Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dave Roberts had a bold prediction.

“This World Series will be watched by more viewers than any other series in history,” said the Los Angeles Dodgers manager.

Major League Baseball's dream duel is the Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Huge markets, extensive fan bases and glowing lineups led by a towering star in Shohei Ohtani.

“This is like Ali-Frazier or Magic and Bird or Jordan and Isaiah Thomas or Ohio State football versus Michigan football,” Bill Wanger, executive vice president of Fox Sports and head of programming and scheduling, said on the eve of Friday’s opener.

This will be the first World Series to feature five former MVPs: Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers and Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton of the Yankees.

This is only the fifth series since the Wild Card era began in 1995 to feature the teams with the best records in each league.

It is only the fourth to include each league's home run leaders, following Lou Gehrig and Mel Ott in 1936, Joe DiMaggio and Ott the following year, and Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider in 1956.

It is the first with a 50-homer hitter on each team in Judge (58) and Ohtani (54).

“The World Series matchup, featuring our two largest markets and a bevy of our biggest stars, provides a unique opportunity to take another step forward on some of our key strategic initiatives, namely a more domestic broadcast strategy, international growth, particularly in Japan, and. “Increased social media presence related to interest in the series from stars from other sports and entertainment areas,” said Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred.

Game 1 continued the hype as Freeman hit the first walk-off grand slam in World Series history to cap LA's 6-3 victory in 10 innings.

Ohtani's jersey tops MLB sales, with Judge in third, Betts fourth, Soto seventh and Freeman 18th. Ohtani and Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto drew record viewership in Japan, where the Dodgers' 5th Division Series victory over San Diego drew 12.9 million viewers – more than the 9.11 million average viewers in the United States for Texas' five-game World Series victory over Arizona last year.

MLB launched its “Once in a Generation. Twice” post-Division series ad campaign featuring Ohtani and Judge. “Sho Time/All Rise” digital billboards were set up throughout New York and the Los Angeles area, including in Times Square and the Beverly Center.

MLB and Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo placed 113 digital billboards throughout Tokyo at the start of the offseason, one for every home run and stolen base in Ohtani's record-setting first 50-50 season.

During Game 1 of the World Series on Friday night, the MLB TikTok account sent out clips to its 7.6 million followers not only of key highlights, but also of the fashion players wore in the stadium and celebrities like Billie Eilish and John Legend, who watched from the stands. MLB says engagement on its social media posts is up 47% this postseason.

Fox hopes that the duel will lead to a recovery in ratings. The network began broadcasting the World Series in the United States in 1996, when the Yankees' six-game victory over Atlanta averaged 25.2 million viewers.

Since Boston's 2004 title averaged 25.4 million, the World Series has only topped 20 million once, 22.9 million in 2016 for the Chicago Cubs' first championship since 1908. Last year was a record low, 14 .2 million for the Dodgers-Red Sox in 2018 and 14.1 million for the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros in 2019.

These numbers reflect changes in the way people watch games – less on linear television – but also a decline in interest in baseball. The 2004 World Series averaged more than twice as many viewers as the NBA Finals that year (Detroit vs. LA Lakers). The NBA Finals have surpassed the World Series in five of the last seven years.

“We expect at least a five-year high and I think realistically we can maybe get to an eight-year high,” said Mike Mulvihill, president of insights and analytics at Fox. “It would be a nice surprise if we surpassed that. Cubs-Cleveland Series in 2016. That might seem a little far-fetched.”

Spurred by rule changes aimed at increasing the action and speeding up games, MLB regular-season viewership rose 0.9% to 71.35 million, the first increase in consecutive years since 2011-12. ESPN's Sunday night broadcasts averaged 1,505,000 viewers, up 6% and the highest since 2019. Fox's broadcasts averaged 1,879,000, up 1,875,000. TBS's early primetime games averaged 375,000 plays, up 2%.

But local viewership declined as the market was hit by the bankruptcy of Diamond Sports Group and a carriage dispute involving Comcast Corp. Diamonds abandoned Bally Sports networks from early May to late July. Sports Business Journal reported that 22 teams experienced declines.

Noah Garden, MLB's deputy economic and media commissioner, believes the marketing and television landscape has changed significantly since the Cubs' triumph, particularly during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

“People have moved all over the world, just as you can work from anywhere today, and they have moved all over the country,” he said. “If you look at the viewership, it's certainly concentrated in LA and New York, but not everything. Like there’s a tremendous amount of viewership and engagement from all over the country.”

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AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy contributed to this report.

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