Dodgers fans Aiden Mashaka and his dad, Akida Mashaka.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
How long have you been a Dodgers fan?
Akida: What are you talking about? Kirk Gibson! I’m Tommy Lasorda, baby!
How much did you pay for your ticket?
Akida: $900. We bought our tickets from a third party. I’ve been asking my brother-in-law how much I owe him, but he’s such an amazing human being. He’s like “Don’t worry. I got this!”
Was it worth it?
Akida: Of course it’s worth it. We’re seeing the Dodgers World Series. The flight costs more than $900. If you have it, it’s worth it. If you don’t have it, it’s not worth it — you can watch it on TV. If I was still in school, I would be watching on TV. But I am a 53-year-old man, after many years of life, so I can spend $900 to watch the Dodgers.
Aiden: This is maybe my second or third game that I’ve been to for the Dodgers. Being at the World Series, like the grand finale, I feel like it’s a great time to be here. I’m really proud of my dad, my auntie and my uncle for bringing me here. I want to thank them.
What began as banter between fans during a contentious playoff game took a darker turn when a woman threatened to call ICE on a Southern California man during Tuesday’s National League Championship game between the Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers.
The exchange began when Dodgers fan Ricardo Fosado trash-talked nearby Brewers fans moments after third baseman Max Muncy clobbered a solo home run in the top of the sixth inning to give visiting Los Angeles a 3-1 lead.
One fan, identified by Milwaukee media as an attorney named Shannon Kobylarczyk, responded by threatening to call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Fosado.
“You know what?” she asked a nearby fan. “Let’s call ICE.”
“ICE is not going to do anything to me,” said Fosado, who noted he was a war veteran and a U.S. citizen. “Good luck.”
On the video, the woman then uses a derogatory term to question Fosado’s masculinity, remarking, “real men drink beer.” Fosado was instead enjoying a fruity alcoholic beverage.
Fosado then told Kobylarczyk one last time to call ICE before calling her an idiot, punctuating the remark with an expletive.
An email to Fosado was not immediately returned Thursday.
Fosado told Milwaukee television station WISN 12 News that the incident “just shows the level where a person’s heart is and how she really feels as a human being.”
The station also confirmed that Kobylarczyk’s employment with the Milwaukee-based staffing firm Manpower had ended.
Kobylarczyk also reportedly stepped down from the board of Wisconsin’s Make-a-Wish chapter.
Fosado did not escape unscathed, however. He said he and a friend were ejected from the game shortly after the exchange.
The Dodgers ended up winning the game 5-1 and led the best-of-seven series, 2-0. The series now shifts to Dodger Stadium, with the first pitch of Game 3 is scheduled for 3:08 p.m. Thursday.
The Dodgers are not the norm in baseball. For the majority of teams in the major leagues, the last week of the regular season is the last week until spring training.
As the Angels played out their final week, the Angel Stadium store featured a “Thank You Fans” sale, with up to 50% off caps, T-shirts, polo shirts, jackets, even authentic Mike Trout jerseys.
Inside the clubhouse, the reminders for players had the feel of the final week of school: return your team-issued iPad; order your gloves for next season; take your exit physical.
As the Dodgers play out their final week of the regular season, on the road, the Dodger Stadium store is stocking up on blue “October Baseball” T-shirts, the same ones the players wore last week, when they clinched a postseason spot.
On Thursday, the Dodgers clinched the National League West, again. On Tuesday, the Dodgers will make their 13th consecutive postseason appearance, one shy of the major league record. Only once in those 13 seasons did the Dodgers fail to win the NL West: in 2021, when they won 106 games and the San Francisco Giants won 107.
For the Angels and their decorated closer, and for 17 other teams, Tuesday will be the second day of the offseason. That is the norm in baseball, at least outside Chavez Ravine, the Bronx, and recently Milwaukee.
Kenley Jansen played October baseball for the Dodgers from 2013-21, and for the Atlanta Braves in 2022.
In 2023, the first time in 11 years Jansen did not appear in the postseason, his family alerted him that the Dodgers’ playoff opener was on television, with good friend Clayton Kershaw pitching.
Jansen had no interest in watching.
“I’m like, guys, I’m not on the Dodgers anymore,’ ” he said this week at Angel Stadium.
He wanted to be around his family. His friends and family members wanted to be around him, which they assumed meant around baseball.
“I get it,” he said. “I still feel like I’m going to get those calls: Did you watch that game?”
He appreciates how difficult it is to get to the playoffs. In his first two full seasons, the Dodgers vs. the rest of the league at Dodger Stadium was a sideshow to the main event: Frank McCourt vs. Major League Baseball in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.
“We went from the bankrupt Dodgers to getting into the playoffs every year,” Jansen said. “I think it was the core group, the leadership that we had, plus the front office and the ownership wanting to win a championship every year. They make it competitive.
“They’ve got to keep that train going.”
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, center, celebrates with teammates in the locker room after the Dodgers defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday to clinch the NL West division title.
(Darryl Webb / Associated Press)
In Anaheim, for the first time in 50 years, the Angels are bound for a second consecutive last-place finish. Their last postseason appearance: 11 years ago. Their last winning record: 10 years ago.
This playoff drought included the stretch in which Trout and Shohei Ohtani played together. The Dodgers are more — much more — than Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
“For me, on the other side now, I see how hard it is to get in the playoffs,” Jansen said. “It’s not easy. You’ve got to have depth — not only here in the big leagues, but depth in the system — to give yourself a chance to win the division.”
Jansen has a 2.64 ERA this season, and he has converted 28 of 29 save opportunities. He hasn’t given up a hit in more than a month.
But the Angels didn’t sell at the trade deadline, declaring they were in serious contention without buying any serious upgrades.
Dodgers fans should take it from Jansen: Don’t take this golden era for granted. Take a few days to appreciate it. On Wednesday, Jansen said, he’ll start his offseason workouts.
On Tuesday, the Dodgers will start the playoffs, trying to become baseball’s first back-to-back champions in 25 years. The percentages are not in their favor: As of Thursday, Baseball Prospectus gives the Dodgers a 9.6% chance to win the World Series, a smaller chance than the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Seattle Mariners.
The Angels have been so bad for so long that a division championship would be cause for great celebration. The Dodgers have been so good for so long that nothing but a World Series championship would suffice.
And so, on Tuesday, the days of gratitude can end, and Dodgers fans can resume reflexively criticizing their manager and grimacing about whether they can trust anyone in their bullpen.
Clayton Kershaw blew a kiss to his family, pounded a fist in his glove, then made the familiar trot from the Dodgers’ dugout to the Chavez Ravine mound.
This time, however, he did it alone.
In what was his final regular-season start at Dodger Stadium, coming one day after he announced that he would retire at the end of this year, Kershaw took the field while the rest of his teammates stayed back and applauded.
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On a night of appreciation for his 18-year career, the moment belonged to him — and an adoring fan base that has watched his every step.
The first time Kershaw ever pitched at Dodger Stadium, he was a much-hyped and highly anticipated 20-year-old prospect. His talent immense. His Hall of Fame future in front of him.
When he did it for potentially the last time on Friday night, he was a much-beloved and long-admired 37-year-old veteran. Hardened by the failures that once defined his baseball mortality. Celebrated for the way he had learned to overcome them.
Few athletes in modern sport play for one team, for so long. Fewer still experience the emotional extremes Kershaw was put through, or manage still to weather the storm.
“It hasn’t been a smooth ride,” he said. “We’ve had our ups and downs for sure.”
Between boundless cheers and intermittent boos, historic milestones and horrifying heartbreaks, triumphant summers and torturous falls.
In regular-season play, baseball has maybe never seen a more accomplished pitcher. Kershaw’s 2.54 ERA is the lowest in the live-ball era among those with 100 starts. He is one of the 20 members of MLB’s 3,000 strikeout club. He is one of four pitchers to win three Cy Youngs and an MVP award.
In October, however, no one’s history has been more checkered. There were implosions against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013 and 2014. The infamous fifth game of the 2017 World Series against the sign-stealing Houston Astros. The nightmare relief appearance in 2019 against the Washington Nationals. Nine trips to the playoffs in his first 11 seasons, without winning a championship once.
In those days, it made Kershaw’s relationship complicated with Dodger Nation. He was heroic until he wasn’t. Clutch until the autumn. It didn’t matter that he was often pitching on short rest, or through injuries and strenuous workloads, or in situations no other pitcher would have ever been tasked. He was the embodiment of the Dodgers’ repeated postseason failings. The face of a franchise that could never clear the final hurdle.
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1.Clayton Kershaw reacts after getting San Francisco’s Jerar Encarnacion to hit into a double play in the third inning Friday night at Dodger Stadium.2.Kershaw acknowledges the cheers from the Dodger Stadium crowd after exiting the game in the fifth inning.3.Kershaw acknowledges the crowd after leaving the game in the fifth inning.4.Kershaw is congratulated by his teammates as he exits the game.5.Kershaw is embraced by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts as he leaves the game in the fifth inning.(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s almost like a relationship, right?” Kershaw said. “You’ve been in it 18 years with them. There’s some great times, and then there’s some times where you probably want to break up for a minute.”
In his case, though, that’s how such an enduring bond was built.
He persevered through such struggles. He kept coming back every season. He finally got over the hump with World Series titles in 2020 and 2024. He never shied away from even his darkest moments.
“With that responsibility as the ace, you’ve got to take on a lot of scrutiny or potential failures,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Everything wasn’t optimal for him. But he never complained about it. Never made an excuse for it.
“I think the fans, certainly at his highest moments, have shown their love for him and support. In those other times, I think it’s just, the fans have been hurting along with him. Wanting so much for a guy that’s been such a stalwart and a great citizen and person for this city and organization.”
“I think the respect, the universal respect, is certainly warranted 10 times over.”
The left-hander threw 4⅓ innings of two-run ball, striking out six batters on four hits and four walks, but it wasn’t his stats that mattered. He struggled with his command, averaged only 89 mph with his fastball, and left the mound with the Dodgers trailing, but the memories from this night will go far beyond that.
From the moment Kershaw emerged on the field at 6:23 p.m., fans rose to their feet. They cheered and chanted his pregame routine in the outfield and bullpen. They roared when his name was introduced shortly before first pitch.
They knew this could be his Dodger Stadium send-off, a sentimental opportunity to say thank you for all he accomplished and all he endured.
Kershaw felt a swirl of emotions, as well, sitting teary-eyed in the outfield while taking in the scene before the game began.
“You’re trying to focus on the night and getting outs, but it’s a special day,” Kershaw said. “It’s the last time here, potentially, and this place has meant so much to me for so long. I didn’t want to not think about it.”
At the start of the first inning, his teammates made sure he wouldn’t. As Kershaw headed to the mound, the Dodgers’ fielders made an impromptu decision to stay back and let him be serenaded with an extended ovation.
“I didn’t love it,” Kershaw joked. “But it was a great gesture.”
And as he stood on the mound alone, he smiled and waved at a moment 18 years in the making.
“This is one of those moments where Dodger fans, you all have seen him for 18 years and watched his career grow and everything that he’s gone through,” Roberts said. “People are going to back and go, ‘I was there for the last time he started a home game at Dodger Stadium.’”
From there, the night was surprisingly tense.
Kershaw gave up a home run on the third pitch of the game to Heliot Ramos. He spent the next four innings battling traffic, stranding two runners later in the first, another two in the second, and two more in the third after a Wilmer Flores RBI single.
By the fourth, it was clear Kershaw was not long for the evening. His pitch count was rising. The bullpen was active. And with two outs in the inning, Willy Adames was extending a two-strike at-bat.
On the ninth pitch of that battle, however, Kershaw finally got a whiff on a slider. For the first time since the first inning, Dodger Stadium erupted once again.
Watch Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw’s full start against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
Kershaw returned to the mound in the fifth, and struck out Rafael Devers with a fastball at the knees.
With that, his night was over, along with maybe his Dodger Stadium career.
“I feel like the moments that we have right there in front of us, it’s history,” second baseman Miguel Rojas said.
“You had to just kind of be there to really feel the emotions,” shortstop Mookie Betts added.
In the stands, applause echoed through a sell-out crowd of 53,037 — which included former teammates Austin Barnes, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, Trayce Thompson and AJ Pollock; as well as other Los Angeles sports icons from Magic Johnson to Matthew Stafford (a childhood friend of Kershaw’s from Texas).
After receiving hugs from his infield, and embracing Roberts with an apology (“I’m sorry I pitched so poorly tonight”) and a request (“Not trying to be disrespectful, but I’m keeping this ball”), the pitcher then made the slow walk back from the rubber.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw makes a hugging gesture as he walks off the mound to a standing ovation at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
He took a deep breath. He gave a hugging motion to his family sitting in the loge level. He donned his cap, and repeatedly said thank you to a crowd that never ceased to cheer.
“It hasn’t always been a smooth ride, but you guys have stuck with me,” Kershaw, who also re-emerged from the dugout for a raucous curtain call, reiterated in a postgame on-field interview.
“Dodger Stadium is a super special place, and the fans are the main reason why,” he added in his postgame news conference with reporters. “They continue to come out and support us. Every night, it’s 50,000 people. I wish I had better words other than I’m just so honored and thankful to hear those ovations. I’ll never take that for granted.”
Now, one more October awaits — with the Dodgers (87-67) officially clinching a postseason berth Friday after roaring to the lead on back-to-back home runs from Shohei Ohtani and Betts in the bottom half of the fifth.
Kershaw’s role in this last title chase is uncertain. With a loaded rotation, but shaky relief corps, the Dodgers’ best use for him could come out of the bullpen. Roberts said he envisions Kershaw fitting somewhere on the playoff roster. Kershaw said he can “do the math” and is prepared “to do whatever I can to help.”
Either way, his legacy with the Dodgers, and its forever indebted fan base, had already long before been graciously cemented.
“I’m kind of mentally exhausted today, honestly, but it’s the best feeling in the world now,” Kershaw said. “We got a win, we clinched a playoff berth, and I got to stand on that mound one last time. I just can’t be more grateful.”
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Parking at Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres, is a distinctly different experience than parking at Dodger Stadium.
It’s about to be similar, however, when it comes to price.
City crews installed about 400 signs in downtown San Diego last week to let drivers know about new street parking-meter rates taking effect Sept. 1, calling it a special event zone. The hourly rate will increase from $2.50 to $10 starting two hours before games or concerts at the stadium, and will remain at that rate for six hours.
Getting to the stadium an hour before a three-hour game and perhaps enjoying a drink or meal at one of the establishments in the Gaslamp Quarter a short walk from the stadium can lift the cost of parking from $15 to $60.
And it could get worse. The variable parking rate policy change that the San Diego City Council approved in June allows the city to charge as much as $20 an hour, but officials are starting with $10.
The Padres were taken by surprise by the city’s action and objected to the increase, complaining that it was implemented without significant input from the team.
“We look forward to better understanding the city’s plan,” Padres spokesperson Vanessa Dominguez said.
Watching the kerfuffle must be amusing for Dodgers officials, who long have taken it on the chin for seemingly exorbitant parking fees and an enormous, barren parking lot that has all the charm of, well, an enormous, barren parking lot.
Parking at Chavez Ravine is not nearly as fun as at Petco Park, where the dozens of nearby restaurants, bars, shops and music venues make it akin to attending a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field.
General admission parking at Dodger Stadium is $35 if prepaid and $40 at the gate, but it’s a long hike to the seats. Preferred parking — translation: a shorter walk — is $60, the same as the six-hour meter charge will be at Petco.
Dodgers fans have their complaints about parking — primarily a postgame snarl to get out of the Stadium that makes navigating the 405 seem like a breeze — and drama too often colors the experience.
A tailgating ban is enforced so diligently that fans can’t even enjoy an El Ruso taco leaning over the trunk of their car without being scolded by a security officer. Safety is difficult to ensure as well: Fans have been beaten senseless walking to or from their cars.
And through no fault of the Dodgers, a procession of vehicles identified as federal agents attempted to enter the stadium on June 19, a day immigration raids capped two weeks of roundups by arresting “30 illegal aliens in Hollywood … and nine illegal aliens in San Fernando and Pacoima,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
Federal officials said the gathering of vehicles was to conduct a briefing, and the Dodgers denied the vehicles entry into the stadium.
Parking near Petco Park is relatively safe, with well-lit lots and streets part of the fabric of a neighborhood packed with revelers. And Padres fans don’t require a metered street spot to park. The team runs several lots a few blocks from the stadium where parking can be reserved ahead of time. Rates range from $10 to $40.
The quadrupled special-event metered rate changes near Petco were included in a sweeping package of new parking rules throughout San Diego designed to increase revenue.
No more free parking on Sundays. Soon, no more free parking at the San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park and Mission Bay Park. Free beach parking will be a perk of the past.
The city doubled meter rates to $2.50 an hour in most places. And meter hours around the city will be extended by at least two hours later this summer. The increase is expected to bring in about $4 million through the remainder of the fiscal year, and at least $9.6 million annually starting next fiscal year, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.
“This city is a playground for folks,” San Diego Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said at a recent meeting. “It is really important to me that San Diegans not be subsidizing the vacations of tourists who have the financial capability of coming here and enjoying this city.”
Most Padres fans are San Diego-area residents, although when the Dodgers visit the city to their south the crowd is noticeably peppered with folks wearing Dodgers gear. As the rivalry between the teams has grown in recent years, Petco has become a favorite destination for Dodgers fans.
Groups like Pantone 294 — the Dodgers official blue-tone color is listed as Pantone 294 — organize “takeovers,” with hundreds of Dodgers fans purchasing tickets in the same section of an opposing ballpark. For the short trip to San Diego, fans can join others on tour buses or drive their own cars.
When it comes to parking those cars, fees will have risen. Savvy fans who don’t mind taking the time can reduce the cost by parking near a San Diego trolley or MTS bus station: The fare remains $2.50.
