shohei ohtani

Talk about easing the blow. The Canadian father-son duo that secured not one, but both home run balls that doomed the Toronto Blue Jays team they rooted for in Game 7 of the World Series turned the evidence into some serious U.S. currency Saturday night.

Dodgers fans will never forget those baseballs hit by Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning and Will Smith in the 11th flying over the left-field wall and into the first row of seats beyond the Blue Jays’ bullpen.

John and Matthew Bains — sitting side-by-side — will never forget the balls ending up in their hands. John, 61, caught Rojas’ 387-foot home run in his glove on the fly. Two innings later, Matthew, seated next to his dad, saw Smith’s blast land in the bullpen and bounce directly into his hands.

Novices they were not. John has been a Blue Jays fan since the team’s inception in 1977 and purposely sits where he does for proximity to home runs. In fact, he caught one during the American League Division Series against the New York Yankees a few weeks earlier.

Both men brought baseballs into the stadium that they threw back onto the field, giving the Blue Jays faithful the impression the Bains did the honorable thing when, in fact, they did the smart thing for their bank accounts.

On Saturday night, the balls were sold at auction. Smith’s homer, which provided the Dodgers with the winning run, sold for $168,000 while Rojas’ blast that sent the game into extra innings fetched $156,000.

A third unforgettable Dodgers home run ball from the 2025 postseason eclipsed the Game 7 balls. The second of Shohei Ohtani’s three home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series sold for $270,000 in the same SCP Auction.

It was the longest of his three, landing on the Dodger Stadium right-field roof 469 feet from home plate. And it was a key element in what is considered perhaps the greatest performance in baseball history. Ohtani struck out 10 in six innings on the mound in addition to his offensive exploits, sending the Dodgers to the World Series.

Carlo Mendoza’s story of how he ended up with Ohtani’s ball is no less head-shaking than that of the Bains boys. The 26-year-old Los Angeles man said he was eating nachos in a food court behind the right-field pavilion and saw Ohtani hit the home run on a television monitor. He heard the ball hit the roof, dashed toward the sound and retrieved the ball from under a bush.

All three balls were authenticated by SCP Auctions through notarized affidavits and lie detector tests. SCP owner David Kohler said Mendoza was so apprehensive about handing over the ball that he insisted meeting Kohler in the parking lot of the Long Beach Police Dept.

“We authenticated through polygraph and eyewitnesses due diligence,” Kohler said. “From the time we announced we had these baseballs until now, no one else has come forward and said they have the balls. There’s been no contention.”

The Dodgers walked into a packed home stadium when their World Series parade was over, waving to an adoring crowd that viewed them as more than back-to-back champions.

They were beloved Angelenos.

Many of the players are on a first-name basis with the city, and if they aren’t, they’re identified by a nickname.

Freddie, Mookie and Shohei.

Yoshi and Roki.

Miggy Ro and Kiké.

Players who were once strangers are now extended members of hundreds of thousands of families.

Ordinarily, a team as old as the Dodgers would have to consider a roster makeover. Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas will be 37 by the start of the next World Series. Max Muncy will be 36, Kiké Hernández 35, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández 34 and Shohei Ohtani 32.

But under these circumstances, how could the Dodgers think of breaking up their team?

How could they unload any of their superstars, regardless of how much they could decline in the next year? How could they not retain their key free agents, regardless of how old they are?

They can’t, they can’t and they can’t.

The Dodgers have to run this back — again.

“Obviously, we would love everybody to come back,” Freeman said.

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Muncy has a $10-million team option for next season. The Dodgers have to pick it up.

Rojas and Kiké Hernández are free agents. The Dodgers have to re-sign them.

Freeman won’t be making the calls on his teammates, of course. The decisions will be made by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who was characteristically evasive when asked about the efforts the Dodgers would make to keep their out-of-contract players.

“Obviously, guys who have been here and been a big part of it start with a major upper hand,” Friedman said. “That being said, they’re free agents. They’ve earned the right to go out and talk to the 29 other teams as well.”

Muncy doesn’t have a choice to leave if the Dodgers exercise his option, but Rojas and Kiké Hernández have said they would like to return next season.

Whatever Friedman decides shouldn’t preclude the Dodgers from shopping on the free-agent market, with Kyle Tucker and Steven Kwan being potential additions to their outfield.

But the nucleus of the Dodgers would be even older than it was this year when their collective age presented a variety of problems.

Their 18-inning victory in Game 3 clearly diminished them more than it did the Toronto Blue Jays, who won the next two games. In retrospect, that should have been expected, as the Dodgers struggled to maintain consistency on offense over a grinding six-month regular season.

While Betts transformed into one of the league’s best defensive shortstops, he experienced a sharp offensive decline. Muncy was limited to 100 games because of injuries. Teoscar Hernández wasn’t close to being the same player he was last year.

There were times that even Ohtani started to show the effects of being on the wrong side of 30. Ohtani’s father acknowledged this reality in a congratulatory open letter he wrote to his son, which was published in the Monday edition of Sports Nippon.

“Shohei, you’re 31 years old,” Toru Ohtani wrote in Japanese. “I think that as a baseball player, you’re in your prime, but there will come a time when you have to decide between pitching and hitting. When you can’t pitch anymore, you can be an outfielder. I think that if you practice, you can definitely do it.”

That being said, the team has to be kept together.

A championship can force teams into sentimental decisions, as was the case last winter when the Dodgers re-signed Teoscar Hernández to a three-year, $66-million contract.

This winter, they will have to settle similar disputes between their hearts and minds. They should listen to their hearts.

The players deserve it. The fans demand it.