This World Series gives baseball a chance to reclaim its own nickname and make it a national pastime once again national. And maybe even more.

Rob Manfred, commissioner of Major League Baseball, was given a marketer's dream. Two of the sport's most iconic franchises, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, will face off in the best-of-seven championship round. These metropolitan areas happen to have more television viewers than any other in the country, and their teams are incredibly good.

Now in his 10th season at the top of the sport, Manfred believes baseball has the ability to seize the moment and bring the Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani and the Yankees' Aaron Judge even further into the consciousness of sports fans.

“This is trying to appeal to the whole country and the whole world, and this is different from what has been done in the past,” Manfred said in an interview with The athlete.

A surreal collection of talent will be on display at Dodger Stadium when the series begins on Friday. Ohtani of Japan wowed at least two countries this season by becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases. Judge hit 60 home runs two years ago and this year he missed the mark by just two. But Los Angeles' Mookie Betts could be the game's most complete player not named Ohtani, and young Yankees slugger Juan Soto could land a $500 million or even $600 million contract as a free agent this winter.

“There’s a lot to leverage here,” said Jim Andrews, sports sponsorship expert and founder of A-Mark Strategies. “It depends on the specific execution. How do you literally produce the right content on the right channels? The core fans are probably very excited for many reasons. But how do you use this opportunity to win new fans? I think that’s the key.”

Manfred and the baseball teams have long been told that they are falling short when it comes to developing their stars. On Wednesday, he said some of those criticisms were justified, but others were not.

“If you hear something enough times, I think it takes a certain level of arrogance to ignore it, and it was definitely something that was said,” Manfred said. “That’s why I paid attention. It's a question of concentration. The local clubs did a lot of marketing and we relied on that local marketing. I think I’m talking about a completely different focus here.”

Manfred outlined four main components of the league's plan to battle hearts and minds, with some overlap.

The first is to focus on the obvious: the players. Judge and Ohtani are featured in a campaign with the slogan “Once in a Generation.” Twice.” There is league content tailored to each individual – “All Rise” for Judge, “Sho Time” for Ohtani – as well as others distributed everywhere from social media and television to outdoor billboards and signage.

The second attempt is also not surprising, an acknowledgment of history.

“Joe DiMaggio and Jackie Robinson played against each other in a Yankee-Dodger World Series. So did Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax,” Manfred said. “This is a sequel.”

Both Manfred and Clayton Kershaw will benefit from the Dodgers returning to the World Series. (Daniel Shirey / MLB Photos via Getty Images)

The third goes abroad. The most-watched MLB postseason game of all time in Japan came earlier this postseason, in the Dodgers' decisive Game 5 victory over the San Diego Padres in the National League Division Series. An estimated average of 12.9 million viewers watched the game on television in Japan than in the United States. One of the two starters for this game, Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers, will pitch Game 2 of the World Series.

“I think our ratings in Japan will be great,” Manfred said. “This is an important market where you can make real money.”

At the start of the postseason, MLB ran 113 billboard advertisements around Tokyo, a nod to Ohtani's total home runs and stolen bases.

And the fourth part of the league's plan is national in nature, based on the hope that the World Series will be viewed as more than just a coastal big-city party.

“We operate in many markets outside of Los Angeles and New York to promote. “We got something going in Las Vegas at the Sphere,” Manfred said. “Why are we doing this? That’s part of it, we want the World Series to be an event that people watch all over America, not just in the two cities.”

Central to this effort is an attempt to focus on younger fans through social media and music to meet fans where they are. MLB collaborated with El Alfa, a Dominican music artist, to create a song about Soto's path to the playoffs. Andrews said social media is an area where MLB has historically lagged behind the NBA and NFL.

Last year's World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers didn't offer the same opportunity. But once a match is set, there is a limit to how much MLB can reinvent to advance a series, Andrews said. Success largely depends on putting existing plans to the test.

With this in mind, Jon Einalhori, vice president of marketing at gaming agency Apex, believes the series can go so far as to revitalize the game.

“No, that is not an exaggeration because there is a real opportunity here,” said Einalhori, who represents several participants in the series. “If you look at all the data about the number of fans, TV ratings, viewership and social media impressions, there is an upward trend. Everything has been building up for years.”

The league said the average age of ticket buyers fell from 51 to 46. FOX, which broadcasts the World Series, saw a 39 percent increase in the 18- to 34-year-old demographic this postseason compared to last year, its best since 2017.

SponsorUnited, a platform that tracks sponsorships in various sports, released a report Thursday that found the number of Japanese brands in MLB stadiums increased 218 percent in two seasons, a development that is at least partially linked to Ohtani's celebrity.

The Dodgers and Yankees combined for an estimated $300 million in sponsorship revenue this year, creating a big-money duel not just in payroll but in other avenues as well. SponsorUnited founder Bob Lynch described their meeting as “the equivalent of the Dallas Cowboys versus the Golden State Warriors: two entities that together generate more sponsorship revenue than any other two that have ever played against each other in the United States.”

“The way I look at this World Series is we had two really good years in a row,” Manfred said. “Attendance is up, our ratings are good, our demographics – both in terms of ticket purchases and people watching the shows – are really improving. … And I think this World Series presents an opportunity to appeal to a national audience because of the matchup and the players involved.”

The start of the 2023 season is a demarcation line. Manfred defied the traditionalists and introduced a pitch clock that forced faster game action and made games quicker.

Lynch also said he has noticed the league has strengthened its own internal operations that advise clubs. MLB teams saw an overall 20 percent increase in sponsorship revenue this season.

“They had an incredibly successful season off the field,” Lynch said. “This is a happy conclusion to a great financial year.”

Not everything will be under MLB's control over the next eight days, the maximum amount of time the series can run. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Einalhori said he understands that the MLB is inundated with requests from celebrities to attend the games.

“You will have hundreds of millions, if not — I kid you not — billions of social media impressions from outside the baseball sphere,” Einalhori said. “That is, in my opinion, the most immeasurable in terms of capitalization, but it will probably bring the most value.”

FOX will also have a big impact on how the game is received. From the presidential election to college football to the NFL to the NBA season, it's a crowded news cycle that baseball needs to break through, Andrews said.

“Your broadcast partner obviously has to help you,” he said.

MLB and FOX considered a special arrangement that ultimately didn't prove necessary.

For the first time this year, the World Series had two possible start dates: October 25th or October 22nd. The earlier date would have helped avoid a long break if both preliminary round series, the National League and American League Championship series, finished in five games or less.

But as both the Dodgers and Yankees entered their fifth game with a chance to close out that round, MLB and FOX considered keeping the World Series on the later schedule anyway to let it marinate.

“This was largely due to the desire of our broadcast partners to have a little more time to sell,” Manfred said of the discussion.

With the Dodgers needing six games to advance, the conversation was ultimately moot. But an LA-New York reunion is a boon for FOX, which taps into fan bases from the country's two most populous cities.

Of course, some fans in smaller markets will again complain that these teams and their high payrolls are the last two standing. But Manfred defended the state of competition and equality throughout sport.

“Our track record in terms of competitive balance is damn good,” said Manfred. “I just don’t think you can shout about the Yankees and the Dodgers given the matchups we’ve had over the last few years.”

Manfred said that “long-term efforts in this iconic World Series are beginning to bear fruit.” The question quickly arises as to how long it can remain ripe. MLB could look to launch a national streaming package with a major digital company in the coming years. How much money it can make from these media rights depends on how well it attracts attention across the country.

“The NFL has just done a great job of really creating content and conversation throughout the year, whereas baseball tends to disappear in the dead of winter until spring training begins,” Andrews said. “Go to your social networks and say: We have these stories of, 'Hey, if you missed it, here's a reminder of all the exciting things that happened last fall and make sure you check it out in the.' Don't miss the year 2025.' '“

(Illustration by Meech Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Heather Barry, Todd Kirkland, Rob Tringali, Kevork Djansezian /Getty Images)