helped

“Wow!”

The performance needed no evaluation beyond the exclamation. Kurt Suzuki bounded out of the visiting clubhouse at Angel Stadium to catch up with his friend.

In 2009, in the first start of his first full major league season, the Angels’ pitcher threw six shutout innings against Suzuki and the Oakland Athletics. On Team USA, Suzuki had been his catcher.

Suzuki congratulated the pitcher, shared the exclamation and — because this is what friends do — gave him a hard time.

Before the sun rose, Nick Adenhart was dead. He was 22.

“I woke up the next morning to 10 text messages you don’t want to hear,” Suzuki said.

A drunk driver had blown through a red light and into a minivan full of friends. He killed three of them, including Adenhart. One survived: Jon Wilhite, who played baseball at Cal State Fullerton with Suzuki.

Sixteen years later, a forever bond endures between Wilhite and Suzuki. When the Angels introduced Suzuki as their new manager last month, Wilhite was in the audience.

Their friendship is compelling. Their story is poignant. We’ll get to it, but first Suzuki ribs Wilhite for wearing long pants on a sunny autumn day in Manhattan Beach. Suzuki is wearing shorts and flip-flops.

“We’re by the beach, dude,” Suzuki laughs.

Suzuki eggs on Wilhite: Tell the story about the white suit.

In 2004, Fullerton won the College World Series, with Suzuki as the All-America catcher and Wilhite as a redshirt catcher. In 2005, the Titans visited the White House.

“I didn’t own a suit,” Wilhite said. “I went to the Men’s Wearhouse in Hawthorne, just by myself, and this guy sold me on a white suit.”

New Angels manager Kurt Suzuki, left, and general manager Perry Minasian speak to reporters at Angel Stadium last month. Jon Wilhite was in the audience.

(Greg Beacham / Associated Press)

On the day of the White House visit, his teammates thought the white suit was a joke. Dear reader, it was not.

Wilhite stood in line with his teammates, waiting to meet President George W. Bush. As the president shook Wilhite’s hand, he took a look at the suit and deadpanned: “Bold move, son.”

Fullerton has won four College World Series championships, more than any other school besides USC, Louisiana State, Texas and Arizona State — elite by any standard, but frankly amazing given the Titans’ status as a financially challenged athletic program at a commuter school. The players believed in themselves, because they could not count on anyone else to believe in them.

“It was like a brotherhood,” Suzuki said.

That drunk driver very nearly killed Wilhite, too. You can get chills just by saying out loud the medical term for what happened to him: internal decapitation.

UC Irvine surgeons put his skull back atop his spine. At the time, UCI reported, only four other people were known to have recovered from that injury.

Wilhite was in the hospital for weeks, in rehabilitation for months. Suzuki, then in his second full major league season, raised more than $50,000 for Wilhite’s recovery fund by tapping veterans for baseball memorabilia that could be sold or auctioned.

“Luckily, with the money raised, I was able to take a year and get myself physically as good as I could be,” Wilhite said, “before I went back to work.”

That money was not the most valuable contribution Suzuki made toward Wilhite’s healing.

When Wilhite finished his rehabilitation program, Suzuki was back in Southern California, in the midst of offseason workouts.

Hey, he told Wilhite, come work out with me.

“This is a guy that’s a professional athlete getting ready for his next year,” Wilhite said, “and I was struggling to walk.

“I showed up every single day, and I got stronger. That’s when I really made strides. I wasn’t just a patient. I felt like an athlete again.”

Even in those worst of times, Suzuki was not above ribbing Wilhite. For both of them, it felt, well, normal.

“He was still getting his balance back,” Suzuki said. “I’m like, come on dude, don’t go falling on me or everybody’s going to be looking at us!”

Suzuki could have made a modest donation to Wilhite’s recovery fund. That would have been a lovely gesture.

Angels manager Kurt Suzuki, left, and Jon Wilhite were teammates at Cal State Fullerton. “Would you just write your family member a check? No, you’re going to be there for him,” Suzuki said of how he’s supported Wilhite since the accident.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

For Suzuki, that would not have been enough. The Titans were family, and to this day he remembers that Wilhite’s father attended practice just about every day, sitting in the front row, wearing that trademark white bucket hat.

“Would you just write your family member a check?” Suzuki said. “No, you’re going to be there for him.”

The Angels honor their best pitcher each year with the Nick Adenhart Award. Suzuki can present it now, and share his memories of Adenhart. Perhaps Wilhite could join Suzuki.

If he were to do that, he would want to make sure to share his memories of the other victims, too: Courtney Stewart, 20, a Fullerton classmate he described as smart, fun, and not at all scared to tease her ballplayer friends about their play; and Henry Pearson, 25, a law student and aspiring sports agent who Wilhite said never took a moment for granted.

We met at Marine Park in Manhattan Beach, where Pearson and Wilhite played youth baseball, and where a memorial reads: “On April 9, 2009, Henry Pearson, Courtney Stewart and Nick Adenhart were killed by a drunk driver. Jon Wilhite miraculously survived and recovered. They remain an inspiration to us all.”

Some days more than others, Wilhite feels the miracle of survival, of prayer, of modern medicine. I asked him how he explains what happened to people who don’t already know.

“I usually don’t like to drop that bomb on people,” he said. “I usually try to be vague.”

He knows he is the lucky one. He tries to remember that every day, but his mind never drifts far from the others.

“Three of the best people I know lost their life for a senseless act,” he said, “people with such promise.”

Thanksgiving is upon us, so I asked Wilhite if anything came out of this horrific tragedy for which he can be thankful.

He paused. The grief might never fully pass. He was not about to force an answer.

But, after a minute or so, he talked of the relationships he had built with the families of Adenhart, Pearson and Stewart, and the baseball community that supported him, and the close friends who stepped up to help him in his time of need.

“Like Kurt,” he said.

In early November, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election in a landslide, a victory that sent shockwaves across United States politics and galvanised the country’s political left.

It was a dramatic turnaround for a campaign that – less than a year earlier – had been polling at 1 percent support.

Among those who were most surprised was Zohran’s own father, Mahmood Mamdani.

“He surprised me and his mother,” Mahmood told Al Jazeera Mushaber reporter Allaa Azzam in an interview this week. “We wouldn’t expect him to become mayor of New York City. We never thought about it.”

But Mahmood, an anthropology professor and postcolonial scholar at Columbia University, framed his son’s electoral success as evidence of a shifting political landscape.

Zohran, for instance, campaigned heavily on questions of affordability and refused to back away from his criticisms of Israel’s abuses against Palestinians, long considered a taboo subject in US politics.

He is the first Muslim person to become mayor of the country’s largest city by population, as well as its first mayor of South Asian descent.

“There were certain things that were near and dear to him,” Mahmood explained. “Social justice was one of them. The rights of Palestinians was another.”

“These two issues he has stuck by. He’s not been willing to trade them, to compromise them, to minimise them.”

Inside the Mamdani family

The son of Mahmood and Indian American director Mira Nair, Zohran first emerged as the frontrunner in the mayoral race in June, when his dark-horse campaign dominated the Democratic Party primary.

He earned 56 percent of the final tally, besting former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

When Cuomo ran as an independent in the November 4 election, Zohran once again beat him by a wide margin, with more than 50 percent of the vote to Cuomo’s 41 percent.

Mahmood told Al Jazeera that, while his son’s sudden political ascent came as a surprise, his resilience did not.

“It didn’t surprise us, with his grit and determination,” he said of the election. “I don’t think he joined the race thinking that he was going to win it. I think he joined the race wanting to make a point.”

He traced back some of Zohran’s electoral finesse to his upbringing. Zohran, Mahmood explained, was not raised in a typical US nuclear family but instead shared his home with three generations of family members.

Living with a diverse age range allowed Zohran to expand his understanding and build his people skills, according to Mahmood.

“He grew up with love and patience. He learned to be very patient with people who are slower, people who were not necessarily what his generation was,” Mahmood said.

“He was very different from the American kids around here who hardly ever see their grandparents.”

A ‘mood of change’

Mahmood also credited his son’s victory to a shifting political landscape, one where voters are fed up with the status quo.

“There’s a mood of change. The young voted like they never voted before,” Mahmood said.

“Sections of the population which had been completely thrown into the sidelines – Muslims, recent immigrants whether Muslim or not – he gave them enormous confidence. They came out and they voted. They mobilised.”

Local media outlets in New York reported that turnout for November’s mayoral race was the highest in more than 50 years. More than two million voters cast a ballot in the closely watched race.

Mahmood cast his son’s upcoming tenure as mayor as a test of whether that voter faith would be rewarded.

“America is marked by low levels of electoral participation, and they’ve always claimed that this is because most people are satisfied with the system,” Mahmood said.

“But now the levels of political participation are increasing. And most people, it’s not just that they are not satisfied, but they no longer believe – or they begin to believe that maybe the electoral system is a way to change things. Zohran’s mayoral term will tell us whether it is or it is not.”

Mahmood was frank that his son faces an uphill battle as mayor. He described politics as a sphere dominated by the influence of moneyed powers.

“ I am not sure he knows that world well,” Mahmood said of his son. “He’s a fast learner, and he will learn it.”

He noted that significant resources were mobilised during the mayoral election to blunt Zohran’s campaign.

“ He’s taking on powerful forces. He’s being opposed by powerful forces. They failed during the campaign,” Mahmood said. That defeat, he added, “exposed the failure of money” as a defining force in the race.

A focus on Palestine

Mahmood also addressed the role of Zohran’s advocacy on the campaign trail.

Though faced with criticism from his mayoral rivals, Mamdani has refused to retreat from his stance that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide.

That position, though widely affirmed by rights groups and experts, including at the United Nations, is relatively rare in mainstream US politics, where opposition to Israel is a political third rail.

Still, voters appear to be shifting on the question of US support for Israel.

A March poll from the Pew Research Center found that the percentage of US respondents with an unfavourable view of Israel has increased from 42 percent in 2022 to 53 percent in 2025.

While unfavourable views were most pronounced among Democratic voters, they have also increased among conservatives, especially those under the age of 50.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 69,500 Palestinians since its start in October 2023, and there has been continued outrage over widespread Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank as well.

Mahmood said the undeniable human rights abuses are causing a shift in public perception – and not just in the US.

“The real consequence of Gaza is not limited to Gaza. It is global,” said Mahmood. “Gaza has brought us a new phase in world history.”

“There will never be a return to a period when the world believes that what Israel is doing is defending itself.”

How do you find inspiration? Say you’re doing your holiday shopping and you’re struggling to find the perfect gift for that difficult person on your list — parent, partner, paramour. How do you let your mind drift to a place where the clouds part and you achieve a sort of awakening?

To be honest, I don’t always get there. But caffeine is usually a good place to start.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter, back in your inbox for the next few months as we sail through the atmospheric river of awards season. Climb aboard.

Cover story: The best six minutes in movies this year

(Bexx Francois / For The Times)

You might remember how much I love “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler’s audacious, genre-defying blockbuster that explores the intrinsic power of American blues music and Black life in the Jim Crow South within the context of a vampire horror movie.

So I was thrilled to talk with Coogler and his longtime department heads — a movie family that includes Oscar winners who have been with him since his 2013 debut, “Fruitvale Station” — for The Envelope’s first cover story of the season. There were a dozen different ways I could have gone with the piece, but our conversations kept coming back to the scene in the juke joint when young Sammie (Miles Caton) conjures spirits from the past and future onto the dance floor.

How did Coogler summon this scene? It goes back to that question I asked at the outset: How do you find inspiration?

For Coogler, “Sinners” began on Nov. 17, 2021, a date fixed in his mind because it was the day one of his favorite rappers, Young Dolph, was murdered. Coogler was devastated. And his mind drifted back to Nipsey Hussle, the L.A. rapper gunned down outside his South L.A. clothing store in 2019. Coogler was living in Los Angeles at the time, trying to get a “Space Jam” sequel off the ground.

“I felt like I had my heart ripped out, bro,” Coogler told me. “I have two younger brothers I’m really close with, and I remember reading an article in the L.A. Times about his older brother recounting what happened. It just broke me. And then I get the news that Dolph’s been killed in his hometown, and I just remember feeling, ‘I’m done with rap, man.’”

Later, Coogler spoke with his friend, “Black Panther” producer Nate Moore, lamenting that rappers who talk about their lives, beating the odds and escaping hardship, sometimes end up succumbing to the thing they thought they left behind. Moore isn’t a rap guy, but told Coogler that his favorite music, grunge, was just like that — in this case, artists addressing their struggles with depression and addiction and then, on occasion, overdosing or taking their own lives.

Toward the end of that day, Coogler was driving back from the set of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Passing through Byron, Ga., the Oakland native looked out his window and saw, for the first time in his life, a cotton field. During our interview, Coogler pulls out his phone and finds a video his sister-in-law shot of him taking it all in and picking a sprig of cotton. Coogler kept it, eventually putting it on his work desk at home.

“That was a part of finding ‘Sinners,’” Coogler says. “The other thing that happened was I started listening to grunge music, taking a break from rap. And as soon as I put the music on, I was like, ‘Yo, this feels like my uncle’s. It led me right back to his record collection.”

That uncle, James Edmonson, loved the blues. Coogler’s cousin, Edmonson’s youngest daughter, told the filmmaker about a Bill Withers’ song, “I Can’t Write Left-Handed,” written from the perspective of a Vietnam veteran. Coogler listened to it, and it reminded him of “Rooster,” the Alice in Chains song written by guitarist Jerry Cantrell for his father, who served in Vietnam.

“So I’m playing these two songs one after another, and I’m like, ‘These genres that you wouldn’t find next to each other at a Tower Records back in the day, they’re so close,’” Coogler says. “And studying the history of it, it’s people playing it different, but it’s the same idea.”

“And that’s when I realized I had to make ‘Sinners.’”

Coogler scrolls through his phone and shows a picture of the cotton sprig on his desk. He dedicated “Sinners” to his uncle, who died about a decade before it arrived in theaters.

“So many cosmic moments came together for this movie,” Coogler says. “I was always like, ‘All right. I just gotta make sure I don’t f— it up.’”

DUA Lipa helped music boost the UK economy to the tune of £8billion last year. 

The singer — whose hits include New Rules and Levitating — was one of the industry’s biggest money-makers as its contribution to the country’s coffers leapt by five per cent. 

She saw album Radical Optimism debut at No1 in the charts, while dates in Singapore, Japan and Malaysia took export revenues to a new high of £4.8billion. 

Tours from Taylor Swift, Liam Gallagher, Take That and Bruce Springsteen also drove the figures, along with Charli XCX’s global success with album Brat. 

Of the £8billion total — up from £7.6billion in 2023 — £1.49billion came from physical sales, downloads and streaming.  

A record £1.02billion was paid out in songwriting royalties while merchandise sales rose too.  

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The findings are in UK Music’s annual economic report This Is Music 2025.  

It said the industry employs 220,000 people here, but warned growth was slowing down after taking off immediately after the pandemic. 

UK Music’s Chief Executive Tom Kiehl welcomed the figures but issued warning signs amid the challenges faced by the sector. 

He said:  “In recent years UK Music has reported that the music industry has enjoyed double-digit annual growth. 

“That growth has now halved indicates a levelling off of the immediate post-pandemic boost that we experienced, as well as other underlying issues set out in this report.  

“This points to the need for urgent action. If problems are not addressed then future growth cannot be guaranteed.” 

Dua, 30, is in Argentina on tour.  

She shared a snap of her with sister Rina at River Plate’s match against rivals Boco Juniors after two gigs at the Buenos Aires stadium.   

Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy believes Jeremy Doku had “the best game he’s ever had in a Manchester City shirt” as Pep Guardiola’s side dominanted Liverpool in a 3-0 win at the Etihad Stadium.

MATCH REPORT: Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool

Available to UK users only.

DAVINA McCall has hailed Lorraine Kelly for encouraging people to “check their breasts” – after she bravely revealed her own cancer struggle.

Davina, 58, told fans she discovered a lump while “sitting on the loo” – after being urged to by posters put up by Lorraine.

The Masked Singer star shared her shock diagnosis at a Dine with Davina event yesterday, before posting an emotional video on Instagram today.

The crowd at the charity do – hosted at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton, Hampshire – gasped as she opened up on her quiet struggle.

Davina explained she made the discovery a few weeks ago, but has since had the lump removed and been given the all clear.

She will not undergo chemotherapy, but will be required to have five days of radiotherapy as a “insurance policy”.

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Davina had spotted signs in the ITV Studios encouraging people to “check their boobs”, which had been put up by Lorraine.

In the video on social media, she said: “I was working on The Masked Singer and Lorraine, the TV show.

“Lorraine Kelly had put signs on the backs of all the doors saying ‘check your breasts’ and every time I went for a wee I did that.

“It was still there, and then one morning I saw myself in the mirror and thought ‘I’m going to get that looked at’.”

Speaking on stage, she said: “I went and I got it checked. She (the doctor) was like, ‘You’re fine. You had a mammogram in August. It’ll be fine’.

“And I thought, oh, I’ll be fine. That’s great. But then she said, ‘Oh, well, if it is anything, we’ll do a little biopsy’.

“‘But if it is anything, it’s so small, you’ve got it early’. Anyway, I got the result back a few days ago. It was four millimetres, which is minute.

“I had a biopsy. I found out it was indeed breast cancer and I had it taken out in a lumpectomy nearly three weeks ago.”

She said her fiance and hairdresser Michael Douglas, 52, encouraged her to open up about how she was feeling.

Davina continued: “Because when I got it I just started feeling much better – you and me got into a really good place.

“I got really f*****g angry. And you know me, I’m a pacifist – I don’t really get angry – I’m like Tigger. I’m just always happy.

“I was like: ‘Are you f******g joking? What the f**k! Are you serious?”

“I was keeping it all in and Michael one day looked at me and he said: ‘Stop. I can see what you’re doing.

“‘You’re not going there. He said: ‘Let’s talk about it – I said: ‘I’m fine.

“He said: ‘You’re not fine’. I was like: ‘No, no, I’m fine. Honestly. ‘I’m not f*****g fine, that’s why I’m f*****g mad.

“He just sat and he came and watched me and I was f*****g stamping my feet. And it felt so good.”

It comes almost a year after the mum-of-three underwent emergency surgery to remove a “very rare” brain tumour.

The Long Lost Family host initially broke the news to her followers in a heartwrenching video on Instagram.

Davina had asked for prayers before having the operation to get the 14mm benign tumour – called a colloid cyst – removed.

Davina previously said her operation to remove the benign tumour was “the best thing to ever happen to me”.

She admitted spiralling into denial after it was discovered by chance last year, but was spurred into action by surgeons.

Breaking down in tears at Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place Festival, Davina revealed doctors told her she would die if she didn’t act quickly.

She said: “I needed someone to tell me what to do, and my American doctor told me I should undergo surgery to have the tumour cut out.

“When I got the phone call, although it was a hard one to hear, I needed it.

“But after the operation, I was aware of a noise in my head, and they were thoughts. I realised I did not have that before.

“I am not afraid of dying anymore. It was the biggest journey of my life. It was an amazing time.”

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Davina has since started her Begin Again podcast in an attempt to help others on their deathbed.

The show is dedicated to empowering people to embrace midlife as their most transformative era yet.

It was only the shadow of brilliant Real keeper Thibaut Courtois that threatened to stop Liverpool getting what they merited, with a stunning individual performance that revived memories of how he defied them when Jurgen Klopp’s team lost the 2022 Champions League final in Paris.

The Belgian made a string of magnificent saves, including four from Dominik Szoboszlai and a remarkable reflex stop from Virgil van Dijk’s header, before even he was powerless to stop Mac Allister’s header from the Hungarian’s free-kick.

Liverpool’s narrow victory margin does not touch the sides of their domination from first whistle to last, these crucial three points pushing them into sixth place in the Champions League table, a standing that will put them in the last 16 without the need to resort to a play-off if maintained.

Szoboszlai and Mac Allister ruled midfield, while Florian Wirtz provided some of the subtle touches that made his name at Bayer Leverkusen. Hugo Ekitike was a constant menace.

Liverpool were, unlike so often this season, rock solid at the back as Kylian Mbappe was marginalised, delivering a dreadful, error-strewn display. Vinicius had been beaten by Bradley long before the end.

If it was a miserable night for Alexander-Arnold, it was not much better for Jude Bellingham, offered the Anfield stage to deliver a reminder of his class before England head coach Thomas Tuchel names his squad to face Serbia and Albania after excluding him last time.

He provided one moment of danger in the first half when he forced Giorgi Mamardashvili to save with his legs, but was otherwise anonymous as Real failed to establish any sort of stranglehold.

Bellingham conceded the free-kick in a dangerous position that led to Mac Allister’s goal, offering little as Real tried to force their way back into contention, although he was not alone there.

He offered words of sympathy to Alexander-Arnold: “Obviously, it is one of those things in football. The fans booing isn’t a reflection of how they feel about him.

“I think it is more to give their team the edge and throw him off a little bit. I am sure they’re appreciative of what he has done for the club.”

Alexander-Arnold, once an Anfield idol, probably could not wait to get back to his new Madrid home, while life for Liverpool suddenly looks much brighter ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Manchester City at Etihad Stadium.

TORONTO — It was a game that started on Saturday and ended on Sunday, a World Series contest so packed with the rare, the historic and the dramatic that it couldn’t possibly be confined to one day.

At 11 innings, it was the longest Game 7 this century, and it equaled the longest in more than a century. It was the first Game 7 that had a ninth-inning home run to tie the score and the first to feature two video reviews that prevented the go-ahead run from scoring.

“It’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever been a part of,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his team outlasted the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 to win its second straight World Series and end the longest season in franchise history, one that began in Japan and ended in Canada.

The victory made the Dodgers the first team to win back-to-back titles in 25 years and with that championship, Roberts’ third, he passed Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda to become the second-most-decorated Dodger manager ever. He now trails only Walter Alston, another Hall of Famer, who won four World Series with the team.

Roberts, however, won his three titles over six seasons, something no Dodger skipper has ever done.

“It’s hard to reconcile that one,” said Roberts, whose jersey from Saturday’s game is on its way to Cooperstown, joining the cap the Hall of Fame requested after last year’s World Series win.

“I’m just really elated and really proud of our team, our guys, the way we fought. We’ve done something that hasn’t been done in decades. There was so many pressure points and how that game could have flipped, and we just kept fighting, and guys stepped up big.”

So did the manager.

Every move Roberts made worked, every button he pushed was the right one. Miguel Rojas, starting for the second time in nearly a month, saved the season with a game-tying home run in the top of the ninth while Andy Pages, inserted for defensive purposes during the bottom of the inning, ran down Ernie Clements’ drive at the wall with the bases loaded to end the threat.

In the 11^th he had Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitch around Addison Barger, putting the winning run on base. But that set up the game-ending double play three pitches later.

“Credit to him, man. Every single move he did this postseason was incredible,” said Tyler Glasnow, one of four starting pitchers Roberts used in relief Saturday. And he had a fifth, Clayton Kershaw, warming up when the game ended.

Added Dodgers co-owner Magic Johnson: “He did some coaching tonight. This was a great manager’s game from him. He’s proven how great a manager he is. He’s a Hall of Famer.”

Roberts asked Yamamoto, who pitched six innings Friday to win Game 6, to throw another 2 2/3 innings in Game 7. It worked; Yamamoto won that game too.

“What Yoshi did tonight is unprecedented in modern-day baseball,” said Roberts, who came into the postgame interview room wearing ski goggles and dripping of champagne. “It just goes down to just trusting your players. It’s nice when you can look down the roster and have 26 guys that you believe in and know that at some point in time their number’s going to be called.”

And Roberts needed all 26 guys. Although the Dodgers players wore t-shirts with the slogan “We Rule October” when they mounted a makeshift stage in the center of the Rogers Centre field to celebrate their victory early Sunday, October was only part of it. Their year started in Tokyo in March and ended in Toronto in November, making it the first major league season to begin and end outside the U.S.

“We really extended the season,” Max Muncy, whose eighth-inning homer started the Dodgers’ comeback, said with a grin after the team’s 179^th game in 226 days.

“Look back at the miles that we’ve logged this year,” Roberts said. “We never wavered. It’s a long season and we persevered, and we’re the last team standing.”

That, too, is a credit to Roberts, who has made the playoffs in each of his 10 seasons and went to the World Series five times, trailing only Alston among Dodger managers. His .621 regular-season winning percentage is best in franchise history among managers who worked more than three seasons. And he figures to keep padding those records.

“We’ve put together something pretty special,” said Roberts, who celebrated with his family on the field afterward. “I’m proud of the players for the fans, scouting, player development, all the stuff. To do what we’ve done in this span of time is pretty remarkable.

“I guess I’ll let the pundits and all the fans talk about if it’s a dynasty or not. But I’m pretty happy with where we’re at.”

On Sunday morning Glasnow, who missed the playoffs last season with an elbow injury, was pretty happy with where he was at as well.

“To be a part of the World Series is crazy,” he said, standing just off the infield as blue and gold confetti rained down. “You dream about it as a kid. To live it out, I feel so lucky. This group of guys, I’m so close to everyone. So many good people on this team. It’s just the perfect group of guys.”

The perfect manager, too.