It’s cliché to say that young baseball players grow up dreaming of the World Series, but those scenarios usually focus on the positives. Hitting the walk-off winner and lifting the big trophy is pretty cool; feeling the pressure of millions of eyes trained squarely on you, however, can be a little less fun.
And that pressure is especially prominent ahead of the 2025 World Series. For the Toronto Blue Jays, there’s both the weight of a three-decade title drought and that of representing an entire country that’s been feeling the squeeze from its very powerful neighbor.
In the opposite dugout, the Los Angeles Dodgers are trying to earn a place in history with back-to-back titles. There’s also some negative attention being paid to the club, as they’re filling the “bad guy” role that the New York Yankees once occupied.
But how do the pros handle the heat?
Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty
Making Sense of the Pressure
Ahead of the World Series, Newsweek spoke with Dr. Sommer Christie, who represented both Quebec and Canada in rugby, for some perspective on stepping onto the big stage. She’s also a sports psychology professor at the University of Ottawa, a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) and has worked with Team Canada groups as a mental performance consultant.
“There’s definitely a special feeling when you make it to a major event or when you make the national team,” she told Newsweek. “You know if you’ve prepared well, you will not have an immense amount of stress, but you’ll still have stress. You can never really prepare for what it’s like because you’ve never been there. So, we can imagine, we can prepare, we could be, but again, you’re never going really know until you actually hit the stage, hear that anthem and start playing your game.”
Beyond that, working on the academic and coaching side of things has also provided an additional perspective.
“It’s not something made up in a lab,” she explained. “It’s people out there that you learn what they do that makes them ready and prepared.”
And, as you might expect, what people do largely boils down to learning about what can trip you up and being as prepared as possible for those situations.
“The important part with that big pinnacle event is you’ve had so many games and opportunities leading up to that, that you’re really debriefing and refining as you go, right? So I’m learning what works for me. I’m learning like what self-talk is helping, what self-talk is and how to change that as I go,” Christie said.
“And when it gets down to that big event, you want to practice if you can under pressure. The best you can do to simulate the environment. So, to put yourself under the stress, you’ll never replicate a World Series and you may not replicate the Olympics, but play in front of thousands of fans, put on the music. Make a bus late by accident. So you get prepared to sort of deal with those distractions.”
The Power of Veterans
There is something to be said for shared experience, though. Even if some players on the team haven’t made it to the top of the mountain just yet, there are teammates who can lend a bit of perspective.
George Springer, who hit the home run to send the Blue Jays to the Fall Classic, is able to do that as a World Series champion and World Series MVP.
“Just try to be as open as I possibly can, be as organic as I possibly can,” he explained during 2025 World Series Media Day. “Don’t try to force things. If anybody has a question or they want to know something, sure. I’m an open book.”
With that being said, though, the 2017 World Series MVP did concede that he might have to say a few words to the group ahead of Game 1.
And what might those be?
“Enjoy it, have fun,” he said. “I remember when I was told early in my career, enjoy the moments. Have fun, embrace them. You don’t ever know if you’re going to have a chance to be in this environment again.”
Veteran pitcher Max Scherzer also offers perspective to the group when the opportunity presents itself.
“Just whenever any little thing’s popping up,” the two-time MLB champion said. “’It can be something little, and we know how to navigate it. ‘Hey, did you just catch this situation? This is how you need to think about that. This is how I lost a the ballgame back in 2012,’ something to that effect. Or it could be how to handle things off the field because there’s so many distractions and stress going on. That’s where, having all the experience in the world, how I just kind of to help. Overall, just kind of help navigate everybody involved, even the coaches.”
As someone who has received that support, second-year outfielder Joey Loperfido said that “relying on the guys” and compartmentalizing his day helped him handle the postseason.
“Having those veteran leaders around and getting to talk with them, build relationships with them,” the 26-year-old explained. “They’re kind of the shoulders for us younger players and guys that haven’t been here to lean on. So I know I’ve talked to Max about it. I’ve talked to George about it…They’ve definitely been helpful to the younger guys in the group that haven’t been there.”
That support aligns with how Christie described teammates creating a supportive environment for one another.
“It certainly can be helpful,” she told Newsweek. “And the more transparent and open you can be about it within a team, even better. So if we’re sitting down, talking distraction control and the veterans are like, ‘Well, yeah, no problem. You just need to suck it up,’ that doesn’t really help the rookies…Whereas if a veteran says, ‘Yeah, my first World Series, I was really nervous. And like my first pitch, my first whatever, I didn’t play the way I wanted to.’ Or whatever it is. And then they can share strategies of what works for them and what works for a team. By opening that up, it just kind of gives that newer player the [sense] ‘OK, this is normal.’”
The same general sentiment carried across to the Dodgers organization, even though their roster is more experienced than Toronto’s. Support certainly exists, but no one is dictating how to feel the first time you step into the brightest spotlight.
“We have a very veteran team in general,” pitcher Clayton Kershaw said during media day. “We have a lot of guys that have been in the postseason multiple, multiple times. So, they have a number of guys that they can choose from to talk to, but at the end of the day you have to experience it for yourself.”
Dalton Rushing, LA’s 25-year-old first-year infielder, said that having such a veteran roster helped him keep the postseason experience in perspective.
“We have so many super stars that kind of just come in, do their thing and they never think twice about it. They never make the moment any bigger than what it is. And yeah, I think that’s good for young guys like myself,” he said.
“This team is doing a really good job of using the veterans that we have and being able to embed that into some of the younger guys. Just kind of watch the older guys’ demeanor, honestly, the way they take their at-bats, the way they take the mound, just the way they carry themselves throughout the day. They treat it, like I said, like any other day in any other game, and I think that’s why we’ve been very successful up to this point.”
From his seat in the dugout, manager Dave Roberts thinks that blend of youthful excitement and veteran experience could serve his team well.
“I think that some part of it you could argue that the naivety, the inexperience, is a good thing. But I feel that the ability to manage moments, your heartbeat, is advantageous, especially in a seven-game series,” he said.
Knowing How to Keep Things Normal
If you’ve spent any time consuming sports media, you’ll know that players and coaches are no strangers to leaning on clichés. One of those is just taking one game at a time and not getting caught up in the moment.
Ahead of the World Series, though, you’ll see that there’s some truth behind that platitude. As schedules change, pregame festivities become more elaborate and the global media descends, familiarity is more important than ever.
Trey Yesavage, whose Game 1 start will only be the seventh appearance of his MLB career, said that he tries to handle things “as diligently as possible.”
“I try to treat it as if it’s not as high pressure as it is mentally, but I know it’s there,” he explained.
On the opposite end of the experience spectrum, Blue Jays bench coach Don Mattingly cited a similar approach from the coaching staff.
“I think we just kind of try and keep things normal for us,” the former first baseman, who first entered the big leagues in 1985, said. “John [Schneider, the club’s manager] did a great job about keeping things normal. Our guys just show up and play. We’ve played in three or four now, must-win games that we’ve won. Our guys just show up and play. They’re having fun. They’re fun to watch.”
For Christie, that approach can be somewhat of a double-edged sword. Keeping things in perspective is all well and good, but you also don’t want to be unprepared for what the future might hold.
“[It’s] somewhat true because you want to treat it the same way you want to help normalize it because ultimately the game hasn’t changed. The people haven’t changed; you’ve probably played against them before,” she said. “But I think it does a bit of injustice to say it’s going to be the same, because there is more importance, and we do care.
“That does put an impact on it…You’ve got to recognize it’s different and then come back, right? The minute we say, ‘Oh, it’s fine. It’s like any other game,’ then you’re maybe not as prepared for the big event that’s going to come.”
If nothing else, it seems like the Toronto manager has struck that balance.
“There’s a lot of firsts for a lot of these guys, myself included, staff included,” Schneider said. “I want them to enjoy it. Again, I think that players are going to feel certain things that they haven’t felt before. Once you get that initial kind of shock and awe off you, I think that this team is really good about focusing on what they need to do.”
“I’m going to take on a few seconds to enjoy it. I’m sure they will.”