‘The Dodgers are embedded in my soul’: Los Angeles fans on what the team means to the city – in pictures

Lupe Soto, 53, and Leslie Soto, 28, in LA’s Pershing Square. ‘It means more now since the passing of [the pitching legend] Fernando Valenzuela. I think the Hispanic community is well represented in the field and off the field,’ said Lupe. Leslie added: ‘I think it means a lot of communal - communal love. Communal activity, where we don’t have a lot of opportunities for those in LA. It’s very empowering to see how baseball can be empowering of identities and different cultures and more so than other sports.’ Regarding the Yankees, Lupe said: ‘We don’t hate ’em, but we don’t like them.’

‘I love that the city breeds and bleeds blue. It unites lawyers and musicians and circus people - people who wouldn’t hang out on a regular night,’ said Eddie Lopez, 43, in downtown Los Angeles. ‘I love that despite what’s going on out there in this crazy world with election season and everything, that for a couple hours we can get away from that.’ As for New York: ‘For one week, I don’t like their bagels, their pizza, their rye bread. But just for one week.’

Briana and David Sanchez, 28, relax in Elysian Park before the game. ‘Dodgers is home,’ said David. ‘Family. No other way to bring good people together. Dodger is LA and LA is home.’

‘The Dodgers represent a legacy of sports here in Los Angeles,’ says Derek Gaxiola, 34, with Dirty, 32. ‘Fernando Valenzuela is from my dad’s home town in Navojoa, Mexico.’

‘I don’t play golf. All my money is spent on Dodgers baseball,’ said David Sebenick, 80. ‘i’m a retired cop; retired 25 years, 30 years on the job - LAPD. All my cop friends play golf, I go to Dodger games.’

‘When I first came to California, I saw the Dodgers play at the Coliseum. I saw Sandy Koufax play. I thought he was so young. He was just a kid. That was in 1957-ish. I don’t know why, I always liked the Dodgers,’ said Shiz Murata, 96. Justin Murata, 31, added: ‘Especially now with Ohtani being there. We’re Japanese.’

‘Since I was a little kid we always watched the Dodgers,’ said Danny Parker, 33, at Golden Road Brewing with Heather Burns, 31. ‘I’ve seen history walk in [to the team] and history on the field. Kershaw is my historic guy for the team.’ The Yankees, he added, ‘are historic too. As I see it, this series is the battle of Brooklyn.’

Louie Belasques, 45, rides his motorized scooter near Elysian Park. ‘If I could take off my shirt right now and show you the bigass tattoo, the that would pretty much sum it up. I’m a diehard Angeleno.’

‘It’s about family and it’s embedded in my soul. For me it was a way on connecting with my dad and my grandpa. We grew up down the road in Lincoln Heights,’ said Rodriguez, right. ‘If they’re playing in Japan or Korea, I’m watching. When I was deployed, I’d still catch up with the Dodgers through family sending me care packages or news clippings.’ Miranda added: ‘Since the age of 12, I didn’t know there were other baseball teams.’ But he admitted ‘New York has good pizza’.

Ramon Donan, 23, Dahlia Donan, nine months, and Briana Heredia, 24, head to the game. While she was growing up, Briana said, ‘every Dodger game was not missed. We were able to make great, fun memories coming out to Dodger Stadium. So that’s what we’re trying doing for Dahlia. She’s been to six games this season and this is her first World Series game.’ Regarding the Yankees: ‘I respect them for getting here, but we gotta show them the ring belongs to LA.’

‘When you’re in LA, it’s so easy to be a Dodgers fan,’ Bob Escajeda, 52, said while walking through Pershing Square. ‘Been a fan since probably ’77 – five years old. You go to a Rams game, you gonna have all kinds of colors. A Dodgers game, it’s all blue.’