A championship series that matches up the likes of Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge feels special, Jayson Stark writes in a column for the Athletic, because it is. In fact, it's unprecedented. Other sports have had their biggest stars meet in the season's last game. It's a regular event in the NFL for the best quarterbacks to reach the Super Bowl; Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady played against each other four years ago. And the Super Bowl began with Joe Namath beating Johnny Unitas. But baseball is different, partly because the long playoffs give the best teams—which often have the biggest stars—plenty of opportunities to stumble. But Ohtani-Judge could have the transformative power for MLB that Magic Johnson competing against Larry Bird had for the NBA.
This New York Yankees-Los Angeles Dodgers World Series offers:
- Two MVPs: Ohtani and Judge both have been named the most valuable player in their league in the past and are a good bet to be this year, as well. The series includes five former MVPs in total, ESPN's Buster Olney posted on X, the most ever.
- Power: Ohanti and Judge are the home run champions of their league this year. They've each hit more than 50 homers.
- Winners: They're the best teams in each league; both had their league's highest winning percentages.
- Star power: Not only are Ohtani, who'd be pitching if he weren't injured, and Judge the best players around, they're the biggest names, the players who create the most buzz.
Not since 1976 have two MVPs met in the World Series while playing for the two best teams. That was Joe Morgan and the Reds against Thurman Munson and the Yankees. But it's hard to argue they were "the two Faces of Baseball at the time," Stark writes. Bird and Johnson squared off four times in the NBA Finals, making the league more popular in the process. Stark looks at whether this matchup could do something similar for baseball. His column can be found
here.
NBC News also points out that it could be a lifetime before there's another matchup like this one. Other setups:
- Game 1: The series opens at 8:08pm ET Friday in Los Angeles. Game 2 is Saturday, per MLB.com, then the series moves to New York. All games are on Fox, and all have the same start time.
- Tickets: The Dodgers website sold out by Monday. The cheapest ticket then on StubHub was $1,326, per the Los Angeles Times. By Friday morning, the lowest price was $823.
- MVP wagers: Bettors are making Ohtani their favorite, at +240 at ESPN BET. Judge is next at +550, per ESPN.
- The franchises: The Yankees have won the World Series 27 times, the most in baseball. The Dodgers have won seven times, per NPR. Including past meetings when the Dodgers played in Brooklyn, the Yankees have an 8-3 record against their opponent, per USA Today.
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