As it turns out, Andrew Friedman is just like the rest of us.
The 2025 World Series will go down as one of the best of all time, as the Dodgers and Blue Jays traded haymakers into the 11th inning of Game 7. The stress of the Fall Classic didn’t spare anyone, not even L.A.’s president of baseball operations.
“It was a very intense Series,” Friedman said. “Everyone keeps talking about how great it was, and I’m sure it was for a lot of people. There were times when I had to step back and remember to breathe, to take breaths. Something I’m not very proud of: I may or may not have spiked a barstool in that Game 3.”
Game 3, an epic 18-inning marathon, lasted six hours and 39 minutes, with Freddie Freeman’s walk-off home run sending everyone home just 10 minutes before midnight in Los Angeles. MLB Network recently ranked it as the second-best game of the 2025 season, trailing only Game 7.
At one point, Friedman thought that the game would end well before the 18th inning. When Will Smith led off the 14th inning with a long fly ball to center field, Friedman thought it was “definitely” a home run. But the ball died on the warning track, nothing but a 383-foot flyout.
And that’s when the emotions kicked in.
“The excitement of the [potential] homer to the catch, I might have accidentally let the barstool slip,” Friedman said.
The Dodgers ultimately won the game because of a number of unsung heroes, including Will Klein -- who pitched four scoreless innings -- and even Clayton Kershaw. The three-time Cy Young Award winner recorded one of the biggest outs of the night, inducing an inning-ending groundout from Nathan Lukes to strand the bases loaded in the 12th inning. It would prove to be the final appearance of Kershaw’s storied career.
“It won’t be the same, not having him around on a daily basis,” Friedman said of Kershaw, who spent his entire 18-year career with the Dodgers. “... Beyond what he means, over his career and the impact he’s had on this city, the impact he’s had on our clubhouse, he was also still really good.”
“... That was my shameless plug, Kersh, in case you’re listening. Come work with us.”