And this is ruining baseball?<\/p>\n
On a crowded concourse in the middle of a Saturday morning two months before the start of the season, fans are chugging beers, scarfing Dodger dogs, and even doing a line dance.<\/p>\n
The queue at the elevator is endless. The screams from the crowd are constant. Blake Snell is walking along one of the barriers giving every nearby fan \u2014 every one \u2014 a fist bump.<\/p>\n
And this is ruining baseball<\/a>?<\/p>\n The Dodgers<\/a> officially opened their doors for the 2026 season Saturday, holding an annual Dodgerfest that has sent a clear message to a landscape of whiners.<\/p>\n This is what winning looks like.<\/p>\n This is why winning is worth it.<\/p>\n The baseball owners will likely lock out the players after this season in hopes of installing a salary cap that will curb the sort of spending that has fueled the Dodgers\u2019 consecutive championships.<\/p>\n They don\u2019t get it. In hoarding their revenue-sharing money, the owners don\u2019t realize the benefits of reinvesting that money in the players and, by extension, the fans.<\/p>\n The Dodgers do that more often, and more effectively, than anyone.<\/p>\n The result Saturday was a mid-winter party that felt different than any of their previous bashes. Some years they spent this day apologizing for their playoff collapses. Last year they spent the afternoon tentatively talking about going back-to-back.<\/p>\n Fans pack into Dodger Stadium for Dodgerfest on Saturday.<\/p>\n (Ronaldo Bolanos\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n This year the constraints were off, the party was on, and they all spoke freely of becoming the first time in National League history to win three consecutive World Series titles<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201dI don\u2019t mind the \u2018three in the air\u2019 as a carrot,\u201d said manager Dave Roberts<\/a>, adding, \u201cThere\u2019s a challenge we\u2019re not going to run from.\u201d<\/p>\n And so the players showed up brandishing hope for this summer while sweetly admitting the emotion that still lingers from last fall.<\/p>\n Klein, who came out of nowhere to rescue the Dodgers with four scoreless innings in the marathon Game 3 of the World Series, was still pinching himself about being recognized in public.<\/p>\n \u201cA guy told me I looked like me,\u201d he said. \u201cI said, \u2018Thank you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Then there was Miguel Rojas<\/a>, finding deeper meaning in his ninth-inning homer that tied the World Series Game 7<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201dThe most important part is that everybody continues to say that is the best moment that they have in their life, the best moment of sports they watched,\u201d said Rojas. \u201cThat makes me feel really good, because we were part of something bigger than just a home run.\u201d<\/p>\n And Rojas said he hears that a lot.<\/p>\n \u201cI waited 20 years in professional baseball to have that moment … something different happened to my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m walking around Rome, I\u2019m seeing Dodger fans saying thank you for that home run. It\u2019s crazy, it\u2019s overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n Equally overwhelmed was Freddie Freeman, who grew tearful on the stage when talking about hitting the winning homer in the 18th inning of the World Series Game 3<\/a> and the impact of winning two titles in his four years here.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m home playing baseball in front of the best fans day in and day out,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even wrap my mind around coming back and signing here and being part of this. This has blown me away.\u201d<\/p>\n Even the struggling players seemed thrilled to be here, Tanner Scott acting amazingly relaxed when asked for his 2026 goals.<\/p>\n \u201cNot being as bad as last year,\u201d he said. \u201cI was terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n OK, then.<\/p>\n Bottom line, on a midwinter day when most of this country\u2019s major-league baseball stadiums were empty, Chavez Ravine was full of life and wonder and winning.<\/p>\n![\"Fans](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769902633_223_.jpeg\")
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