In their blue caps and Ohtani jerseys, they texted loved ones and filled the night sky with fireworks. They celebrated in homes on the edges of burn scars. They hugged in suburban bars where protests rattled the windows just months ago.
As Southern Californians watched the Los Angeles Dodgers power through 11 innings on Saturday to beat the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series, an impromptu party erupted with a catharsis and joy that was about more than baseball — a celebration not of only excellence, but of the will to endure.
Southern California has been through a grueling year that included disasters that devastated Pacific Palisades and nearby Altadena in January and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdowns. In an interview during the first inning of Saturday’s game, Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles said that she was hoping intensely for a victory that would bolster morale in her city.
A win by the Dodgers would mean a parade and civic celebration on Monday, she said, honoring the team’s second championship in two years.
“I want to see 200,000 people out in the street, celebrating peacefully, having a good time,” she said. “The Dodgers are part of our DNA, and the city has been on pins and needles. Given the year we’ve had, we can use this burst of adrenaline, this burst of good will.”
Across Southern California, fans echoed her yearning. From the South Bay to the Valley, from the Westside to the Eastside, as the song goes that is now the Dodgers’ anthem, Southern Californians talked about their relief at the normalcy of toasting their team in a neighborhood bar that had not been leveled, or at sharing a civil chat.
There was the reminder — for one night, at least — that an American place that had lost so much in so many ways might still be a land of champions. Back to back.
Team Altadena
An eight-foot-wide map of the burn zone flanked the patio entrance outside Good Neighbor Bar in Altadena. Children scrambled on top of stumps repurposed from trees felled by Santa Ana winds and fire, while their parents and neighbors nearby sipped beers. Over the fence, sunset lit up the San Gabriel Mountains, still denuded in spots 10 months after the Eaton fire.
At this bar, reminders of the devastation from January are all around. But the drama of Game 7, and the Dodgers’ championship run overall, made everyone forget, at least for a little while.
Barnabas Lin, 38, a doctoral student from Pasadena, wore a brand-new Dodgers cap. “It’s been a hard year,” he said. “I just bought the hat. I don’t think I would have bought it if it wasn’t this year.”
After the bar opened its patio this summer, it became a gathering place for locals and displaced Altadenans. The owners, Randy Clement and April Langford, stayed behind after the fire and connected with people through the bar’s Instagram page to let them know whether their homes were still standing.
On this night, they celebrated the Dodgers, but also the community. Still standing.
When the Dodgers won, fireworks erupted across the street. Lovers kissed. Babies cried. Dogs howled.
Liz Yoshonis, 37, a therapist from Pasadena, summed it up: “Communal effervescence.”
United in East L.A.
At Gladi8or Pizza & Billiards in East Los Angeles, scores of fans packing the bar area chanted, “Let’s go, Dodgers!” Many wore jerseys bearing the names Ohtani, Smith and (Kiké) Hernández on their back. And one sentiment seemed to be shared by all.
They needed this — being together.
The federal immigration raids have targeted hundreds of people in this predominantly Hispanic region of the city. And it seems everyone in the area knows someone who has been affected.
This year has been “really rough,” said Miguel Morales, 48, who was at the bar with his wife, Sandra Lara, 44, and their 11-year-old son, Angel.
But cheering for the Dodgers “gets us back to being civil again, enjoying something, celebrating something,” Ms. Lara said.
The franchise has a fraught history with the Chicano community here, dating back to when the largely Mexican communities known collectively as Chavez Ravine were displaced to make way for the building of Dodger Stadium in 1959.
Ms. Lara said she can’t quite forget that the Dodgers came under fierce criticism this summer for failing to take an explicit stand against the ICE raids that targeted the Dodgers’ huge Hispanic fan base. The team’s management did refuse to allow ICE agents access to the ballpark’s parking lot for staging.
But the team ultimately rallied the city, including East L.A. “It always just gets everybody together,” Ms. Lara said. “They haven’t held us down, the government, our president, whatever it is. We still celebrate, we still cheer, we still hang strong.”
A Party to Remember
Three miles northwest of Gladi8or, cars honked in support of the Dodgers as the vehicles sailed down a usually quiet residential street of the Boyle Heights neighborhood in East Los Angeles. The air was filled with the sounds of Game 7 blasting from speakers. The game was being projected from the driveway of a home onto a municipal water tower across the street.
A crowd of at least 40 people, neighbors, family, friends and strangers — who were welcomed and fed — gathered under a large tent in the driveway and lined the sidewalk.
A few years ago, Misael Morales, 39, projected a movie onto the tower. Last year, he decided to try it with the Dodgers when they made it to the World Series. Now, it has all the makings of a tradition.
Mr. Morales’s wife, Esmerelda Rodriguez, 42, beamed as she handed bowls of teriyaki beef and vegetables to anyone who came by.
“I love this country. I’ve had so many opportunities here, even though it has its ups and downs,” said Ms. Rodriguez, who came to the United States at 18 and became a U.S. citizen in 2012. She immediately became a Dodgers fan when she arrived in Los Angeles.
When the Dodgers tied the game in the ninth inning, the cheers could be heard down the street. Fireworks started popping off nearby.
And after the Dodgers won, Ms. Rodriguez said it was more than just a game. It was a boost to the morale of the entire Hispanic community of the city.
“It’s such a light,” she said.
Shawn Hubler is The Times’s Los Angeles bureau chief, reporting on the news, trends and personalities of Southern California.
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