Ring bling: Dodgers show off glittering World Series rings in pregame ceremony

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings in a ceremony Friday night.

“There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings.

“What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn't have scripted it any better.”

A choir in the left field pavilion sang “We Are the Champions” to open the ceremony hosted by actor Anthony Anderson.

“Nobody was like us last year and I have a feeling that nobody will be like us this year,” said Anderson, a Dodgers fan.

Ohtani, World Series MVP Freddie Freeman and Roberts received some of the loudest cheers walking a blue carpet to a circular stage between home plate and the mound.

Ohtani waved to the fans. They chanted “Freddie! Freddie!” when it was Freeman's turn.

They were greeted with hugs from owner Mark Walter, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, president and CEO Stan Kasten and general manager Brandon Gomes, who presented the coaching staff and players with blue boxes.

An injured Kershaw didn't pitch in the postseason last year, which culminated in the Dodgers' five-game victory over the rival New York Yankees in the World Series. Ohtani's Japanese countryman, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and catcher Austin Barnes were busy warming up in the bullpen and had a clubhouse manager accept their rings.

The Dodgers unveiled their World Series championship flag in center field and a championship emblem on the right field suite level before a 5-4 win over the Tigers in Thursday’s home opener.

“This is the final piece,” Roberts said. “Just to kind of have the fans here to kind of enjoy this with us and close the book on 2024.”

Roberts had not seen the ring ahead of time.

“It’s a symbol for me,” he said, adding that he doesn’t wear rings although he wears a wedding band.

Roberts said he keeps his World Series rings from 2004 (as a player with Boston) and 2020 (as manager with the Dodgers) in a home safe.

Mookie Betts picked up his third championship ring, to go with a 2018 title in Boston and now two in LA.

“This is my favorite one so far,” he said. “Hopefully I can get some more and then we’ll be able to compare.”

The hand-crafted rings by Jostens contain 14-karat yellow gold, diamonds and genuine sapphires.

Inside the box’s lid, a video plays highlights of the World Series. Using a specialized hinge mechanism, the top of the ring opens to reveal Dodger Stadium displayed in detail and features the Commissioner’s Trophy with one diamond to mark the victory. Eight diamonds represent each of the team's World Series titles and the years 1883 and 2024 mark the franchise's 142 seasons.

The left side of the ring top interior includes a piece from the bases used in the World Series. Encircling the base are 34 sapphires honoring the Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, who died days before the World Series began.

In a personal touch, players' signatures are on the interior palm of the ring.

“The ring is incredible,” third baseman Max Muncy said.

Former Dodger Jack Flaherty started for the Tigers on Friday night, so he'll receive his ring Saturday.

“We can go beat him up today and give him the ring tomorrow,” Roberts joked.

Flaherty, a native of nearby Burbank, California, started Game 1 of the National League Championship Series and Game 1 of the World Series, both at Dodger Stadium where he attended games as a kid. He joined the Dodgers at last year's trade deadline and provided stability to a starting rotation rocked by injuries.

“He was the right person at the right time for our club," Roberts said. “He delivered.”

Utilityman Kiké Hernández got out of his sick bed to participate in the ceremony after missing the home opener a day earlier.

“He's feeling much better,” Roberts said.

The team gathered behind the mound waiting for everyone to cross the stage and then posed for photos, smiling and admiring the bling on their fingers. A brass band broke into “They Not Like Us.”

“I hope it fits,” Roberts said. “If it ends up on my pinkie, we'll be in trouble.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

A Los Angeles Dodgers 2024 World Series ring sits in its box after a ceremony at Dodger Stadium on Friday, March 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Beth Harris)

A Los Angeles Dodgers 2024 World Series ring sits in its box after a ceremony at Dodger Stadium on Friday, March 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Beth Harris)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman, left, Shohei Ohtani, center, and Mookie Betts pose with their rings during a World Series Champion ring ceremony prior to a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw and Will Smith show each other their rings during a World Series Champion ring ceremony prior to a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Max Muncy, left shows his ring to Shohei Ohtani during a World Series Champion ring ceremony prior to a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Freddie Freeman, left, Shohei Ohtani, center, and Mookie Betts pose with their rings during a World Series Champion ring ceremony prior to a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

ATLANTA (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday instructed the Justice Department to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a sweeping election overhaul that Georgia Republican lawmakers passed in the wake of President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss in the state.

The lawsuit, filed in June 2021 under former President Joe Biden, alleged that the Georgia law was intended to deny Black voters equal access to the ballot. Bondi said the Biden administration was pushing “false claims of suppression.”

“Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us,” she said.

The law was part of a trend of Republican-backed measures that tightened rules around voting, passed in the months after Trump lost his reelection bid to Biden, claiming without evidence that voter fraud cost him victory. The fallout was swift after Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the law in March 2021, with the CEOs of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola voicing criticism and Major League Baseball's commissioner deciding to move that year's All-Star Game from Atlanta's Truist Park.

Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans who drew Trump's ire when they refused to help overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia, strongly denounced the Justice Department lawsuit when it was filed. Raffensperger on Monday called Bondi's announcement “a significant win for Georgia voters.”

“Our commitment has always been to ensure fair and secure elections for every Georgian, despite losing an All-Star game and the left’s boycott of Georgia as a result of commonsense election law,” Raffensperger said in a statement.

Kemp also welcomed Bondi's announcement. He accused Democrats and others of spreading “lies and misinformation” and said, “Georgia is one of the top states in the country for early voting and experienced record voter turnout in multiple elections since the passage of the Elections Integrity Act.”

Fair Fight Action, a voting rights advocacy organization started by former Democratic candidate for Georgia governor Stacey Abrams, slammed the plans to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the law has made it “harder — not easier — for many Georgians to vote.”

“Dismissing this case doesn’t change the truth, it just proves Trump’s DOJ will not work to protect Americans’ freedom to vote,” Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo said in a statement.

Known as SB 202, the law added a voter ID requirement for mail ballots, shortened the time period for requesting a mailed ballot and resulted in fewer ballot drop boxes available in populous metro Atlanta counties that lean Democratic and have a significant Black population. The law also banned the distribution of food and water by various groups and organizations to voters standing in line to cast a ballot.

In announcing the dismissal of the lawsuit, Bondi said Black voter turnout in Georgia “actually increased” after the law was passed. A December analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found that while the number of ballots cast by Black voters increased from 2020 to 2024, Black turnout actually declined by 0.6% because the increase in the number of ballots cast by Black voters did not keep up with population increases.

“Understanding whether, or to what extent, these declines are due to restrictive voting policies such as Georgia’s S.B. 202, justifiable feelings that the government is not working for them, or myriad other factors will be of signal importance,” the analysis says.

In addition to the Justice Department lawsuit, about a half-dozen other suits were filed by civil rights and election integrity groups raising claims based on the U.S. Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in voting.

FILE - Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks at a news conference at the Justice Department, Feb. 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)