Derek Jeter almost checked off his entire baseball bucket list winning five World Series and seven pennants playing 20 years with the Yankees, the last 10 as team captain.
He’s a member of the 3000-hit club, won Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers, was an All-Star Game and World Series MVP. His No. 2 is retired by the Yankees, and he has a plaque in Cooperstown as a first-ballot Hall of Famer who almost went in unanimously.
Now a FS1 pre- and post-game analyst, Jeter revealed another late Sunday night after the Dodgers beat the Mets to win the NL pennant one night after the Yankees won in Cleveland to take the AL pennant.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever said this before, but my dream World Series when I played was Yankees-Dodgers,” Jeter said while seated at a Dodger Stadium on-field set with host Kevin Burkhard, Alex-Rodriguez and David Ortiz. “I never actually had it happen, but I’ll tell you what, all eyes are going to be on this series here.”
This is Yankees vs. Dodgers for the first time since 1981 and fifth time since Brooklyn lost Major League Baseball after the ‘58 season.
“It’s kind of what the people wanted,” Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts said. “It’s what we all wanted. It’s fun. It’s going to be a battle of two good teams. A lot of long flights across the country, but that’s what makes it fun.”
This is Aaron Judge vs. Shohei Ohtani, MVP vs. MVP, 58 homers vs. the first 50-50 guy.
This is the Yankees’ big three — Judge, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton — dueling with the Dodgers’ MVPs — Ohtani, Betts and Freddie Freeman.
This has Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, the 2023 AL CY Young winner and a native Southern Californian, and Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who picked LA over a big offer from the Yanks last winter when he left Japan.
“Two really good teams competing against each other,” Ohtani said. “Obviously Judge is a really good player, but so is Soto and a lot of the players on the Yankees team.”
This World Series has a good manager matchup, too.
Aaron Boone forever will be a Yankees’ postseason hero for his pennant-winning, Game 7 walk-off that beat the Red Sox in the 2003 ALCS. Dave Roberts forever will be a Yankee villain for his Game 4, 2004 ALCS stolen base against the Yanks that ignited the Red Sox pulling off the best comeback in history and the ending of a curse.
Also, the Yankees had the best record in the AL this year, the Dodgers’ had the best in the majors.
This matchup has a lot of history, too. This will be their 12th World Series, which ties for the Lakers and Celtics’ NBA Finals meetings for the most frequent championship series matchup in American professionals.
Game 1 is Friday night in Los Angeles.
“We’re going to be part of one of the most special World Series of all-time,” Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo said.
Who’s favorite?
“This is going to be the first time in a long time the Yankees are going to be underdogs coming into a series, which is kind of strange,” A-Rod said.
“You think so?” Jeter responded
“I think so,” A-Rod added, “because they’re going to be playing on the road.”
The Dodgers do have home-field advantage because they won 98 games in the regular season compared to 94 for the Yankees.
A-Rod also thinks the Yankees will have a much tough opponent after getting to the World Series by beating the Royals in the ALDS and Guardians in the ALCS.
“The Dodgers are the most-complete team in baseball and they don’t make mistakes,” A-Rod said. “They’re not going to implode like Kansas City a little bit and the Guardians. They’re going to catch the ball. They’re not going to make mistakes on the bases.
“The Yankees cannot afford all those baserunning mistakes and think they’re going to beat this team.”
Judge and Ohtani will be the big sideshow in the series.
“Two-best players in the world, MVP vs. MVP, with the whole world watching,” A-Rod said.
This will be the majors’ first World Series matchup of league home run champions since 1956 when Mickey Mantle (52) and the Yankees beat Duke Snider (43) and the Dodgers in seven games.
“It’s going to be an exciting World Series with two monsters facing each other,” Ortiz said. “You’re talking about the most powerful guys in all of baseball.”
Jeter agreed, but mentioned that both teams have a lot of star power besides Judge and Ohtani.
“You just can’t say Ohtani and Judge,” Jeter said. “There are some many other characters.”
“This is probably going to be the most watched World Series in quite some time.”
