LOS ANGELES — You don't have to remember the last time the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees met with the Commissioner's Trophy on the line to be excited about them finally facing off in the World Series again.
Just ask 8-year-old Charlie Freeman.
"He's at Universal (Studios) right now with a couple of his buddies, but he goes, 'Daddy, I can't wait for the World Series to start tomorrow,'" Los Angeles first baseman Freddie Freeman said at the last workout before Friday's opener to the best-of-seven series at Dodger Stadium. "He's on YouTube and seeing all the videos about Yankees-Dodgers. So you're starting to get a hint of how big this could be."
This will be the 12th Dodgers-Yankees matchup in the Fall Classic but the first in 43 years; the 1981 World Series was the third time in five seasons they met with Major League Baseball's championship on the line, but the suspense to a rematch has been building for decades. The rivalry dates to 1941 — long before the advent of interleague play — when the National League's Dodgers were in Brooklyn and the Bronx Bombers were seeking their fifth title in six years.
"You can be the best player. You can do whatever you want," Yankees star Juan Soto said, "but at the end of the day, people remember you because you won a World Series."
Broadway versus Hollywood has produced the most star-studded World Series in decades, if not ever. The two league championship series had the highest U.S. TV ratings since 2017, and that's been dwarfed by viewership of the Dodgers from Japan, driven by interest in star slugger Shohei Ohtani.
"You could easily argue that on a global scale, the Yankees and the Dodgers are the most followed, the most supported, the most visible (baseball teams)," Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said.
This figures to be the first World Series featuring five league MVPs: the Dodgers' Ohtani, Freeman and Mookie Betts, and the Yankees' Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. There hasn't been even been a Fall Classic with four such award winners since 1971.
Ohtani and Judge are the likely MVPs this year, which would make it the first World Series to feature the winners from both leagues since Miguel Cabrera of the AL's Detroit Tigers and Buster Posey of the NL's San Francisco Giants faced off in 2012. This will be the first World Series with a pair of 50-home run hitters in Judge (58) and Ohtani (54).
And in an age of expanding playoffs, this is just the fifth World Series since the wild-card era started in 1995 involving the teams with the best records in each league.
"I'm sure I'm going to feel how special it is," Ohtani said through an interpreter.
Players practiced in 85-degree weather Thursday as the sun highlighted Dodger Stadium's sky blue, yellow, light orange and sea foam green seats. Freeman, the eight-time MLB All-Star slowed by a bad ankle, insisted he will be in the lineup for the opener.
While the Dodgers are seeking their eighth MLB title overall and second in five years, the Yankees are in the World Series for the first time since winning record-extending championship No. 27 in 2009.
The Yankees are 8-3 against the Dodgers in the most frequent World Series matchup, including 6-1 against Brooklyn and 2-2 since the rivalry became Big Apple against Tinseltown.
"This is where the real fun starts," Judge said.
Judge realizes a title is necessary for membership among the Yankees' greats.
"They definitely got a different aura walking around here when you got a couple of rings on your fingers," he said. "I think that's the biggest thing, is that you see that they're battle-tested. They've been through the grind. They've been through the ups and downs, and they came out on top."
Both scheduled starting pitchers Friday are right-handers, with the Dodgers giving the ball to Jack Flaherty and the Yankees countering with Gerrit Cole as each makes his third start of the 2024 playoffs. Flaherty is 1-2 with a 7.04 ERA, while Cole is 1-1 with a 3.31 ERA.
Flaherty is from nearby Burbank and attended high school at Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles. Cole is from Tustin in Orange County and pitched at UCLA.
"There's no bigger stage than this, and it's what we all wanted as kids and the position we wanted to be in," Flaherty said Tuesday during a Zoom news conference. "It's just going to be an incredible matchup."
Flaherty's high school teammates included two other current MLB pitchers, Lucas Giolito and Max Fried, and three years ago, Flaherty was at the Houston Astros' Minute Maid Park along with Giolito to watch Fried get the win that finished off the Atlanta Braves' Game 6 win for their first World Series championship since 1995.
"It's a funny feeling watching that," Flaherty said, "because you're excited for one of your best friends and you're incredibly happy for him — also at that same moment, you're a competitor and you want to be in that situation, you want to be on the field."
As for the managers, Roberts and Yankees counterpart Aaron Boone have faced each other since April 3, 1992, when Roberts' Bruins beat Boone's Southern California Trojans' 11-1 in UCLA's Jackie Robinson Stadium.
"As we all know in here, you're a Trojan for life. You're a Bruin for four years," Boone said playfully.
Told of Boone's shot, Roberts said: "Ouch! That hurts" and "absolutely disagree, 100%."
Boone texted a Yankees emoji to Roberts when New York's charter flight landed Wednesday.
"There was another emoji I thought about sending him with one finger, but I didn't," Roberts said. "I just gave a laughing emoji back."
AP photo by Julio Cortez / A display honors Los Angeles Dodgers pitching legend Fernando Valenzuela at Dodger Stadium on Thursday. Valenzuela died Tuesday at age 63.Remembering Fernando
The Dodgers will honor Fernando Valenzuela with a No. 34 patch on team uniforms during the World Series as well as the 2025 season.
The circular patch will be on jersey sleeves with the late pitcher's No. 34 in Dodger blue with a white outline, surrounded by a black background and a blue outline. "FERNANDO" is in white capital letters above the number.
A moment of silence will be observed before Friday's game
The Dodgers ordered a 52-by-52-feet mural of Valenzuela on Wednesday, and a day later it had been painted on a wall in left field that fans see as they enter the ballpark.
The mural depicts Valenzuela's unorthodox windup with his eyes skyward, the celebratory hug with catcher Mike Scioscia after his 1990 no-hitter and him wearing a suit in his role as the team's Spanish-language color commentator.
"We wanted to remember Fernando at his best," said Stan Kasten, team president and CEO. "These are all memories of him at his best. He was such a presence for such a long period of time on and off the field."
Valenzuela, the 1981 NL rookie of the year and Cy Young Award winner, died at age 63 on Tuesday, one day shy of the 43rd anniversary of his 147-pitch complete game that led the Dodgers over the Yankees in Game 3 of the 1981 World Series. After losing the first two games at Yankee Stadium, the Dodgers won four in a row for their first title since 1965.
A six-time MLB All-Star, Valenzuela was 173-153 in 17 seasons, including 141-116 with the Dodgers from 1980-90. His flamboyant presence triggered "Fernandomania" among fans, and he had worked for the team as a broadcaster since 2003.