Move over, Lakers. Not so fast, Rams. Dodgers are NL West champions again and still LAs team
The Dodgers are the National League West champions.Again.They have won their division 13 times in the last 14 seasons, and the one time in that period in which they didn’t, they won a then-club-record 106 games.Somewhere along the way, the Dodgers did the impossible: They met the requirements to become the sports franchise Los Angeles demanded.Appreciating what this means requires an understanding of how Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant transformed this city in the early 2000s, With O’Neal and Bryant as their stars, the Lakers didn’t just win championships.They were unbeatable.This image was reinforced by the play of O’Neal, a 7-foot-1, 325-pound freak of nature who literally couldn’t be stopped.By the time the Lakers completed their three-peat in 2002, championships were no longer something Los Angeles hoped for.They became something the city expected.This is the standard used to measure teams with aspirations of becoming a cultural touchstone in this congested market.With plenty of other entertainment options, casual fans won’t invest too much of their time and money in a team unless they believe it will create the kind of citywide pride O’Neal’s Lakers once did.The Lakers haven’t been that team for some time.
The Rams are producing a worthy on-field product, but they remain in the process of winning back fans they lost over the two decades they spent in St.Louis.The Dodgers are the one team in town that is clearing the bar.“What’s funny is Los Angeles has always been looked at, as far as sports, (as) a Laker town,” manager Dave Roberts said.
“I think we might have the market share right now in Los Angeles.It’s great.
I think we draw more fans than anyone in the world, obviously, with the home dates we have.But it’s 40,000, 50,000 every night.
We travel well.I do think the guys see it.
They feed off it.”The Dodgers managed to do this despite playing a sport that is particularly hard to dominate.The Lakers could dump the bal...