What LA can learn from the Dodgers

My cousin from the beautiful part of the San Fernando Valley. A screenwriter friend who lives near the Sony lot. Academics and mechanics, Filipinos and Armenians and Latinos and plain old white people. Old and young, rich and working class.

All I see on my social media feeds are my friends from LA declaring their loyalty to the Dodgers. Many of them uploaded videos from Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, which the Blue Crew won against the New York Mets and secured a spot in the World Series.

Too many of them are asking if I can get them a ticket to Game 1 on Friday (ustedes should know better – and the answer is, even I can't get one).

As an Orange County native with a somewhat objective view of LA, I've seen that nothing seems to unite the city more happily than a winning Dodgers team. I remember the thrill of the 1988 World Series run, the joy that turned to disappointment at runner-up finishes in 2017 and 2018, the muted celebrations of the 2020 pandemic-era championship.

This year there is joy like I have never experienced before.

The Dodgers will play the World Series in front of a home crowd for the first time since 2018 (2020 was held in Texas due to COVID restrictions), with Game 1 coming just days after the death of Fernando Valenzuela, perhaps the most magical Dodger of all time all of them. Adding to the excitement is their opponent: the New York Yankees, the old rival from the Big Apple, against whom they have faced 11 times in the Fall Classic, although not in the last 43 years.

I also notice that there is something sad behind all this support. The people of Los Angeles need something to believe in as their city fights for its survival.

Political corruption, flash mob attacks, street robberies, broken sidewalks – what is not Isn't that right with LA these days? The civic nerd in me laments that the people who wear blue or fly team flags on their cars don't show the same passion for the people who run Los Angeles, that they don't grab paint rollers to cover up graffiti or dustpans sweeping up dirty streets like they would hold a Kiké Hernández home run ball.

If these Dodgers fans focused just a tenth of the passion they show for the team on building a better LA, the city would be like a bigger, cooler Irvine.

But since I'm also a sports nerd, I understand why passion for a team doesn't equal passion for local politics. Plus, fans are always looking for winning teams. Right now, LA's leaders are as bumbling as Orange County's Angels.

Let me challenge all Dodgers fans to one good thing: Make Los Angeles more of your team. One of baseball's greatest franchises didn't reach its exalted place overnight. This year's success is the culmination of successful strategies that LA can adopt – and that everyone can have a part in.

Dodgers fans cheer while watching Game 6 of the 2020 World Series in the Club Bahia parking lot near Dodger Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The most important thing is of course the acceptance of diversity. From Jackie Robinson to Sandy Koufax, from Valenzuela to Chan Ho Park, the Dodgers have long been pioneers in cultivating talent similar to the cities in which they have played. This year's team continues that tradition by featuring players from all over the world – from Japan to the Caribbean, South America to Orange County. Blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians – they reflect the true multicultural society that Los Angeles claims to be.

To paraphrase an old baseball joke: The Dodgers are 25 guys trying to fit in an Uber, while LA remains a city of neighborhoods where everyone drives in their own car without knowing there are others. A metropolis where Little Bangladesh knows little about Tehrangeles and vice versa will never really work, no matter how much proponents claim it does.

To maintain this unity, one must dedicate one's own needs to the greater good. The Dodgers have one of the greatest talents the game has ever seen in Shohei Ohtani, one of the best players in the major leagues in Mookie Betts, a perennial All-Star in Freddie Freeman and an injured legend in Clayton Kershaw.

Yet this team plays with the unity of a rowing team and the dedication of Little Leaguers. Whatever egos there are in the clubhouse, they have no influence on the field – everyone knows their role and supports each other.

Unfortunately, Los Angeles has never worked that way. It is a city of competing visions and political machines, where those who play the game are more likely to gain access than those who actually want to do good. Everyone has a fiefdom that must be preserved at all costs, even if it means screwing over others.

The Dodgers' thrilling playoff run comes at a time when Los Angeles is facing a budget crisis. In the first three months of this fiscal year alone, the city will have to pay a quarter of a billion dollars in liability costs, leaving officials wondering where the money will come from. This follows a report that puts the cost of addressing L.A.'s homelessness at nearly $22 billion as the city prepares to help host the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympics.

These dire scenarios are your latest reminder that if you're going to spend money, you should at least try to make money. The Dodgers always knew this. Forbes doesn't call them the second most valuable baseball franchise after the damn Yankees just because their uniforms are so damn fancy.

No team has had a better winning percentage in the last decade, resulting in top league attendance in most years. Fans are happy to pay $17 for a large can of beer or $35 to park at the stadium gate – because they know their money is going toward building better teams and creating a fan experience with few rivals in professional sports.

LA City Hall, on the other hand, has given residents no reason to hope. Instead, elected officials and bureaucrats are offering grandiose ideas, like making the Olympics car-free or closing Wilshire Boulevard where it runs through MacArthur Park. Does anyone really think LA politicians can accomplish anything when public transit makes more headlines for assaults on passengers and drivers than for its effectiveness, and MacArthur Park continues to be plagued by gangs and drug dealers?

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts during a game in 2021.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press)

Of course, the Dodgers aren't perfect. Their continued refusal to erect a monument to the barrios upon which Dodger Stadium was built goes against the spirit of a city that wants to confront its entire history, whether comfortable or not. If the team doesn't win the World Series this year, they will column just as relevant as former LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.

And even if the Dodgers lose to the Yankees, they remain a success. The fans will return next year, the team will reach for the proverbial fences once again, most likely with another chance to win the World Series.

They're the most trusted brand in Los Angeles right now, while City Hall is little more than a joke with no punch line other than taxpayers' wallets.

Mayor Karen Bass was seen cheering on the Dodgers at Game 6. She was supposed to visit the team before Game 1 on Friday — except manager Dave Roberts and his boys were supposed to give her a pep talk about how to win, not the other way around.