Plenty of memorable moments happened in the world of Los Angeles sports in 2024, from the arrival of Jim Harbaugh to the breakout of JuJu Watkins to…
The kind of an at-bat that every kid that plays baseball dreams of one day having … you tell yourself, all right, bottom of the 10th, bases loaded, World Series, one-run game, Dodgers-Yankees … reality for Freddie Freeman right here …
The 2024 calendar year featured an MLS title for the Galaxy, a No. 1 ranking for UCLA women’s basketball, an Elite Eight appearance for the USC women and..
Taylor the tying run, Edman the winning run … Cortes delivers … Freeman hits a ball, right field …
The Clippers opened the Intuit Dome, LeBron and Bronny James became the first father-son duo to share an NBA court, Mick Cronin consistently lost his mind and …
She is … gone! Gibby, meet Freddie!
Stop. Stop. Whom are we kidding? Every top-10 memorable 2024 Los Angeles sports moment belonged to one team and, as Joe Davis’ iconic call for Fox affirms, those moments were led by one man.
The year belonged to Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers, winners of their seventh World Series championship in Los Angeles history, their eighth in franchise history and their first full-season title in 36 years.
They owned the city, they owned the sport and thus they will own this entire annual top-10 list, populating it with everything from Shohei Ohtani’s rockets to Dave Roberts’ whispers.
Read it and roar.
1. The Gibby
The similarities between Freeman’s 10th-inning grand slam and Kirk Gibson’s ninth-inning home run in 1988 were striking.
Both were slugged by injured hitters essentially playing on one leg. Both were smashed with their team one out from defeat in Game 1 of the World Series. Both deflated the opposition such that the series essentially ended on the spot.
“Everything was the same outside of the fist pumps,” Roberts said.
Actually, there was one major difference, that being the quality of the opposition. Gibson hit his homer off future Hall of Fame reliever Dennis Eckersley and the heavily favored Oakland Athletics while Freeman hit his homer off demoted starter Nestor Cortes and the underdog New York Yankees.
This sort of comparison has sparked a debate about which homer was greater, leading to the request by lifelong Dodgers fan Bryan Cranston during a SiriusXM Town Hall event in which he said, “Can’t they live side by side?”
As one who personally witnessed both, I’m good with that. The Gibson moment was — to paraphrase Vin Scully — the most improbable, impossible thing I’ve ever seen on a baseball field. But I still get chills from the Freeman moment, still remember the bursting firecracker sound of the hit, still remember his memorable waving of the bat in the air like a wand.
Watching the video for the umpteenth time, what I have come to love most is the sudden soundtrack “I Love L.A.” blasting through the speakers before Freeman had reached first base, forever turning his home-run trot into a wondrous music video.
While the ball from Gibson’s home run was never found, Freeman’s blast was corralled by 10-year-old Zachary Ruderman, whose family sold it at auction for $1.56 million, a shred of its intrinsic value.
Freeman’s miracle was truly the most priceless Los Angeles sports moment of 2024.
Maybe ever.
2. The Boots
In the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series, the Dodgers trailed 5-0 and were in serious danger of having to scarily extend the series back to Los Angeles.
That’s when the Yankees impaled themselves on their pinstripes.
Aaron Judge dropped a line drive in center field for his first error all season. Former Gold Glove shortstop Anthony Volpe turned a simple throw to third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. into a dirt-swirling adventure and another error. Finally, pitcher Gerrit Cole forgot to cover first base to further keep the inning alive.
It was quite possibly the worst-played sequence in World Series history, and it opened the door for Freeman’s two-run single, Teoscar Hernández’s two-run double, and the Dodgers’ stunningly tying the game with five runs before eventually clinching the series with a 7-6 victory.
“This is, like, as bad as it gets,” Cole said.
Or, as good as it gets.
3. The Closer
In what turned out to be his final act as a Dodger, Walker Buehler cemented his tough-guy reputation by pitching the final inning of the clinching World Series Game 5 on one day’s rest for his first career save.
It was a feat that will be forever immortalized in Dodger history, a 1-2-3 finish capped by a swinging strikeout of Alex Verdugo, after which Buehler spread his arms wide with an I-told-you-so look as his teammates swarmed the diamond in celebration.
“I feel like I’m supposed to be in those spots,” Buehler said.
He is, and he was for the Dodgers for seven seasons, a tenure which came to an end this winter when he signed a one-year, $21.05-million deal with the Boston Red Sox.
One can’t blame the arms-rich Dodgers for refusing to invest in a pitcher who is coming off his second Tommy John surgery and who struggled during the regular season.
But he is worthy of the fondest of farewells, the successor to Bulldog when a bulldog was needed, and for a certain 31 days each year he will be sorely missed
That would be October.
4. The Chip
While most Dodger memories will focus on Freeman and the World Series, remember, they almost didn’t get out of the first round, pushed to a deciding Game 5 by baseball’s second-best team, the San Diego Padres, in the National League Division Series.
This is where Kiké Hernández enters the list, hitting a home run in the second inning to give the Dodgers a lead they never lost in a 2-0 victory.
Afterward, Hernández revealed the giant chip that sat atop the Dodgers’ shoulders by cursing nonbelievers on national television and later telling the media, “We have a lot of F-U in us.”
He later said he was fined for his Fox profanity but, hey, it turns out he was just telling the truth. The Dodgers spent the rest of the postseason as if on a vengeful mission to silence their critics.
5. The Supernatural
An indication of the gravitas of the Dodgers’ postseason is that one of the greatest hitting performances in baseball history ranks only fifth on this list of memorable moments.
Yeah, we’re finally getting to Ohtani’s otherworldly late September afternoon in Miami when he reached the 50-50 club in Ruthian fashion.
Except, well, even Babe Ruth never swung the bat like this.
Six for six. Three homers. Two stolen bases. Ten RBIs.
“That’s insane,” Max Muncy said.
Weeks later, more insanity ensued, the 50th home run ball selling for $4.39 million at auction, the highest price ever paid for any ball in any sport.
“Just unexplainable,” added Mookie Betts, and he wasn’t talking about the price.
6. The Granny
Not that his historic 50-50 night was merely an encore, but a few weeks earlier, Ohtani joined the 40-40 club with a walk-off grand slam against the Tampa Bay Rays at Dodger Stadium.
It was his most dramatic hit of a drama-filled summer, the ball soaring so high that fans could be seen literally holding their breath while waiting to see where it would fall.
It was so ear-shattering, one could barely hear Randy Newman as Ohtani rounded the bases.
It was so impactful, I even wrote a column on the poor fan who dropped it.
At the time, most folks thought they had seen Ohtani at his best.
Little did anyone know …
7. The Speech
It was the middle of September, the Dodger had lost six of their last nine games, ace Tyler Glasnow had just been lost for the season, the Padres were breathing down their necks, and something had to be done.
For one of the few times, Roberts called a clubhouse meeting to reiterate his confidence in their veteran mettle.
Later the Dodgers scored seven runs in the ninth inning to beat the Braves 9-2 for their biggest win of the regular season.
Afterward Roberts shared this same belief with the media in words that became prescient.
“The talent we have, the character we have … is plenty to win the World Series,” he said.
That was the day the Dodgers became believers.
8. The Comeback
It was the ninth inning of a June game in Colorado, the Dodgers trailed 9-4 and were on the incredibly wrong side of history.
They had lost 1,137 consecutive games when trailing by five or more runs in the ninth inning or later, a streak dating back to 1957 in Brooklyn.
New team. New day. Streak shattered.
Jason Heyward hit a grand slam and Teoscar Hernández had a three-run homer and the Dodgers won, 11-9.
“The results showed the fight, the compete,” Roberts said afterward.
For the first time, it appeared this team, unlike past Dodgers versions, had plenty of both.
9. The Hug
In the eighth inning of a late May game in Cincinnati, journeyman pitcher Yohan Ramírez was struggling mightily when Roberts came to the mound.
But instead of removing him, Roberts hugged him around the neck for more than a minute, whispering encouragement, before returning to the dugout. Few in baseball had ever seen such an outward display of emotional support from manager to player in the middle of a game. But there are few in baseball like Roberts, who strongly connects with his team at a very human level.
Ramirez responded by excelling in his next 14 appearances with a 1.65 ERA and 15 strikeouts before being cut in late July with a 5.52 ERA in 27 Dodgers appearances.
“I just tried to reassure him and give him some confidence, love on him a little bit, and try to take a little bit of pressure off,” Roberts later explained.
Throughout the season, as he loved on different players during difficult times, they all responded.
Ohtani was the National League MVP, and Tommy Edman was the NLCS MVP, and Freeman was the World Series MVP…
But Roberts was the Dodgers’ MVP.
10. The Dog
In late August, fans lined up more than five hours before the game for a chance to snag a bobblehead doll featuring Ohtani and his internet-famous dog, Decoy.
Turns out, as usual with Ohtani, they got more than they bargained for.
When it came time for the ceremonial first pitch, Ohtani carried Decoy to the mound, placed a ball on the rubber, walked back to home plate, crouched and called for the pitch.
Decoy dutifully picked up the ball in his mouth and carried it to Ohtani right across the middle of the plate.
Witnesses could only roll their eyes and say, what????
In the magical year of 2024, even Dodger dogs were throwing strikes.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
