All Ball: Dodgers ‘Forever Freddie,’ Costa’s dueling QB’s, Redondo on a roll
by Paul Teetor
Sure, Freddie Freeman will be remembered forever by Dodgers fans and a whole lot of other people for his walk-off grand slam homer that won game one of the World Series against the Yankees Friday night in extra innings.
It was a magnificent achievement by a guy who was playing on a bum ankle, a guy the Yankees wanted to pitch to in that situation – two outs, bases loaded, Yanks up by one, one out from winning game one – rather than pitch to Mookie Betts, who had just been given an intentional base on balls.
What the Yankees were saying was insulting to Freddie: we’re a lot more confident that we can get you out than we are that we can get Mookie out. With the game in extra innings, this was a winner take all situation – and Freddie took it all.
And it ensured that Freeman will have a spot alongside Kirk Gibson on the Dodgers Mount Rushmore of World Series heroes. The similarities are uncanny: a wounded slugger with a lower extremity injury coming through in a last-chance situation with a heroic homer.
But Gibson’s grand slam was 36 years ago. Freeman’s was 36 minutes ago.
As memorable as his titanic blast was, and as much as it electrified Los Angeles for an entire weekend, when the dust settles and people come back down to earth it is the game itself – the back and forth, the lead changes, and the sheer classic drama of it all – that will work itself into the history books and the shared collective consciousness of LA Dodgers fans and indeed of baseball fans everywhere.
The Dodgers 6-3 victory may have been the greatest World Series game ever. That covers a lot of teams and a lot of territory, so let’s narrow it down: the greatest Yanks-Dodgers World Series games ever.
And that still covers a lot of territory, since the two ancient rivals have faced each other in the Fall Classic 12 times going on 13. But it’s right up there with the Don Larsen perfect game in ’56, the Johnny Podres game 7 winner in ’55, the Reggie Jackson 3 homer game in ’77, and Al Gionfriddo’s amazing catch of Joe DiMaggio’s sure double that wasn’t in ’47.
Start with this: it was the first game of the first World Series between the Yankees and the Dodgers in 43 years. Expectations could not have been higher. Wherever All Ball went on Friday – to the beach at 14th Street, to pickleball drop-in at Manhattan Beach Heights, or to Live Oak Park for hoops – Yankees-Dodgers was all anyone wanted to talk about. Even the most dedicated hoopers were talking baseball for once: Judge or Ohtani, Mookie or Soto, Freddie or Giancarlo?
The Lakers were playing hoops Friday night against the Phoenix Suns, USC was hosting Rutgers in its fourth attempt at its first Big Ten victory, and the city was still grieving the too-early loss of Fernando Valenzuela – but none of those could distract from Yankees-Dodgers game one.
Then you had the pitching match-up. Opening the series for the Yanks was Gerrit Cole, a former Cy Young winner and unquestioned ace of the staff. And the undisputed best pitcher on either staff.
Thanks to an injury epidemic, The Dodgers only had three viable starters to choose from: trade deadline acquisition and hometown boy Jack Flaherty, $325 million Japanese rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and former ace turned reclamation project Walker Buehler.
Manager Dave Roberts chose door number one, even though a lot of self-appointed baseball experts (Including All Ball) thought Yamamoto was a safer choice because he had been so impressive against the Mets in the National League Championship Series.
So Naturally Flaherty was extremely effective, matching Cole inning for scoreless inning through the fifth.
As tension thick as the coastal fog wafting inland descended on SRO Dodgers Stadium, the Dodgers finally drew first blood in the bottom of the fifth when Senor October, Kiki Hernandez, lashed a line drive just out of the reach of right fielder Juan Soto for a triple. Will Smith flied out to Soto and drove in Hernandez for a 1-0 lead.
The Yanks quickly answered in the top of the sixth when Giancarlo Stanton crushed a hanging curveball for a two-run homer. That made it 2-1 Yanks and the anxiety of the home crowd was palpable.
But Mookie Betts drove in Shohei Ohtani in the eighth to tie it again at 2-2, and soon it was into extra innings. In the tenth the Yanks manufactured a run from Jazz Chisholm’s single to take a 3-2 lead and set up Freeman’s historic blast, the first walk off grand slam in World Series history.
“It might be the greatest baseball moment I’ve ever witnessed,” Roberts said. “And I’ve witnessed some great ones.”
The adrenaline rush was so great that it carried over to game 2 Saturday night, a 4-2 Dodgers victory and game 3 Monday night, another 4-2 Dodgers victory.
That means that as of Tuesday, the Dodgers were one win away from sweeping the Yankees and Freddie Freeman – the first player ever to hit homers in the first three games of a World Series – one game away from being named World Series MVP.
Forever Freddie.
Mustangs go down Fighting
The Mira Costa football team grabbed a 6-0 halftime lead over highly ranked Leuzinger Friday night but couldn’t hang on and suffered a hard fought 21-13 loss to the Olympians.
Leuzinger, ranked 22nd in the Los Angeles Times list of the top 25 teams in the Southland, scored three second half touchdowns to pull out the win at Waller Stadium.
The Olympians couldn’t do much with their passing attack in the first half. So they put the ball into the hands of their best running back, Journee Tonga, and he led them to a hard-earned win. Tonga scored three touchdowns, including the game-winner in the fourth quarter.
The Olympians, now 7-2 and 2-2 in the Bay League. The Mustangs fell to 5-4 overall and 2-2 in the Bay League.
“We decided that we had to take the line of scrimmage into our own hands,” Leuzinger coach Jason Miller said. “We were like, no more being pretty. We ran our tight-series which is similar to the old double-wing stuff.”
This was the first meeting between the two teams since 2019.
Mira Costa, which finally had star quarterback Nico De La Cruz back from a hand injury that kept him out of action for six games, went with a dual quarterback rotation with De La Cruz and Liam Meeker, who had filled in admirably in his absence. The Mustangs kicked two field goals of 33 and 34 yards by Michael Husson to take a 6-0 lead into halftime.
The Mustang attack badly missed star running back AJ McBean, who was injured last week and unable to play this week.
Husson’s second field goal, as time expired in the first half, was set up by Barrett Ryan’s interception with 3:15 left, giving Mira Costa the ball at the Leuzinger 33.
But Leuzinger came right back and took their first lead on the first possession of the second half as Tonga scored on an 8-yard touchdown run.
Mira Costa refused to fold and fought back with its best drive of the night. The long drive ended with a 4-yard touchdown run by Meeker for a 13-7 lead.
In the fourth quarter, the Olympians kept giving the ball to Tonga and he kept delivering. He put the Olympians ahead 14-13 on a 24-yard run with 10:56 left.
Later in the quarter, Tonga scored again on a 10-yard run for a 21-13 lead.
“We told our guys to block the guy in front of you, let Journee pick his hole, where he wanted to run it,” Miller said. “It was a fantastic old-school single-wing look and Journee played amazing against a game Mira Costa defense.”
The Mustangs did get the ball back with 10 seconds left, but a deep pass attempt was intercepted by Leuzinger’s Jamaal Fay to seal the game.
The regular season concludes next week for both teams.
Leuzinger should crush last-place Lawndale.
Mira Costa has to travel up the hill to Palos Verdes for a tough afternoon game. PV has beaten the Mustangs seven games in a row.
Redondo on a two-game win streak
The Redondo football team raised its record to 7-2 overall and 3-1 in the Pioneer League with a 28-20 win over Peninsula Friday night.
The Sea Hawks were led by quarterback Cole Leinart, who connected on 14 of 26 passes for 142 yards. Cadence Turner led Redondo in pass receptions with 8 for 94 yards, followed by Bo Ausmus with 5 for 44 yards.
The Sea Hawks will host South Friday night in their last game of the regular season.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com