Dodgers: Magic Johnson Makes a Bold Call on the Dodgers Season

Dodgers’ ace Clayton Kershaw and his wife Ellen Kershaw hosted the fifth annual “Ping Pong 4 Purpose” event Thursday night to help raise money for Kershaw’s Challenge.

The event benefited the Dream Center in Los Angeles and the CURE International hospital in the Dominican Republic. There were many celebrities in attendance as Jimmy Kimmel played the host of the event and other Hollywood actors like Jack Black, Jason Bateman and Casey Affleck were at Dodger Stadium to show support. Along with those Hollywood celebrities, there was also Dodgers minority owner Magic Johnson. Johnson received the Kershaw Challenge Impact Award.

While the event was focused on raising money for charity that didn’t stop Magic from making a bold announcement regarding the boys in blue.

That’s right. At the end of his award acceptance speech, Magic said the Dodgers are going to win the World Series this year! Well, based on the Dodgers first 102 games the Dodgers are certainly on the path to the World Series with an MLB Best 71-31 record.

The club is on pace to break the single season record for wins and are looking to get back to the World Series for the first time since 1988. I outlined just how special this season has been in an article earlier this week and to see the same mentality with the ownership is exciting for Dodger fans.

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The vibe around this Dodger team remains consistent through all levels of the organization. From ownership to the front office and the managers, to the players and now even the fans. The Dodgers are at a clear World Series or bust mentality this season.

The club is well on its way to winning their fifth consecutive division title, but that no longer is good enough for this team. After two NLDS and NLCS eliminations, it’s time for the franchise to make the jump.

The players have done their part this season, and now it looks like the front office is getting to work on doing their part before Monday’s MLB Trade Deadline.

There aren’t many holes in this club to fill, so it will be a difficult task to find a move to put the Dodgers over the top. Perhaps Magic hit it on the nose when he said the Dodgers need to focus on getting healthy (Kershaw and Gonzalez) and the talent will separate itself from the competition as they already have 102 games into the season.

The Cubs are making moves, and the Nationals aren’t sitting back quietly, so one thing is sure, the Dodgers are going to face tough competition come the postseason. It will be interesting to see what moves Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi have up their sleeves.

Next: Comparing the Team Defense to Last Season

I’m curious to see how other fans feel? Is this a World Series or bust year for the Dodgers? Will this magical regular season all be for nothing if the Dodgers don’t even make it to the World Series? Who knows? We do know one thing, that’s certainly the mentality inside the clubhouse.