THIS IS A SERIES FOR THOSE WHO LOVE (AND LOATHE) NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES

It’s also about almighty superstardom — Ohtani, Judge, Soto, Betts — and if Americans generally don’t watch Fall Classics, absorb the intense pressure: a bicoastal beast winning and the other failing

     Your answers are New York and Los Angeles. The bicoastal creatures dictate why you will watch night after night. This is America in 2024, only days before a societal-trashing presidential election, and we gather for a World Series when some of us live in either city and many of you can’t stand our haughty vibes. You don’t slay. You don’t surf.

     The games will be watched by those who wear the NY cap and the LA cap, of course, and those who never, ever would. You hate our brands and whatever we stand for, which is homelessness and crime and dirty media trying to make sure Kamala Harris or Donald Trump win. The megamarkets can’t wait for gore in a best-of-seven provocation. Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge won’t carry switchblades, but this Series will attract broadcast ratings for an event that fell off the atlas and hasn’t been nearly as material as the NFL, the NBA, college football, international soccer and Caitlin Clark.

     “I’m sure I’m going to feel how special it is,” Ohtani said. “I feel like we finally arrived. I finally arrived at this stage.”

     So has baseball, if only for a week or so.

     “We’re World Series champions,” Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. said.

     Is he a prognosticator? Broadway Jazz? Or a dope?

     “You could easily argue that on a global scale, the Yankees and Dodgers are the most followed, the most supported, the most visible,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

     Baseball teams, yes.

     We will pay tribute after the death of Fernando Valenzuela, who reminds us that the Dodgers are as global as they are national, in the same vein of Ohtani and his adoration across Japan. Players will wear a jersey patch as actor and taco-stand owner Danny Trejo posts, “God bless Fernando!” But most of the millions aren’t viewing because of Reggie Jackson, who hit three home runs off Dodgers pitchers in Game 6 to win a 1977 championship. And most aren’t watching because Don Larsen threw a perfect game for the Yankees — no one completes nine innings anymore — in beating the Dodgers in 1956. Or because Jackie Robinson stole home plate against the Yankees to win in 1955.

     Or because Babe Ruth was hanging out at a golf club in Griffith Park, 4.8 miles from Dodger Stadium, when the Yankees acquired him from Boston in 1920. Why not?

     Those are grandpa days. And don’t make the mistake of comparing Ohtani and Judge to Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, as Dodgers commentator Jerry Hairston Jr. tried. No comparisons can be made to basketball in a baseball booth. What we have are massive MVPs, five total, any of whom could take over in a luscious canyon starting Friday night and in the Bronx next week. The power bursts always lure the masses, even if the sport is in a cultural fall. Will Ohtani rule, as he did against Team USA at the World Baseball Classic? Can Mookie Betts win his third championship in seven seasons? Is it time for Judge to take over a postseason after hitting 62 and 58 homers in two of the last three regular seasons? Don’t forget Giancarlo Stanton, who took over the American League playoffs. Freddie Freeman? He is limping, but he’s the fifth man. Or is this when a non-MVP, Juan Soto, proves worthy of a deal near $700 million? That is Ohtani’s territory, with Mets owner Steve Cohen sure to call agent Scott Boras as Yankees boss Hal Steinbrenner trembles.

     All of whom are facing enormous pressure by facing each other. The Dodgers have won only one title, during the 2020 pandemic crown, since 1988. The Yankees haven’t won since 2009 and failed for years after a 2000 three-peat. Dueling gargantuans who spend astronomical sums can’t win once in 35 years and once in 23 years. How do the Dodgers explain a Series loss with Ohtani and pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who cost more than $1 billion? How do the Yankees explain a loss when they have extravagant stars in Judge, Soto, Stanton and Gerrit Cole?

     A New York team can’t play a Los Angeles team and lose.

     A Los Angeles team can’t play a New York team and lose.

     Is a new financial system needed in baseball? Beyond the struggles of these teams, the Mets are 0-for-38 in trying to win the Series. Chicago has won twice since 1917. The Angels, in Orange County, have won once since 1962. A salary cap? Don’t dilly-dally in these discussions until the collective bargaining agreement expires in two years. Right now, the duress to win is overwhelming.

     Already, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman is moping about a 15-year title shortage. He continues to emphasize that the Houston Astros, who cheated with an electronic sign-stealing scheme, beat the Yankees to win the 2017 AL pennant. Never mind if the Astros eliminated the Yankees three other times. “I hate the 15-year thing because it completely forgets and discounts that some other organization cheated us when we were already in the end,” he said. “If you knew what was going on, I don’t think they would be advancing during that time thing. I think we would have been advancing.”

     What will he say if the Dodgers win? Judge knows he might hear boos in Yankee Stadium if his bat continues to struggle in October. “There's been a lot of legends that played that have been booed,” he said. “It's just part of it. You can't focus on that. You've got to go out there. They want to see you win. They want to see you do well. You've just got to focus on what you can control. What I can control is what I do in the box and what I do on the field.”

     Yet he swears he’ll have fun as he tries to win rings like other legends. “They definitely got a different aura walking around here when you got a couple of rings on your fingers,” Judge said. “I think that’s the biggest thing, is that you see that they’re battle tested. They’ve been through the grind. They’ve been through the ups and downs and they came out on top.”

     The managers, Roberts and Aaron Boone, are under dreadful stress. Roberts is very short on starting pitching and deals with a bullpen that will determine all. Boone has more starters, in award-winning Cole and Carlos Rodon, and also relies on a guess-correctly bullpen. The difference could be the sluggers in the Yankees lineup and whether Judge, Soto and Stanton are on fire or not.

     In the end, we’re watching Ohtani. His all-time contract already is a godsend for the Dodgers, who have made $75 million in incremental revenue from Japanese sponsors and will make hundreds of millions more. Certainly, no one has forgotten the fraud of interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, stealing almost $17 million from a best friend — day and night, at home and on the road, all over the world for multiple years — when Ohtani somehow didn’t know his bank account was torched. And how Mizuhara bet nearly 25 times a day from December 2021 and January 2024. When Major League Baseball and the Dodgers whisked his 19,000 wagers under the clubhouse carpet — though sports gambling is illegal in California and would have haunted Ohtani off the field — fans have focused on his 54 homers, 130 RBIs and 59 stolen bases.

     How will he perform in the World Series against the New York Yankees? Is he ready to bring his humble identity to rally Los Angeles, which saw it happen with Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson and Fernando Valenzuela? “You would never guess he’s Japanese Justin Bieber,” teammate Tyler Glasnow said. “He’s got a very young soul. He seems very innocent.

     Wait until he mauls a pitch. “I want the whole world to see Shohei on the biggest of stages,” Roberts said. “I want that for our game.”

     “He’s the world’s biggest baseball star. Not just the game, the world,” teammate Max Muncy said. “He shows up every day, you expect him to do something incredible and he very rarely disappoints. He works his tail off, he’s a great teammate. We’ve loved having him in the clubhouse. It’s been an absolute treat.”

     The Yankees echo the thoughts about Judge. “Just the reverence I have for the person, I’m excited that he will get to be on this stage,” Boone said.

     There is plenty for the commissioner’s office to sell. A pitcher who played for the Dodgers and Yankees, Brandon McCarthy, posted a groundswell on X: “Yankees/Dodgers. Ohtani & Betts/Judge & Soto. MLB better be ready to market its ass off. This has to be the national conversation.”

     Is it? With Trump and Harris atop every story? In sports, it should be. Or baseball might want to go away. Look around. When Boone sent his rival a Yankees emoji after the plane landed, Roberts said, “There was another emoji I thought about sending him with one finger, but I didn’t. I just gave a laughing emoji back.” Reggie Jackson has been invited to games by the Yankees — and the Dodgers. Yankees color analyst Suzyn Waldman warned the Dodgers about protecting a bullpen fence that Judge ran through last year, as he caught a fly ball. “It better be protected because if Juan Soto runs into it, I’ll kill them myself,” she said, recalling when Judge tore a toe ligament and missed 42 games. And if you think the Yankees always dress too conservatively? They’re wearing chains and added Statue of Liberty green to their cleats, batting gloves and sliding mitts.

     Never mind stuff about Ohtani taking the mound and pitching. Next season. “There is no possibility, none whatsoever,” Roberts said. “Thank you for asking.”

     “I’ve never said to them that I wanted to pitch in the postseason,” Ohtani said.

     Freeman couldn’t stop talking about his 8-year-old son, Charlie. “He’s at Universal (Studios) right now with a couple of his buddies, but he goes, ‘Daddy, I can’t wait for the World Series to start,’ ’’ he said. “He’s on YouTube and seeing all the videos about Yankees-Dodgers. So you’re starting to get a hint of how big this could be.”

     It figures that the average ticket price, in both cities, is approaching $1,700. Last year, when Texas beat Arizona, the price was $884. Neither team has a mascot. The players wear the NY caps and the LA caps.

     Folks in those cities will enjoy the World Series.

     Folks in other cities will loathe the World Series.

     All will watch.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.