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From Jack Harris: The last time Teoscar Hernández gazed out at the crowd at Dodger Stadium, the veteran outfielder almost broke down crying.
“I just want to say thank you,” Hernández said during the Dodgers’ World Series celebration at Chavez Ravine last Friday, having played a crucial role in the club’s first full-season championship since 1988.
Hernández then stopped, getting choked up with emotion. Before him, more than 40,000 fans began roaring in appreciation.
“I play this game to win,” Hernández continued, the serenading from the stands amplifying with every word. “And the Dodgers gave me the opportunity to come here, so I could help this organization, this team, these people, this city, win a championship. You guys made this dream come true. Thank you for making me a world champion.”
If not for Hernández, the Dodgers might not have had a championship to celebrate.
After signing a one-year, $23.5-million contract last offseason, he became one of the most important pieces in the Dodgers’ indomitable lineup, racking up 33 home runs and 99 RBIs in the regular season, plus a number of key hits — including his score-tying, two-run double in Game 5 of the World Series — during their postseason run to a title.
A week later, Hernández is back on the free-agent market, where he will be a more coveted commodity than last winter following his resurgent performance. And as the Dodgers evaluate their plans for this winter, whether or not they retain him could be a key determinant to the entire offseason.
Shohei Ohtani’s labrum surgery could delay return to pitching but shouldn’t impact swing
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LAKERS
From Dan Woike: The Lakers assigned rookie guard Bronny James to their South Bay Lakers affiliate Thursday, clearing the way for the 20-year-old to make his NBA G League debut Saturday night in El Segundo.
James, the son of Lakers’ star LeBron James, appeared in four games with the Lakers, including a moment on the floor together with his father in the season opener. On the Lakers’ recent trip, Bronny scored his first NBA points to a huge ovation in Cleveland.
Players under contract can move freely between the Lakers and G League.
“The plan for Bronny to move between the Lakers roster and the South Bay roster, that’s always been the plan since Day 1,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said earlier this season. “Rob [Pelinka, general manager] and I have talked about that. LeBron’s talked about that.”
USC BASKETBALL
Josh Cohen had 19 points and Saint Thomas hit a late three-pointer to help USC hold off Idaho State 75-69 on Thursday night at Galen Center.
Dylan Darling made both ends of a one-and-one following his layup to give Idaho State a 58-57 lead with 8:45 left to play. USC (2-0) moved back ahead by three, but Evan Otten hit one of two free throws and followed with a dunk to tie the game at 63 with 4:02 remaining.
Clark Slajchert made two of three free throws after being fouled on a three-point attempt and Cohen hit a jumper following a Bengals turnover to give the Trojans a 68-65 lead with 2:25 left. Idaho State (0-2) turned a missed three-pointer by Slajchert into a fastbreak layup by Jake O’Neil to get within a point.
From Ryan Kartje: The competition was close. Closer than anyone expected it to be in late August, at least. Close enough that Jayden Maiava, the insurgent transfer from Nevada Las Vegas, believed at the time that he’d done enough to be named USC’s starting quarterback.
The job ultimately went to Miller Moss, the redshirt junior whose six-score coronation had come months earlier at the Holiday Bowl. Maiava had understood in that case the uphill battle he faced in coming to L.A. But the decision, while no surprise to the public, was no less disappointing to Maiava.
He was competitive. He thought he’d made the best of his reps. Now there was no way of knowing when they’d come again.
“Most backups at that moment would get frustrated with the process,” said Ryan Porter, Maiava’s quarterbacks coach. “They wouldn’t be as dedicated or proactive. They lose focus.”
But nearly three months later, Porter looks back on that lost quarterback competition as if it’s the best thing that could have happened to Maiava, who this week was named the Trojans’ new starter.
From Ben Bolch: DeShaun Foster notched his first coaching and road wins simultaneously, UCLA surviving the heat and a special teams meltdown to beat Hawaii.
His first winning streak came courtesy of back-to-back triumphs over Rutgers and Nebraska as part of a brutal travel schedule in which the Bruins will log an estimated 22,048 miles.
One first that would involve only a short bus ride has maddeningly eluded him. The Bruins have not won a game at the stadium their coach has called home for more than a quarter of a century, going 0-3 this season.
They will try again Friday night, the Bruins (3-5 overall, 2-4 Big Ten) facing Iowa (6-3, 4-2) at the Rose Bowl while wearing throwback uniforms in a game they hope has a historic feel. The last time these teams met was in the 1986 Rose Bowl, UCLA’s 45-28 victory marking its most recent triumph in the bowl game held on home turf.
Here are five things to watch in a game set for a 6 p.m. PST kickoff that will be televised by Fox:
UCLA BASKETBALL
From Ben Bolch: Having revealed his small-ball starting lineup, UCLA basketball coach Mick Cronin soon will have a decision to make when he wants to go big.
Does he go with the biggest guy on the team in Aday Mara, a 7-foot-3 sophomore whose intense offseason training should prevent all the huffing he did as a freshman?
Or does he opt for William Kyle III, a 6-foot-9 junior transfer who is trying to take a giant step up in competition after spending the last two seasons at South Dakota State?
That choice could come as soon as Friday evening when the Bruins face an opponent that started three players 6-foot-9 or taller.
“I would anticipate us needing to play bigger against high-major teams like New Mexico,” Cronin said Thursday, referencing the game between the No. 22 Bruins (1-0) and Lobos (1-0) in the Las Vegas Hoopfest at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nev.
KINGS
Quinn Hughes had a goal and an assist, and the Vancouver Canucks overcame the loss of top scorer Brock Boeser to beat the Kings 4-2 on Thursday night.
Boeser, who scored a career-high 40 goals last season and leads Vancouver with six goals this year, did not return after taking an illegal check to the head from Kings forward Tanner Jeannot.
Conor Garland scored on the subsequent five-minute power play after Jeannot received a match penalty, tying the score 1-1. Jake DeBrusk and J.T. Miller also scored, and Kevin Lankinen made 25 saves.
Quinton Byfield and Vladislav Gavrikov scored for Kings, and Darcy Kuemper finished with 19 saves.
Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson also left the game because of injury. He was cut badly after taking Filip Hronek’s shot to the face late in the second period.
LAFC
From Kevin Baxter: Vanni Sartini, the Italian-born manager of the Vancouver Whitecaps, is both a socialist and an atheist, two attributes that are oddly relevant in his team’s MLS playoff game with LAFC on Friday at BMO Stadium.
As a socialist, Sartini believes in cooperative effort, and he’s tried to mold his blue-collar team to reflect that.
“My motto is ‘The team is the leader,’” he said. “The thing that we try to do on the field collectively is much more important that what we do individually.
“Everyone according to their abilities to everyone according to their needs. That’s what we try to do.”
If Karl Marx has had a bigger influence on Sartini’s career than Pep Guardiola, that’s OK. It seems to be working out pretty well so far.
The Whitecaps had just one winning record in five years and were mired in a franchise-long three-season playoff drought when Sartini took over from Marc Dos Santos, now an LAFC assistant, late in the 2021 season. In his first job as an MLS manager Sartini, who turns 48 next week, won the last three Canadian Championships and made it to the postseason three times. A win Friday would put the Whitecaps in the Western Conference semifinals for the first time since 2017.
ANGELS
The Angels and right-handed starter Kyle Hendricks finalized a $2.5-million, one-year contract Thursday.
Hendricks had spent his entire big league career with the Chicago Cubs. He is 97-81 with a 3.68 ERA in 270 starts and six relief appearances over 11 seasons.
He was the last Cubs player remaining from their 2016 World Series champions, who won the team’s first title since 1908.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1942 — Parker Hall of the Cleveland Rams throws seven interceptions against the Green Bay Packers.
1952 — Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens becomes the NHL’s leading career goal scorer with his 325th in a 6-4 victory over the Chicago Black Hawks.
1959 — Elgin Baylor of the Minneapolis Lakers scores 64 points against the Boston Celtics.
1970 — Tom Dempsey of New Orleans kicks an NFL-record 63-yard field goal on the final play of the game to give the Saints a 19-17 victory over the Detroit Lions.
1980 — Dave Wilson of Illinois sets an NCAA record with 621 yards passing in a 49-42 victory over Ohio State.
1981 — Don Shula records his 200th NFL victory when the Miami Dolphins edge the New England Patriots 30-27 in overtime.
1986 — Tulsa’s Steve Gage is the first quarterback to rush and pass for 200 yards in a game. Gage rushes for 212 and passes for 209 in a 34-27 triumph over New Mexico.
1987 — The St. Louis Cardinals score 28 points — three TD passes by Neil Lomax and a fumble recovery by Niko Noga — to overcome a 28-3 deficit and beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-28.
1997 — Phil Housley becomes the second U.S.-born player in NHL history to score 1,000 points, tallying an assist as the Washington Capitals beat the Edmonton Oilers 2-1.
2003 — John Gagliardi becomes college football’s career victory leader when St. John’s rallies to beat Bethel 29-26. Gagliardi, in his 55th season and his 51st at the Minnesota school, gets his 409th victory, passing Eddie Robinson, who retired in 1997 after winning 408 games at Grambling.
2005 — Pierre Turgeon becomes the 34th player in NHL history to reach 500 goals, scoring in the third period of Colorado’s 5-2 win over San Jose.
2009 — Indianapolis becomes the fourth team in league history with 17 consecutive regular-season wins with a 20-17 victory over Houston. New England did it twice — winning a record 21 straight from 2006-08 and 18 in a row from 2003-04. Chicago won 17 straight from 1933-34.
2014 — Northern Iowa keeps three-time defending FCS champion North Dakota State out of the end zone and hands the Bison their first loss, 23-3. The loss snaps North Dakota State’s 33-game winning streak, the longest in Football Championship Subdivision history.
2017 — Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa breaks the world record for surfing the biggest-ever wave at 80 feet at Nazara, Portugal.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.