NEW YORK — Magic Johnson smiled, because of course he did. It is the smile that won over a city. It is the smile that eased our anxieties over the decades.
In 1980, the kid smiled and told Los Angeles he would lead the Lakers to a championship on a night without Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In 2012, the old man smiled and told Los Angeles he would lead the Dodgers out of bankruptcy and back to baseball’s promised land.
It really is Magic: With a legendary Laker as one of the owners, the Dodgers now are the most popular team in L.A.
“The town has gone bonkers over this team,” Johnson said late Wednesday, dressed in a Dodger letterman’s jacket with a block D on one side and the Dodgers logo on the other.
“It’s been crazy. You think about, yes, I’m a Laker, but I’m a true blue Dodger, too. Hopefully, one day they will win it again, but right now the city is owned, today, by the Dodgers.”
The winning bidder for the Dodgers in 2012 was an entity called Guggenheim Baseball. That meant nothing to L.A. Mark Walter, the money guy, was from Chicago. Stan Kasten, the baseball guy, was from Atlanta.
Johnson put his credibility on the line. He joined them and promised L.A. these guys would be winners. He had told Walter and Kasten there would be only one way to win.
“If we’re all just about making money, then I’m out,” Johnson said he told Walter. “I don’t want to be a part of it.”
On the morning after Guggenheim Baseball won the bidding, I met with the owners in a conference room about 10 miles from Yankee Stadium. Kasten emphasized player development.
Johnson did not. The New York Yankees were his model, the perennial big spenders. The Angels had just signed Albert Pujols.
“Teams are investing,” Johnson said that day. “That’s what you do when you put a winning team on the field. We’re not going to be any different from those teams.
“Also, we would love to copy the Yankees’ success. If you’re saying, ‘Do we want to be the Yankees?,’ the answer is yes. We want to win the World Series. We do want to win.”
The Yankees have not won the World Series since then. The Dodgers have won twice.
The Dodgers won the National League West every year from 2013-19, replenishing the minor league system and developing a talent pipeline second to none in the industry. But Kasten, who ran the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals before joining the Dodgers, never had signed a player for $100 million. Neither had Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations.
Finally, starting in 2020, the Dodgers went all in: Mookie Betts that year, for $365 million; Freddie Freeman, in 2022, for $162 million; Shohei Ohtani last December, for $700 million; Yoshinobu Yamamoto, last December, for $325 million; Tyler Glasnow, last December, for $136.5 million; Will Smith, an extension last March, for $140 million.
The first three batters in the lineup on Wednesday: Ohtani, Betts and Friedman.
The last two, and the only Dodgers draft picks: Smith and Gavin Lux.
The last of their eight pitchers, and the only Dodgers draft pick: Walker Buehler.
“From the first day that I met Mark, he was like me,” Johnson said. “He wanted to win. He was competitive. And he wasn’t afraid to spend the money. I think we showed everybody that.
“I think that’s why we were able to attract the talent. But also give Stan a lot of credit. He said we’ve got to build up the minor league system, and we did both.”
If the Yankees were Johnson’s model, well, look who’s dancing now.
“This is what the country and the world wanted, us two to play against each other,” Johnson said.
“This is the most storied franchise, right? To do it against the Yankees, here in New York …”
His voice trailed off, but he smiled again. He had a few comparisons for Freeman, the World Series most valuable player.
“He was Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant,” Johnson said. “That’s who I compare him with, that level of dominance on the biggest stage. All those guys did it on the biggest stage. All those guys did it in a championship series too. I had never seen a baseball guy do it like this.”
Johnson raised his voice, just a little. For four years now, he and the Dodgers have heard about how their 2020 championship, in a pandemic-shortened season, necessitated an asterisk, or some other form of punctuation.
“There is no question mark,” he said. “I hated that whole Covid thing. I didn’t like people saying that type of stuff about us, even though we won the World Series. But this time there is no question: We are going to have a good time.”
And Johnson would not leave the Yankee Stadium field without a few kind words for Fernando Valenzuela, who died last week. The Dodgers will parade Friday, on what would have been Valenzuela’s 64th birthday.
“There have only been a few guys to take over Los Angeles: Kobe Bryant, Kareem, this other dude who wore No. 32, and Fernando,” Johnson said. “When he pitched, all of us were watching. If we didn’t see it live at Dodger Stadium, we were watching on TV.
“He was just the sweetest guy. He was humble. I think that’s why everybody loved him. Not only did he dominate as a pitcher, but he was the nicest man. I wish he was around to see this. We lost a true icon, up there with the greatest that have ever played in the city of Los Angeles.”
That other dude who wore No. 32 is the greatest winner in the city of Los Angeles. He has won, as a player or an owner, with the Lakers, Dodgers, Sparks and LAFC. He has taken us from parade to parade, from Showtime to Shotime.
