The celebration had hardly begun, when Shohei Ohtani first voiced the theme of the day.
“I’m already thinking about the third time,” he stated in Japanese, standing atop a double-decker bus in downtown Los Angeles with of 1000’s of blue-clad, flag-waving, championship-celebrating Dodgers followers lining the streets round him for the group’s 2025 World Collection 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 group rolled by the streets of downtown and right into a sold-out rally at Dodger Stadium on Monday already serious about what lies forward in 2026.
With three titles within the final six seasons, their modern-day dynasty may now be cemented.
However their aim of including to this “golden era of Dodger baseball,” as high government Andrew Friedman has repeatedly known as it, is way from over.
“All I have to say to you,” proprietor and chairman Mark Walter informed the 52,703 followers on the group’s stadium rally, “is we’ll be back next year.”
“I have a crazy idea for you,” Friedman echoed. “How about we do it again?”
When supervisor Dave Roberts took the mic, he tripled down on that goal: “What’s better than two? Three! Three-peat! Three-peat! Let’s go.”
When shortstop Mookie Betts, the one lively participant with 4 World Collection rings, adopted him, he quadrupled the expectation: “I got four. Now it’s time to fill the hand all the way up, baby. ‘Three-peat’ ain’t never sounded so sweet. Somebody make that a T-shirt.”
For these history-achieving, legacy-sealing Dodgers, Monday was a reminder of the last word finish aim — the type of scene that, as they embark on one other quick winter, will quickly gasoline their motivations for one more confetti-filled parade this time subsequent yr.
“For me, winning a championship, the seminal moment of that is the parade,” Friedman stated. “The jubilation of doing it, when you get the final out, whatever game you win it in, is special. That night is special. But to be able to take a breath and then experience a parade, in my mind, that is what has always driven me to want to win.”
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“[To] do this for the city, that’s what it’s all about,” first baseman Freddie Freeman added. “There’s nothing that feels as important as winning a championship. And if so happens to be three in a row, that’s what it is. But that’s what’s gonna drive us to keep 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 group 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 obtained was sentimental and distinctive.
Now, as third baseman Max Muncy stated with a devious grin from atop a makeshift stage within the Dodger Stadium outfield, “it’s starting to get a little bit comfortable up here. Let’s keep it going.”
“Losing,” star pitcher and World Collection MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto added, in English, in a callback to one in all his memorable quotes from this previous October, “isn’t an option.”
Doing it received’t be simple.
This yr, the Dodgers’ win whole went right down to 93 in an inconsistent common season. They needed to play within the wild-card spherical for the primary time because the playoffs expanded in 2022. And within the World Collection, they confronted elimination in Video games 6 and seven, narrowly successful each to finish their quest to repeat.
“I borderline still can’t believe we won Game 7,” fan favourite Kiké Hernández stated in a bus-top interview.
However, he rapidly 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 group arrived at Dodger Stadium, it climbed atop a blue round riser in the midst 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 turn into an annual custom.
“Job in 2024, done. Job in 2025, done,” Freeman stated. “Job in 2026? Starts now.”
The Dodgers did take time to acknowledge their newfound place in baseball historical past, having turn into simply the sixth MLB franchise to win three titles within the span of six years and the primary because the 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.
“Everybody’s been asking questions about a dynasty,” Hernández stated. “How about three in six years? How about a back-to-back?”
And, on Monday, all the principle characters of this storybook accomplishment received their second within the solar.
There was, as group broadcaster and rally emcee Joe Davis described him, “the Hall of Fame-bound” Roberts, who now solely trails Walter Alston in group historical past with three World Collection rings.
“We talked about last year, wanting to run it back,” he stated. “And I’ll tell you right now, this group of guys was never gonna be denied to bring this city another championship.”
There was Sport 7 hero Miguel Rojas calling up shock October nearer Roki Sasaki, on his birthday, to bop 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, obtained a number of the day’s loudest ovations.
“We did it together,” he stated. “I love the Dodgers. I love Los Angeles.”
Muncy, Ohtani and Blake Snell additionally all addressed the gang.
“I’m trying to get used to this,” Snell stated.
“I’m ready to get another ring next year,” 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, preventing again tears as he thanked the gang on the finish of his illustrious (and likewise Corridor of Fame-bound) 18-year profession.
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“Last year, I said I was a Dodger for life. And today, that’s true,” Kershaw stated. “And today, I get to say that I’m a champion for life. And that’s never going away.”
Kershaw, in fact, is likely 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 count on.
As he walks away, nevertheless, the group has been completely remodeled.
Now, the Dodgers have been to 13 straight postseasons. They’ve set payroll data 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 up to now.
“I think, definitionally, it’s a dynasty,” stated Friedman, the architect of this run with the assistance of Walter’s deep-pocketed Guggenheim possession group. “But that to me, in a lot of ways, that kind of caps it if you say, ‘OK, this is what it is.’ For me, it’s still evolving and growing. We want to add to it. We want to continue it, and do everything we can to put it at a level where people after us have a hard time reaching.”
On Monday, they raised that bar one other notch increased.
“This parade was the most insane thing I’ve ever witnessed, been a part of,” Kershaw stated. “It truly is the most incredible day ever to be able to end your career on.”
On Tuesday, the Dodgers’ lengthy street towards holding one other one begins.
“I know they’re gonna get one more next year,” Kershaw informed the gang. “And I’m gonna watch, just like all of you.”
