2024 World Series: Kevin Millar and Ryan Dempster Preview Yankees-Dodgers

2 months ago 8

While just about everyone loves a good underdog story, that's not what you'll get during the 2024 World Series.

Not only does the Fall Classic feature the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, two of baseball's biggest names, but the clubs also boast plenty of all-world talent on their rosters. Just one of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani is worth the price of admission; getting both men and title-deciding stakes sounds like a Hollywood scenario that would have been sent back to the drawing board for being unbelievable

That leaves baseball fans spoiled for choice. While some World Series can be damp squibs, this one looks like gold (at least on paper). Between the storylines—two legendary franchises looking to get back to the top of the mountain, New York vs. Los Angeles, and Judge vs. Ohtani among others—there's almost too much to pay attention to.

With that in mind, Newsweek caught up with Kevin Millar and Ryan Dempster, two former Major League Baseball (MLB) players (and World Series champions), who now host MLB Network's long-running Intentional Talk alongside Siera Santos, to take a closer look at the 2024 World Series.

New York Yankees Vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers in action against Alex Verdugo of the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on June 8 in New York City. The Dodgers and Yankees are set to square... Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Newsweek: I guess just to start it off, both you guys have been where the Yankees and the Dodgers are right now in the days leading up to the World Series, getting ready for it to kick off all that good stuff.

So, what's the feeling like as a player right now? Thrilling? Terrifying? A mixture of all those things?

Ryan Dempster: Yeah, I think you're just, you feel all kinds of emotions, right? I think it waves throughout the day. The general overtone, I can say it as a player and I've watched it in my friends, including Kevin, is like the excitement factor is just so awesome. You've dreamt about this in your backyard as a little kid about playing in the World Series.

All the games that these guys have played, you think about like a guy like Aaron Judge, who's on the biggest stage and all this stuff and Shohei Ohtani, like all the dreams you have about being in the big leagues and doing these great things and playing...you're playing in the pinnacle now.

And so, the excitement, I'm sure the antsiness happens when you've got to wait five days for it to all start. But a ton of excitement, gratefulness, you know? You reflect and you're thankful to your family and your friends who supported you along the way. Coaches that you had that got you there. And you just can't wait until they say, "Play ball."

I'm pretty sure you probably echo the same things, Kev.

Kevin Millar: Yeah, I think that's exactly it.

I mean, it's something that we've all played wiffle ball in the backyard as a kid and dad's pitching, or your buddy's got an over-the-line tournament, but this is that excitement that, you almost can't believe it when it's your first time. Like you're actually there and some guys have won rings and been there and those are guys are ones that kind of help. But there's so much excitement, there's so much joy, there's so much preparation.

And now obviously with these two teams, it is a dynamic for baseball.

NW: Now just for you two guys, going from the playing side of it to the media, the talk show side of it, what's it like to sort of switch those seats and be looking at the World Series from your side?

As former players who are in the media now, do you feel that same sort of excitement that this is what it's all about, but also pressure of, "This is the World Series, we've got to be on our A games here" too?

RD: I think the funny part is that the former player in you and the person who played for so long, we realize like, you can have all your expert picks, but it comes down to those guys playing out there.

We can say this person's going to have a great series or this person's going to be favorite or this starting rotation is better, but you don't know until they play it out. I think that's what is so cool. Like you could take all the analytics in the world, and you can have all this information, but now we're down to two out of 30 teams. It's coming down to heart, grit, determination, will, fortitude, all these things that we can't quantify on a stat sheet.

I think we are in touch with that a lot as former players. And I think that's kind of how our show is, yeah, you can have ideas. We can predict for the fun of it and the sport of it. But those guys playing out on the field and a little bit of us, and I know Kev will feel this way, a little bit of us is just a little jealous because we remember what that feeling was like to be out on that field.

And it's like, man, some days, most days, we're fine without it. Ninety-nine percent of the time. But every once in a while, and especially moments like this, we're like, "God, man, that was fun, wasn't it? God, that was a good time playing in that."

We get a little jealous and miss that.

KM: Yeah. You almost get more nervous now.

It all makes sense about our dads when you're walking off the field and you give them a hug after game and they're stressed out. I'm like, "What are you stressed out for?" Because as a player, just playing ball, right? You're just playing baseball. It's what you're comfortable about doing. Giving a speech in English is probably not where you're comfortable. At least that's for me.

But I'll tell you, being on this side now, being able to understand how hard it is, right? I think sometimes when we get removed, we forget how hard it is, right? The first and second, 2 outs, you're down by 1 to get a big hit in a big moment in the postseason.

You're almost, I get more nervous like watching these teams or you got a couple of players you follow. We all have played for different organizations and when your organization gets to the big dance....So I grew up a Dodger fan. My dad's still there rooting Dodgers. I show up last week for something. He had an Ohtani jersey on. He goes, "How you doing, Chuck Ohtani," you know? So, he's loved it from back in the day and the old Dodgers and Vin Scully going. So, this is fun.

I'm rooting for a great series. I love long series. I love to see what it's about now on this side, I know as the player side you're just hoping you sweep cause you never think it's over till you win those four games.

But I think the nerves and just the excitement for the guys understanding where they're at. Like Ryan said, you miss it. You miss it around Spring Training time when that smell of the pine tar and you prepared your whole life for Spring Training. Then when it stops, you're just like, "OK, I gotta get my powder for my forehead now."

So, you missed that part, and then you miss the postseason. Because when October comes around, that fall weather in New York, you're gonna have a low of 38, high of 50, mid-50s. And in LA, it's Chavez Ravine and blue skies.

NW: And now we already touched on it a little bit, but with this specific series, you've got so many storylines. You've got the two historic franchises that haven't won in a while. You've got East Coast versus West Coast, you've got Judge versus Ohtani. We can go on and on.

For you guys, is there a storyline or a plot point that you're the most excited to see how it plays out?

KM: Yeah, I think basically we get a chance to see Ohtani, who I think we've all gravitated to because what he's done for this game and what he does playing this game on both sides of the ball, the speed, the power, the pitching, the whole scene.

So put him up there, put Aaron Judge up there. Period, end of story. You get a chance to see the best players in baseball at what they do. Add your Juan Soto, add your Mookie Betts, add your Freddie Freeman. I mean, Gerrit Cole, it is remarkable. You're going to see [Yoshinobu] Yamamoto, the viewership, the eyeballs on this around the world is going to be amazing.

And, that these two teams haven't met up since 1981, so this is an exciting thing. It's like the old Celtics, Lakers when Magic and Bird were playing each other. I just think that we get chance to see stars.

We all gravitate to the underdog. And that's kind of the role we played as the Red Sox trying to go through this whole thing. And then sometimes when it doesn't work out, then you look at the two beasts.

This is kind of what you love for baseball.

RD: Yeah. And so many storylines within that I think that's just what happens as the season continues to play out.

You dig and you find things and obviously two home run hitters, right? Like 1956 [Mickey] Mantle, [Duke] Snider, that was the last time two guys matched up in a World Series from each league. And then you got both guys most likely MVPs in both leagues. Like the fact that we have the two greatest players in the game matching up against each other in the World Series. And East Coast to West Coast.

I've been saying it like it doesn't matter if you're going on a flight anywhere in the country right now, unless you're on a puddle jumper from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo. If you're on any kind of flight that's going anywhere in the country, people are wearing Yankee hats and they're wearing Dodger hats and they're talking about it. It's on TVs and it's everywhere because of the history of both of these franchises and Kevin hit the international factor.

I saw something today and I don't know the show. It was like a Japanese anime, big movie...They postpone the release of this movie by a week because they didn't want it to fall during the World Series because everybody's going to be wanting to watch Shohei Ohtani.

[The movie in question was One Piece Log: Fish-Man Island Saga, which was postponed until November 3.]

Think about that, right. A country moved their number one movie a week because of that impact. Like the global impact for this and the growth of the game internationally is ginormous. I don't think we would get that anywhere else. And we're getting it, and we're getting to witness it.

And all the little intertwining stories are awesome too, like Dave Roberts and Aaron Boone. These guys played against each other at UCLA [and] USC and now they're managing at Chavez Ravine on Friday night against each other.

Like that's crazy, man. That's an amazing kind of part of baseball history that that's happened. So, all these other things. But the global impact that we're seeing because of this matchup is so great for the growth of Major League Baseball.

NW: Now to sort of flip it over to the other side of the coin and move on from the Judges and Ohtanis and those sorts of guys.

I know one of the things Intentional Talk likes to do is sort of bring out the players personalities, show off the side of the game that most fans might not usually get to see, all that good stuff. So, in that vein, obviously Judge and Ohtani get all the headlines. But is there an underrated player who you think could be the key to the series?

KM: I think we just saw Tommy Edman winning [NLCS] MVP, which remarkable pickup obviously was hurt when the Dodgers acquired him, got him healthy, and it's like a storybook for him and his family to be the MVP of the last series.

So, you look at it at guys like those. The Dodgers have so many guys like your Max Muncy and Gavin Lux and they just kind of go in that scene. They make the line up a little deeper...But Will Smith is a guy I'd love to see. I know he struggled this last postseason [with] his offense, but he's caught every single game. But he's a guy that can really hit. So, he's a guy to be looking at, might be a sleeper.

And for the Yankees, [Anthony] Volpe I've always been a fan of. I love watching this kid. I think he's made good adjustments. I'd gravitate to him for a Yankee side playing that great defense at short stop. And I bet he'd get some timely hits for these boys.

RD: Yeah, it's so crazy. Like when we talk about trying to predict that, you can't. And so many times we've seen in World Series where MVPs are the David Ecksteins or the Ben Zobrists, you know? Like it's somebody who gets hot for a week, maybe had been a leader emotionally. And because of that, they get to the pinnacle, and they're rewarded for that with this great performance on the biggest stage, their ability to slow things down in the moment and stuff.

You look, for the Yankees, is that a guy like, I know he's not the big dog, is that a guy like Anthony Rizzo or is that now Austin Wells, who's going to be hitting behind Giancarlo Stanton? And guess what, if those guys are coming up with open bases, they're going to be getting pitched around and then next thing you know, Austin Wells is going to have to come through and this young rookie might get an opportunity to thrive on this big stage.

And I think it's so important. And then you have like this other factor that I think sometimes gets overlooked. And Kevin was a big part of this. He also played every day, so it was a little bit different, but the guys like the Kike Hernandez who's in that locker room and is making sure that we're keeping the guys loose and having fun and laughing still and enjoying that.

I remember last year with Texas, Austin Hedges, we had him on the show many times and you could gravitate...You're like, "Wow, this dude is carrying this locker room the way he has these guys." Make sure they're having fun allowing the superstars to just do what they do. "I'll handle the media. I'll handle the fun stuff. I'll distract when I need to."

That's why there's only one team standing at the end, is because it takes a bunch of guys, it takes great players and it takes chemistry, and chemistry gets built and then it gets to an unstoppable point. Kevin was a part of that. I was a part of that, and I think both of these teams have guys there that can do that.

So I love the unsung hero. I love that you asked that because it's true. We can talk till we're blue in the face, Ohtani, Judge, Ohtani, Judge, Soto, go down that, Mookie Betts. Yeah, they're great. We know they're great, and they were going to have great moments. But who are these other guys that step up in those moments and have the big at-bat or come through in the big moment?

You never know. And I think that's kind of the fun of it all. And we love when we get those personalities. We love when we get those guys that we kind of root for. I love when Kevin predicts Tommy Edman to win the NLCS and he wins it. That's great stuff, you know?

NW: Well, I'll get you guys out of here on this one. And I know we talked about the fun and also the challenge of predicting, but I've got to ask: Couple days before the World Series starts, what's the pick for who's coming out on top?

KM: I'll go Dodgers in six.

RD: All right, I'll go Yankees in seven. How about that?

KM: Yeah. Yeah.

RD: And me and Kevin, we got a steak dinner on it. There it is. Two goliaths going against each other. This is great.

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