Dodgers Epic Victory Stirs Memories of Past World Series Wins

The greatest World Series of my lifetime stirred so many memories I hardly know where to begin.

I’ll start at the beginning, Game One of the 1959 World Series, the Dodgers — in only their second year representing Los Angeles — against the Chicago White Sox. It was Thursday, October 1, and Sister Dolores let us listen to at least part of the game on a transistor radio — Vin Scully with just 57 years to go in his broadcasting career — in the 8th grade classroom at St. Bede’s School in La Cañada. It did not go well for the Dodgers. They lost, 11-0.

But L.A. won the next day, 4-3, and went on to win the championship in six games. So when the 2025 World Series began with the Toronto Blue Jays pounding the Dodgers, 11-4, I knew from decades of experience that the Series was far from over.

Of course, the days of daytime games are over, and school children can no longer take a break from their classes during the World Series — at least, not in the home of the Braves or the Dodgers. But this year’s games began at 10 a.m. in Japan, so that the young fans of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto could follow their heroes in live time, even throughout Game Three, the outrageous 18-inning affair that ended at midnight here.

That marathon game was the first indication that this World Series was special in a wild and crazy way, with Ohtani showing he is the world’s greatest player by getting on base nine times — two homers, two doubles, and five intentional walks — and an improbable hero in Will Klein, the Dodgers’ last relief pitcher; and a déjà vu walk-off homer by Freddie Freeman.

I witnessed firsthand the most famous single moment in Dodgers postseason history, as I covered Game One of the 1988 World Series for the Santa Barbara News-Press. The miraculous homer off the bat of a nearly crippled Kirk Gibson not only defeated the formidable Oakland A’s, but it made such an impact that it seemed inevitable that the Dodgers would win the Series. It inspired me to write a column describing the final scene as something like the climax of the movie The Natural with Robert Redford.

The only game I covered at the 1981 World Series was also consequential. The Dodgers and Yankees were tied 2-2 going into Game Five on a Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. Ron Guidry was on the mound for the Yankees, and the Dodgers could do nothing against him until, in the seventh inning, two lightning bolts — back-to-back homers by Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager. The Dodgers won, 2-1, and finished off the Yankees in Game Six at New York.

UCSB’s baseball team had a Kirk Gibson moment in the 2016 NCAA Super Regionals when freshman Sam Cohen’s two-out grand slam in the bottom of the ninth gave the Gauchos a stunning 4-3 victory over Louisville and a sweep of their best-of-three series. Shane Bieber pitched the Gauchos to a 4-2 victory in the first game. Will Smith, the Cardinals catcher and team captain, singled in the first inning, one of eight hits off Bieber.

The Dodgers selected Smith in the first round of the major league draft. Cleveland picked Bieber in the fourth round. The pitcher ended his UCSB career with a masterful performance at the College World Series, a 1-0 loss to Oklahoma State. Nine years later, Bieber and Smith met in the World Series. 

In Game 4, it was Bieber who had the upper hand in a 6-2 Blue Jays victory. Smith went zero-for-three against the former Gaucho, who allowed just one run in five-and-a-third innings of his pitching matchup against L.A.’s Ohtani. Toronto had traded for Bieber, who was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, in hopes he could provide the quality that he showed in blunting the Dodgers’ momentum.

When the Series went back to Canada with the Blue Jays a win away from their first championship in 32 years, it really got crazy. Yamamoto’s second victory on the mound was preserved only when the Dodgers ended the game by pulling off a rare 7-4 double play, Kiké Hernandez to Miguel Rojas.

Then came Game Seven, which had ups and downs like the surf surging from a Pacific storm. The Dodgers trailed until they got homers by Max Muncy in the eighth inning and Rojas, preposterously, with one out in the ninth. In the bottom half, Toronto had the winning run erased by an inch at home plate and at the outfield wall by Andy Pages’s insane catch.

As fate would have it, Smith came up against Bieber, pitching in relief, in the 11th inning. The Dodgers catcher got a hold of a slider and put it in the seats. Then the invincible Yamamoto secured his third win of the series, inducing a broken-bat double play that broke Toronto’s hearts. Never was a 5-4 score closer than that.

“It stings,” Bieber said in a postgame interview. “It’s going to sting for a while. This game is not for the faint of heart.”

But it also sings. It was baseball at its most magnificent. In classical music terms, this World Series was Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the “Ode to Joy.”

During the celebration of the Dodgers’ second consecutive World Series title on Monday, there was a lot of talk about a threepeat.” That would take some doing. It would take even more doing to top the drama of 2025.