The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees to pick up their 8th World Series championship. And you couldn’t dream up a better finish to the 2024 season. This victory put 2020 in a new light and got everyone again telling the old stories of 1981 and 1988.

The 2020 Story: COVID

The 2020 season happened. There’s no denying that it happened. I watched, jumped in the air when it ended, and hit Sunset and Vin Scully Drive to join the party. Yes, this was in the midst of the pandemic. The Dodgers for a moment made us forget what we were going through.

But even I have to accept that championship lives in a bubble. It was a shortened season without the usual grind of baseball. Stadiums were only partially filled and of course, no official parade. The players enjoyed their win but the city could only watch and the joy came and went.

That is the COVID effect. Many of the events of 2020 and 2021 live inside of the COVID bubble. We see them as something that happened outside of our normal timeline. Today, 2020 is farther away than 1988.

Which is why many downplay the 2020 win — including some Dodger fans. Especially after the heartbreak seasons that followed. And that’s what makes this year’s championship so special. It validates the COVID bubble victory. The story now is that the Dodgers won two championships in the 2020s, much like they did back in the 1980s.

The 1988 Story: Gibson’s “Two Bad Legs”

Game 1 of the 2024 World Series is eerily close to game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Back in ’88, the Dodgers fell behind to the Athletics in the second inning 4-to-2 and trailed from that point on. They got one run in the sixth inning to make it a one-run game.

Then came the ninth inning, beautifully called by the one and only Vin Scully. The Athletics’ starting pitcher Dave Stewart held the Dodgers in check for most of the game and after eight innings, the team brought in their “unhittable” closer, Dennis Eckersley to get the last three outs. He got two but also walked Mike Davis. With Davis on base, Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda turned to Kirk Gibson as a pinch hitter.

Gibson led the Dodgers most of the regular season. He was a leader on and off the field. But in the NLCS against the New York Mets, he hurt his left hamstring and right knee. He was not expected to be available to play in the World Series.

In clear pain and visibly limping at the plate, he battled through seven pitches to get a full count. The eighth pitch went down in Major League and Los Angeles history as a “high fly ball into right field!” Dodger Stadium erupted as Gibson limped around the bases pumping his fist as the entire Athletics team walked away into the locker room in disbelief.

Gibson didn’t play again in the series but the walk-off victory had already set the tone. The Dodgers knew they could beat this team and won the series in five games.

The 2024 Story: “Gibbie, Meet Freddie!”

Once again coming off a victory over the Mets, the Dodgers started game 1 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium. This time they were up against the New York Yankees but the game went almost the same as 1988.

This time the Dodgers didn’t score until the fifth inning, but again gave up the lead immediately like they did in ’88. It was the 8th inning when the Dodgers got the one run to tie up the game and with no runs in the 9th, we were off to extra baseball tied at 2.

The Yankees scored one to take the lead in the tenth. Once again, the Dodgers were down to three outs. The Yankees got two outs, including Shohei Ohtani, but in the process gave up two bases.

With two outs, an open base, and an injured Freddie Freeman on deck, the Yankees decided to walk Mookie Betts to load the bases. Yankees manager Aaron Boone figured his team had a better chance against a hobbled Freddie Freeman than a healthy Mookie. He figured wrong.

On September 26, in a late-season series against the San Diego Padres, Freeman rolled his ankle trying to avoid a tag while running to first base after an infield grounder. The team medical staff said the injury would require four to six weeks but there he was playing first base and batting third in game one of the NLDS against the same Padres.

He again tweaked the ankle in that series and was in visible pain every game after that — though he didn’t stop playing. He continued to play through the pain with extensive therapy, tight tape to immobilize the ankle, and probably a solid dose of painkillers.

As Freddie came up to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the 10th and the game on the line, commentator (and former Braves pitcher) John Smoltz said all Freddie had to do to win the game was hit a single and “hobble to first base.” Scully said something similar about Gibson then too.

It didn’t take long this time. Freeman took the first pitch and smashed it to right field. The ball landed in the right field pavilion, just like Gibson’s. Freeman limped around the bases, much like Gibson did. And it happened at 8:37pm — Dodger Stadium time — just like Gibson’s.

Commentator Joe Davis couldn’t help but revisit that moment in Dodger history when he made the same call as Scully did then: “She is gone!”

Much like in ’88, the walk-off homer pushed the momentum all the way to the side of the Dodgers. They rode it through the series to win it in five. As for Freddie, he hit home runs in games 2, 3, and 4 to win MVP at the end of it all and further cement his place in Dodger history.

The 1981 Story: Fernandomania

The last time the Dodgers and Yankees met in the World Series was 1981. The Dodgers dropped the first two games of that series in New York. For game 3, they put the ball in the hands of their star rookie out of a Etchohuaquila, Mexico: Fernando Valenzuela.

This had been Fernando’s year, of course. Fernandomania was in full force and Dodger Stadium knew this was their chance to turn things around. And boy, did they turn things around!

Fernando pitched a complete game with 147 pitches. The Dodgers jumped out in the first inning with three runs but Valenzuela had a rocky start and allowed four runs by the third.

The Dodgers scored two runs in the 5th to take the lead and Fernando blanked the Yankees the rest of the game. The Dodgers won their first game of the series and never looked back, winning all three in Los Angeles and clinching the series at Yankee Stadium.

In 2003, Fernando Valenzuela joined longtime Spanish broadcaster Jaime Jarrin in the booth to call Dodger games, once again joining the organization that launched his MLB career. In 2023, the Dodgers retired Valenzuela’s number 34.

The 2024 Story: Los Angeles Mourns and Celebrates

On October 2nd of this year, the Dodgers announced Valenzuela would step down from the broadcast booth for the rest of the season to focus on his health. The team also requested privacy on behalf of his family. We learned of his death on October 22, just three days before the start of the World Series.

When the World Series schedule was announced, we learned game six would take place in Los Angeles on Fernando Valenzuela’s birthday. The speculation for a 6-game victory began. It didn’t take six games and it worked out even better.

Game 1 at Dodger Stadium began with a touching tribute to Valenzuela. We Angelenos know what he meant on the field but also, what he meant for baseball and the Latine fanbase here in Los Angeles. Before Fernandomania, many in the Mexican American community of Los Angeles shunned the Dodgers for their part in the eradication of the Chavez Ravine neighborhoods now buried beneath Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers closed out the series in five games, the last game coming in New York, just like the ’81 series. And as the perfect bookend to the story, the city’s parade and celebration took place on Fernando’s birthday, he would’ve turned 64.

The 2024 Storybook Finish: The Streets Turn Blue

One thing that kept coming up in interviews with the Dodgers as the series went on was how much Los Angeles wanted its parade. We didn’t get one in 2020 and because of that, the job felt unfinished. Fans don’t get to hold the World Series trophy when the team wins. Our moment comes from joining in the celebration with the team.

We as fans know we weren’t on the field with the team, of course. We still feel the highs and lows along with the team. In many ways, fans carry the lows longer than the players. That’s why the parade is so important. It’s the culmination of a great season and should feel just as extreme as the losses of previous years.

When the parade came to Los Angeles on November 1st, we turned the streets of Los Angeles blue and white. We saw new-school jerseys with Freeman, Betts, and Kershaw. There were old-school jerseys with Valenzuela, Gibson, and Hershiser.

There were flags, jackets, shirts, towels, low riders, and everything else you can imagine in Dodger blue. Dodger Stadium was sold out for a party that included Ice Cube performing like he did in game 2. Everywhere you went on that day from sunrise to sunset, you found people proudly sporting Dodger gear. It was blue heaven in Los Angeles. It wasn’t just the Dodgers, the city of angels got its 2024 storybook ending.

A Game of Stories

Baseball is a game passed down through stories. I learned it as a child from my older cousin and my uncle here in Los Angeles. I shared baseball stories with my brothers and cousins as they learned the game. I introduced my oldest daughter to baseball and now I’m now slowly introducing it to my youngest daughter. Decades from now, we’ll tell the stories of 2024 along with 1988, 1981, and all other Dodger stories we know. GO DODGERS!