This post was updated Nov. 7 at 11:33 p.m.

There comes a stage so grand that everyone in the crowd must turn toward it.

The World Series, returning to Los Angeles for the first time since 2018, captured the attention of Division I athletes and students alike.

From Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1 to the Dodgers’ Game 5 comeback, Westwood locals took note.

UCLA baseball coach John Savage had ties to both sides of the Fall Classic. As pitching coach at USC from 1997 to 2000, Savage mentored right-hander Mark Prior – who coincidentally became the Dodgers’ pitching coach 20 years later, standing alongside former Bruin and current Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts in the LA dugout.

Savage, however, is better known for his time with UCLA alumnus Gerrit Cole. Under the coach’s tutelage, Cole was named the No. 1 selection in the 2011 MLB Draft after a three-year career in Westwood. As a major leaguer, Cole has earned six all-star selections, the 2023 American League Cy Young Award and started two games for the Yankees in this past World Series.

“They’re both guys that are phenomenal pitchers,” Savage said. “Obviously, Gerrit’s still in the prime of his career, and Mark was an unbelievable pitcher at USC. … So it’s fun knowing those guys as well as I do and watching the success that they’re having at their highest level of baseball.”

There is added meaning for players currently on UCLA’s roster, as pitchers including sophomore right-hander Justin Lee get to watch a former Bruin right-hander take the big stage.

“He’s (Cole is) one of the top pitchers right now, and he was coached under coach Savage,” Lee said. “I think to myself, ‘I’m in the same spot as he was when he was in college.’”

Despite posting a 7.55 ERA during his freshman campaign, Lee showed significant development under Savage last year – ending the 2024 season with a team-leading 3.65 ERA in May.

Sophomore third baseman Roman Martin added that outside of admiring former Bruins, UCLA’s coaching staff embraces the Fall Classic as a means of player development.

“Coach Ward (assistant coach Bryant Ward), and I’m sure coach Savage does as well, but every meeting we get, they’re always bringing up something from the World Series game,” Martin said. “They’re always asking us if we saw a certain play or not. … From a player standpoint, it’s a great learning experience.”

Whether it be the College World Series or Major League World Series, the pinnacles of baseball bring along incredible demands, and it’s from those demands that athletes can learn the most about a team and its players.

“There’s a lot to learn from watching these guys perform as professionals,” Savage said. “The best time to watch Major League Baseball is the playoffs because every pitch matters, every play matters – there’s really a lot of pressure … and that’s how you learn.”

Bruin Dodger fans left the World Series with lifelong memories after watching the games together with family and friends.

Patrick Oliver, a second-year materials engineering student, watched the first game of the series on the upper floor of Barney’s Beanery in Westwood. As the game stretched into extra innings, he said Yankees fans in the bar heckled his friends. But after Freeman stepped up to the plate and hit the walk-off grand slam, they were nowhere to be found, he added.

“Beer was flying. Everyone was jumping up. Bartenders were hugging everyone. Grown men were dancing up and down like little kids,” he said. “It was one of the greatest sports-watching memories of my life.”

Oliver, who played baseball in the Central Valley growing up, added that winning the series against an East Coast team like the Yankees was extra special. He also said he was at work during the decisive fifth game but didn’t let that stop him and his boss from watching the last innings of the game together on his phone.

Ricardo Alvarez, a fourth-year labor studies student, said he grew up watching the Dodgers with his family – making yearly trips to Dodgers Stadium from his hometown of San Diego. Throughout the playoffs, he said he watched games with his friends at local bars and his fraternity house, Sigma Pi, in addition to attending Game 1 of the National League Championship Series when the Dodgers beat the Mets 9-0.

The recent passing of Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela makes this championship even more meaningful because of how much the pitcher meant to the Latino community and the city of LA, Alvarez added. He said winning the World Series so soon after Valenzuela’s death felt like winning it for him.

“It was more of just giving it back to him,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez said he watched until the very last strikeout of Game 5 with his friends in the fraternity house, continuing to banter with his Yankees fan fraternity brothers the whole time. As soon as strike three was called, he said he immediately texted his parents – the same people he grew up watching games with. His dad was already asking his shirt size for a new Freddie Freeman jersey, Alvarez added.

He also said seeing an alumnus from his own school in the dugout for the Dodgers was amazing, a testament to the kind of people that graduate from UCLA.

“UCLA makes leaders,” Alvarez added.