Dream duel in the baseball final – Yankees and Dodgers electrify the USA

The names are familiar to every sports fan: The Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees are known beyond baseball. Now the legendary teams around Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge are meeting in the “World Series” – and are giving many hope for hype for the sport.

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Every sport has these duels that make fans’ hearts beat faster. Because they have been around forever, because they have special stories or simply because the biggest teams are involved. Boston Celtics vs. Los Angeles Lakers is one of those. Real Madrid against FC Barcelona. England against Germany. Or on a smaller scale, the ZSC Lions against HC Davos.

One such dream duel is that of the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. And it is precisely these two teams that will now meet in the final of the MLB baseball league. The first game of the “World Series”, which will be played in a best-of-7 format, will take place on Saturday night (2:08 a.m. Swiss time). It’s as if the Champions League title was being played in the Clásico. As if England, the motherland of football, were dueling with record winners Brazil for the World Cup title.

The Yankees and Dodgers are known beyond their sport. They are two of the biggest names and brands in sport – from two of the biggest cities, who also can’t particularly stand each other. With a value of $7.1 billion, the Yankees are the most valuable sports team in the world after the Dallas Cowboys. The Dodgers are a little behind at No. 25 with $4.8 billion, but they are still No. 2 in baseball.

The duel is dripping with history and big names

But it’s not just these values ​​that show how special this duel is. Many of the sport’s greatest legends played for one of the two teams. Jackie Robinson wore the Dodgers jersey (they were still playing in Brooklyn at the time), as did Sandy Koufax. Players like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Derek Jeter have worn the world-famous New York Yankees logo on their chests and caps.

Jackie Robinson.Bild: keystone

Babe Ruth.Bild: www.imago-images.de

Due to their rich histories, the two teams also do without things like mascots that they consider unnecessary. This includes the fact that the jerseys of the two teams have actually never changed. And that New Yorkers are not allowed to have long hair or beards. The Dodgers and the Yankees are baseball through and through – and their duel is the highest emotion in this sport.

But even though they are the richest teams in the best baseball league in the world, they last met in the final series in 1981. At that time, Los Angeles won 4-2. Overall, the Yankees prevailed against their rivals in eight of eleven “World Series”. With 27 MLB titles, the team from the Bronx is also by far the record winner, the Dodgers have seven, the sixth most.

The fact that there is finally a new edition of the legendary duel after 43 years is mainly due to two players: Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge.

The biggest stage for the biggest stars

The 30-year-old Japanese is arguably the most talented baseball player in history. Ohtani plays both batter and pitcher, meaning he is both a hitter and a pitcher – although he is not throwing this season due to an elbow injury. Thanks to his crazy achievements and records, he is even known to those who don’t like sports in the USA.

Last December, Ohtani traded from the Los Angeles Angels within the city to the Dodgers, where he signed a 10-year, $700 million contract. This season he also impressed with his incredible performances. And he finally qualified for the playoffs for the first time in his seventh MLB season. Before the first final game, Judge described him as “the best player in our sport”.

Judge himself is a real home run machine. In 2022, the 32-year-old hit the ball over the edge of the field 62 times and became the “true home run king”. The value has only been exceeded by three players in MLB history who were later found to have used performance-enhancing substances. Aaron Judge also hit 58 home runs this season – a season-high in the MLB, of course. He was followed by Ohtani with 54.

Unsurprisingly, Ohtani and Judge were each voted the best player in their conference, giving the finals series additional historical weight. Since the playoffs existed in their current form, two MVPs have only met once in the “World Series”. It has never happened before that the two also achieved the most home runs in their conference. It is also the first time that two players with at least 50 home runs will meet in the Finals. This matchup is a must-see for baseball fans in every way, but in some ways also for sports fans in general.

Especially since the Yankees and the Dodgers were the best teams of the regular season and other stars, including New York’s Juan Soto and Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman from Los Angeles, are involved. The two main attractions are of course Judge and Ohtani, both of whom want to crown their already great careers with the title.

Hoping for hype

No wonder, then, that there is huge interest in the USA – and not just among baseball fans. Many stars are likely to be present at the stadium in both New York and Los Angeles. Secretly, baseball officials are hoping for a similar effect to that in the NBA in the 1980s, when Magic Johnson of the Lakers and Larry Bird of the Celtics took their sport to new heights, or to golf, which Tiger Woods made popular.

Game 1 of the World Series will take place at Dodgers Stadium on Saturday night.Bild: www.imago-images.de

This hope is not entirely unfounded. On the secondary market platform “StubHub”, an average of $1,667 is paid for a ticket. Even the parking spaces at the stadium are priced at several thousand dollars. StubHub assumes that the Yankees and Dodgers will break all sales records for a World Series.

They all want to see this dream duel.