When Mark Walter and Guggenheim Partners purchased the Los Angeles Dodgers from Frank McCourt, it ushered in a brand new chapter of Dodgers baseball that has now resulted in them at the top of the baseball summit
for two consecutive years and three out of the last six.
This year, the Los Angeles Lakers were sold to Guggenheim by the Buss family, whom their father Jerry initially bought in 1979 and maintained ownership for 46 years. With the Lakers trading for young superstar Luka Dončić to pair with LeBron James, they put themselves in a position to become true contenders in the western conference.
The Lakers are not done trying to copy and paste the Dodgers formula for winning, as both Dodgers team president Andrew Friedman and special advisor Farhan Zaida are set to take on advisory roles with the Lakers, reports Ramona Shelburne of ESPN. Shelburne notes that Zaidi will be a representative to Walter for helping with the ownership transition while Friedman will consult with Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka.
With the Dodgers repeating as champions, the Los Angeles Rams looking like a force in the NFC, and the Lakers joining ownership forces with the Dodgers, things are looking very bright for the Los Angeles sports world.
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Getting back to purely baseball news, there are some new updates on World Series home run balls hit from Shohei Ohtani, Miguel Rojas and Will Smith.
Steve Henson of the Los Angeles Times notes that all three home run balls were sold at the SCP Auction on Saturday. Ohtani’s ball came from his home run that left Dodger Stadium in Game 4 of the NLCS, selling for $270,000, while Rojas’ and Smith’s home runs from Game 7 of the World Series sold for $156,000 and $168,000 respectively. Both Game 7 balls were caught by a father-son duo.
Sonja Chen of MLB.com shares her list for the 10 greatest moments in Dodgers history. Some recent events such as Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in the 2024 World Series and Clayton Kershaw’s 3000th strikeout managed to make the cut, but nothing could top Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947.
