LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts had a vibrant forecast.
“More eyeballs are going to be viewing this World Series than any other Series in history,” the Los Angeles Dodgers supervisor stated.
Major League Baseball’s dream match is the Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Massive markets, extensive fan bases and luminescent lineups led by a transcendent star in Shohei Ohtani.
“This is like Ali-Frazier, or Magic and Bird, or Jordan and Isaiah Thomas, or Ohio State football versus Michigan football,” Bill Wanger, Fox Sports executive vice president, head of shows and scheduling, stated on the eve of Friday’s opener.
This will be the veryfirst World Series with 5 previous MVPs: Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers and Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton of the Yankees.
This is just the 5th Series giventhat the Wild Card Era began in 1995 including the groups with the leading record in each league.
It is simply the 4th that consistsof the home run leaders in each league after Lou Gehrig and Mel Ott in 1936, Joe DiMaggio and Ott the following year and Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider in 1956.
It is the veryfirst with a 50-homer player on each group in Judge (58) and Ohtani (54).
“The World Series match with our 2 mostsignificant markets and a bunch of our greatest stars offers a distinct chance to take another action forward on some of our most crucial tactical efforts, particularly a more nationwide broadcast method, global development, especially in Japan, and increased social media existence associated to interest in the Series by stars from other sports and fields of homeentertainment,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred stated.
Game 1 provided on the buzz, with Freeman punching the veryfirst walk-off grand slam in World Series history to cap LA’s 6-3, 10-inning win.
Ohtani’s jersey tops MLB’s sales, with Judge 3rd, Betts 4th, Soto seventh and Freeman 18th. Ohtani and Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto have triggered record tv audiences in Japan, where the Dodgers’ Game 5 Division Series win over San Diego drew 12.9 million audiences — more than the typical 9.11 million audiences in the U.S. for Texas’ five-game World Series win over Arizona last year.
MLB introduced its “Once in a Generation. Twice” advertisement project after the Division Series including Ohtani and Judge. It setup “Sho Time/All Rise” digital signboards throughout New York and the Los Angeles location, consistingof Times Square and the Beverly .
MLB and Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo p