He held the World Series championship trophy aloft at a Lakers game, flanked by Mookie Betts on one side and Freddie Freeman on the other. He worked a shift at Villa’s Tacos in Grand Central Market. On Wednesday he went out for dinner and someone thanked him.
That is a taste of what the offseason was like for Jack Flaherty. The Dodgers and their fans had not enjoyed a parade in 36 years. No wonder so many people in Los Angeles stop him and say thank you.
The gratitude is reciprocal.
“I’m as thankful as you guys are that we were able to get it done and we were able to win the whole thing,” Flaherty said Thursday. “That’s what we all want as players. That’s what I hope every fan wants, is to win.
“To be able to be on that side and be able to finish it off was special. And then, the reception and everything, that was special, for the entirety of the offseason when I was back around here.”
It is the “on that side” part that stings. If his story truly had a Hollywood ending, Flaherty would collect his World Series championship ring during Friday’s ceremony at Dodger Stadium, then start the game for his hometown team.
He is scheduled to start the game, but for the visiting Detroit Tigers. The Dodgers will present him with his championship ring Saturday.
Flaherty, the pride of Sherman Oaks Little League and Harvard-Westlake High, started Game 1 of the National League Championship Series and Game 1 of the World Series, both at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers grabbed him when they desperately needed a starting pitcher at the trade deadline. He ended up becoming the first kid to grow up in Los Angeles and then start a World Series game for the Dodgers since Hall of Famer Don Drysdale, in 1966.
“This is where I grew up and fell in love with the game, and then I got to live out a childhood dream last year in the second half and through the World Series,” Flaherty said. “It holds a special place with me.”
He would have happily stayed, but the Dodgers signed two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell to a five-year contract before November was out. In January, as Flaherty shifted his focus to a short-term contract, the Dodgers added Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki.
“The whole focus on this winter,” Flaherty said, “was figuring out where the best place was for me to end up and let the pieces fall where they may.”
Did he have any negotiations with the Dodgers?
“I’m going to give you the same answer I just did,” he said.
Flaherty made the rounds before Thursday’s opener, catching up with Dodgers personnel from Dave Roberts to Clayton Kershaw to Joe Davis.
“It’s not awkward, that’s for sure,” Flaherty said. “Just more interesting. Through the run of emotions and everything, knowing everything that occurred here last year, then being back here and opening up here, the emotions of opening day and starting off that way, throw a start and then you’ve got everything to celebrate from last year, all at the same time.”
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said he had no concerns that the emotion surrounding the ring ceremony Friday might derail Flaherty’s start.
“I think it’ll go perfectly fine,” Hinch said, “because he’ll be locked in on his start. He’ll be focused on [Shohei] Ohtani to start the game.”
Tarik Skubal, the Tigers’ Cy Young winner, recalled watching Flaherty last season in his first start against his first team, the St. Louis Cardinals. Flaherty struck out 14 and took a shutout into the seventh inning.
“I expect him to be just as good as that time,” Skubal said. “He’s a good player. He lives for moments like these, and obviously he was a big part of the reason why they won the World Series. So I’m excited for him.”
As a fan there is nothing better than a player who gets your team because he lived and died with your team. After he shut out the New York Mets in Game 1 of the NLCS, Flaherty launched into a passionate speech about the greatness of Kershaw.
Flaherty gets the Dodgers.
“It’s so special,” he said. “It’s an incredible thing to think about and an incredible thing to be a part of. I got lucky enough to be on a team that got to win it in the fashion we did and make it happen in the way that we did.
“Growing up here and being a part of this — this city and this community — to give it all back and live it out in real time was awesome.”
Flaherty gets you, L.A. He should get a nice ovation Friday.
The post Shaikin: Jack Flaherty grateful for L.A. World Series moment even though it didn’t last appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
