The celebration had hardly begun, when Shohei Ohtani first voiced the theme of the day.
“I’m already enthusiastic about the third time,” he mentioned in Japanese, standing atop a double-decker bus in downtown Los Angeles with 1000’s of blue-clad, flag-waving, championship-celebrating Dodgers followers lining the streets round him for the crew’s 2025 World Sequence parade.
Seems, he wasn’t alone.
Two days faraway from a dramatic Sport 7 victory that made the Dodgers baseball’s first repeat champion in 25 years, the crew rolled via the streets of downtown and right into a sold-out rally at Dodger Stadium on Monday already enthusiastic about what lies forward in 2026.
With three titles within the final six seasons, their modern-day dynasty may now be cemented.
However their purpose of including to this “golden period of Dodger baseball,” as high government Andrew Friedman has repeatedly referred to as it, is way from over.
“All I’ve to say to you,” proprietor and chairman Mark Walter informed the 52,703 followers on the crew’s stadium rally, “is we’ll be again subsequent yr.”
“I’ve a loopy concept for you,” Friedman echoed. “How about we do it once more?”
When supervisor Dave Roberts took the mic, he tripled down on that goal: “What’s higher than two? Three! Three-peat! Three-peat! Let’s go.”
When shortstop Mookie Betts, the one lively participant with 4 World Sequence rings, adopted him, he quadrupled the expectation: “I bought 4. Now it’s time to fill the hand all the way in which up, child. ‘Three-peat’ ain’t by no means sounded so candy. Any individual make {that a} T-shirt.”
For these history-achieving, legacy-sealing Dodgers, Monday was a reminder of the final word finish purpose — the type of scene that, as they embark on one other brief winter, will quickly gasoline their motivations for an additional confetti-filled parade this time subsequent yr.
“For me, successful a championship, the seminal second of that’s the parade,” Friedman mentioned. “The jubilation of doing it, if you get the ultimate out, no matter recreation you win it in, is particular. That evening is particular. However to have the ability to take a breath after which expertise a parade, in my thoughts, that’s what has at all times pushed me to wish to win.”
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“[To] do that for the town, that’s what it’s all about,” first baseman Freddie Freeman added. “There’s nothing that feels as vital as successful a championship. And in that case occurs to be three in a row, that’s what it’s. However that’s what’s gonna drive us to maintain going.”
Final November, the Dodgers’ first parade in 36 years was a novelty.
A lot of the group had been a part of the 2020 title crew that was denied such a serenade following that pandemic-altered marketing campaign. They’d waited 4 lengthy years to expertise a city-wide celebration. The reception they acquired was sentimental and distinctive.
Now, as third baseman Max Muncy mentioned with a devious grin from atop a makeshift stage within the Dodger Stadium outfield, “it’s beginning to get slightly bit comfy up right here. Let’s maintain it going.”
“Shedding,” star pitcher and World Sequence MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto added, in English, in a callback to one among his memorable quotes from this previous October, “isn’t an possibility.”
Doing it received’t be simple.
This yr, the Dodgers’ win whole went all the way down to 93 in an inconsistent common season. They needed to play within the wild-card spherical for the primary time for the reason that playoffs expanded in 2022. And within the World Sequence, they confronted elimination in Video games 6 and seven, narrowly successful each to finish their quest to repeat.
“I borderline nonetheless can’t consider we received Sport 7,” fan favourite Kiké Hernández mentioned in a bus-top interview.
However, he shortly added, “We’re all winners. Winners win.”
Thus, additionally they get celebrations like Monday’s.
Because it was 367 days earlier, the Dodgers winded down a parade route in entrance of tens of 1000’s of followers from Temple Road to Grand Avenue to seventh Road to Figueroa. Each on board the double-decker buses and within the frenzied lots under, elation swirled and drinks flowed.
As soon as the crew arrived at Dodger Stadium, it climbed atop a blue round riser in the course of the sector — the ultimate symbolic steps of their ascent again to the mountaintop of the game.
Anthony Anderson launched them to the gang, whereas Ice Dice delivered the trophy in a blue 1957 Chevy Bel Air.
Acquainted scenes, they’re hoping develop into an annual custom.
“Job in 2024, performed. Job in 2025, performed,” Freeman mentioned. “Job in 2026? Begins now.”
The Dodgers did take time to acknowledge their newfound place in baseball historical past, having develop into simply the sixth MLB franchise to win three titles within the span of six years and the primary for the reason that New York Yankees of 1998 to 2000 to win in consecutive years.
The place final yr’s parade day felt extra like an overdue coronation, this one served to crystallize their legacy.
“Everyone’s been asking questions on a dynasty,” Hernández mentioned. “How about three in six years? How a couple of back-to-back?”
And, on Monday, all the primary characters of this storybook accomplishment bought their second within the solar.
There was, as crew broadcaster and rally emcee Joe Davis described him, “the Corridor of Fame-bound” Roberts, who now solely trails Walter Alston in crew historical past with three World Sequence rings.
“We talked about final yr, desirous to run it again,” he mentioned. “And I’ll inform you proper now, this group of fellows was by no means gonna be denied to convey this metropolis one other championship.”
There was Sport 7 hero Miguel Rojas calling up shock October nearer Roki Sasaki, on his birthday, to bounce to his “Bailalo Rocky” entrance music; a request Sasaki sheepishly obliged by pumping his fist to the beat.
Yamamoto, coming off his heroic pitching victories in Video games 6 and seven, acquired a few of the day’s loudest ovations.
“We did it collectively,” he mentioned. “I really like the Dodgers. I really like Los Angeles.”
Muncy, Ohtani and Blake Snell additionally all addressed the gang.
“I’m attempting to get used to this,” Snell mentioned.
“I’m able to get one other ring subsequent yr,” Ohtani reiterated.
One franchise face who received’t be again for that chase: Clayton Kershaw, who rode into the sundown of retirement by getting one final day at Dodger Stadium, combating again tears as he thanked the gang on the finish of his illustrious (and in addition Corridor of Fame-bound) 18-year profession.
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“Final yr, I mentioned I used to be a Dodger for all times. And as we speak, that’s true,” Kershaw mentioned. “And as we speak, I get to say that I’m a champion for all times. And that’s by no means going away.”
Kershaw, after all, is without doubt one of the few nonetheless round from the membership’s darkish days of the early 2010s, when cash was scarce and playoff appearances have been unsure and parades have been solely issues to dream about — not anticipate.
As he walks away, nevertheless, the crew has been completely remodeled.
Now, the Dodgers have been to 13 straight postseasons. They’ve set payroll information and bolstered their roster with a wave of star signings. They’ve turned the pursuit of championships right into a yearly expectation, proud however unhappy with what they’ve achieved thus far.
“I believe, definitionally, it’s a dynasty,” mentioned Friedman, the architect of this run with the assistance of Walter’s deep-pocketed Guggenheim possession group. “However that to me, in a whole lot of methods, that type of caps it in case you say, ‘OK, that is what it’s.’ For me, it’s nonetheless evolving and rising. We wish to add to it. We wish to proceed it, and do all the things we will to place it at a degree the place individuals after us have a tough time reaching.”
On Monday, they raised that bar one other notch larger.
“This parade was essentially the most insane factor I’ve ever witnessed, been part of,” Kershaw mentioned. “It actually is essentially the most unimaginable day ever to have the ability to finish your profession on.”
On Tuesday, the Dodgers’ lengthy street towards holding one other one begins.
“I do know they’re gonna get yet one more subsequent yr,” Kershaw informed the gang. “And I’m gonna watch, identical to all of you.”
