The Dodgers impress the Yankees as a World Series for the ages begins in Hollywood World Series

As a nation faces electoral chaos, potential unrest and the threat of nuclear war, the resumption of its prized sporting rivalry promises a welcome change.

Yankees vs. Dodgers. Whether in the Bronx, Brooklyn or Los Angeles, both teams have collectively written an encyclopedia of unforgettable, magical moments during their World Series confrontations that date back more than eight decades. This year's renewal, which began on Friday evening at Dodger Stadium, has already left a unique mark.

Freddie Freeman became the first player in major league history to win a World Series game with a walk-off grand slam home run, giving the Dodgers a 6-3 victory in 10 innings.

“It might be the greatest baseball moment I’ve ever experienced,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “and I’ve experienced some great moments.”

Freeman is one of six former Most Valuable Players on the two teams' combined roster, a series record. Two of them, Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the Yankees, won the three previous American League MVP awards, with Ohtani representing the Los Angeles Angels. Both belong to a galaxy of stars that includes Juan Soto, Mookie Betts and Gerrit Cole.

But before the first pitch of the first game, the sellout crowd of 52,394 was focused on grief.

Fernando Valenzuela, revered by Dodger fans as an All-Star pitcher and Spanish-language broadcaster, died Tuesday of cancer at age 63. The American and Californian flags at midfield and at the top of the upper deck flew at half-mast. At the main entrance to Dodger Stadium, the large sign welcoming visitors was transformed into a miniature shrine with flowers, votive candles, Mexican flags and banners.

Before the game, a tribute video accompanied by live mariachi music showed photo montages of Valenzuela throwing, punching, signing autographs and even jumping over lassos with Mexican vaqueros. Dodger players wore uniforms with a black sleeve patch with his name in white above his jersey number, 34, in blue with white trim.

Instead of throwing out the first pitch, two of Valenzuela's former teammates, Steve Yeager and Orel Hershiser, both wearing jerseys with his number, commemorated his career by placing the baseball at a “34” stenciled on the back of the mound was. A minute's silence then followed, which fans ended with chanting Valenzuela's nickname, “Toro, toro!”

No Los Angeles sporting event would be complete without entertainers watching the action. Friday night's audience included Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Lawrence, John Legend, Billie Eilish and Finneas, as well as Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

No Los Angeles sporting event would be complete without twists and complications worthy of Hollywood. There were all sorts of them in Game 1. An exciting pitching confrontation between Cole of the Yankees and Jack Flaherty of the Dodgers. A chess set with relief jugs as figures. Judge — who led the major leagues in home runs, runs batted in, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS — struck out three times in five at-bats. Notes adopted. Lost leads.

No sporting event in Los Angeles would be complete without the locals showing off their laid-back attitude. In the sixth inning, after Giancarlo Stanton's two-run home run gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead, some fans in the stands near the foul pole in left field continued a familiar local tradition. They threw a beach ball between each other.

Even the home team's video announcers were getting impatient.

“You have to act like you’re at the World Series. This is what you wanted,” a video announcer yelled into her microphone as the Yankees made a pitch change in the bottom of the seventh.

The end of a recorded, animated message before the end of the eighth sounded more emphatic: “Wake up, LA!”

The fans brought this inning to life when Ohtani hit a double off the top of the right field wall and then took third base when second baseman Gleyber Torres mishandled Soto's throw. Betts followed with a sacrifice fly that sent Ohtani home and forced a 2-2 tie.

The Yankees regained a 3-2 lead in the top of the 10th. But at the end of the inning – with the bases loaded, two outs and fans chanting his first name – Freeman provided the ultimate stimulant by throwing Nestor Cortes' first pitch, a 92 mph fastball, halfway up the stands catapulted into right field.

As the crowd erupted and the ball flew into the air, Freeman held up his bat and began running to first base. As soon as the ball cleared the outfield fence, Freeman began to trot. He exchanged a low five with first-base coach Clayton McCullough, pointed to left field and smiled, threw off his batting helmet as he jogged down the third-base line, stomped toward home plate and received effusive hugs from his Teammates.

Freeman then walked over to his father, who was sitting near home plate. The two men shook hands ceremoniously through the net.

While he enjoyed his home run rut, the Dodgers first baseman was “just kind of floating,” he said. “These are the things, the scenarios, that you dream about when you're five years old and playing Wiffleball in the backyard with your two older brothers: two outs, bases occupied in a World Series game.”

Freeman's father did his part to help his son move beyond Wiffle ball.
“If he didn’t let me take batting practice — if he didn’t love the game of baseball — I wouldn’t be here playing this game,” the first baseman said. “He’s been giving me batting practice for as long as I can remember. He still throws me batting practice. My swing is thanks to him. My approach is thanks to him. I am who I am because of him.”

But three days before Freeman made his contribution to America's most famous sports rivalry, Flaherty essentially said that one home run doesn't make a series.

“It’s going to be tough,” Flaherty said. “It will be a tough battle between both sides and at the end of the day we will give it everything we have.”

Enthusiastic fans lining the left field concourse — including strangers exchanging high-fives — might respond with the word they chanted as they exited Dodger Stadium.

“Fred-dee, Fred-dee, Fred-dee!”