have not decided whether they will introduce a salary cap with the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire on Dec. 1, 2026. The union is vehemently against a cap. <\/p>\n
Still, the cries are expected to only ratchet up now that the Dodgers have become the first team to go back-to-back since the Yankees (1998-2000). <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything we do we are proud of, and we are proud of the fans we are bringing in not just locally or domestically but more importantly around the world,\u201d Kasten told SBJ. \u201cShohei (Ohtani) is an important part of it. Roki (Sasaki) is an important part of it. And tonight\u2019s MVP (Yoshinobu Yamamoto) is an important part of it.\u201d <\/p>\n
The $266M Blue Jays gave the Dodgers, who boast an MLB-record payroll, all they could handle, a crushing ending to what was a fairytale season. <\/p>\n
\u201cHow about last night? How about the 18-inning game (Game 3)? Are you kidding?\u201d Kasten said. \u201cThis has been a tremendously thrilling World Series that came down not just to the last inning but beyond.\u201d <\/p>\n
Last year, Ohtani, who signed a 10-year, $700M deal with the Dodgers in 2023, told Kasten following their first title: \u201cNine to go.\u201d This time around, Ohtani said, \u201cEight to go.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kasten wasn\u2019t about to guarantee a three-peat by any means. Still, it\u2019s easy to marvel at what the Dodgers have been able to pull off on the baseball and business sides. <\/p>\n
They literally threw over $1B worth of arms at the Blue Jays on Saturday in Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow (five years, $135M), Blake Snell (five years, $182M) and Yamamoto (12 years, $325M).<\/p>\n
The Dodgers have dominated local RSN revenue ($334M annually through 2038), attendance (reaching 4 million for the first time in 2025) and sponsorship revenue (becoming the first North American pro sports team to surpass $200M). <\/p>\n
\u201cWe just gotta play for the heart and everything else will follow,\u201d Walter replied when asked about the incredible business success. <\/p>\n
Everyone is chasing the Dodgers. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, every baseball fan was glued to their TV sets watching an all-time Game 7 which capped an all-time World Series. <\/p>\n
Baseball was the big winner. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the greatest feeling in the world every time, no matter how many times you\u2019ve been there,\u201d Kasten said. \u201cThis is so special because it\u2019s so hard. We faced a tremendous organization in Toronto and all the other teams in baseball all year long so to come out on top was incredible.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO — An all-time World Series. An all-time Game 7. What a win for baseball. The $509M Dodgers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[1558,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-266851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}