WATCH: Lakers’ Kobe Bryant Pitching for the LA Dodgers in this Throwback Video

The year 2020 has been replete with both negative and positive occurrences. The third decade of the century started off dismally but is ending on a bright note, at least for the Los Angeles sports fans. Firstly, the Lakers won their 17th NBA title, and now, the Dodgers have completed an NCLS comeback in game 7.

As the LA Dodgers advanced to the World Series, a late legend began trending on social media. Kobe Bryant had a very close association with the West division MLB team. He was a die-hard fan, and the clips of him cheering the franchise are living proof of the same.

Lakers’ Kobe Bryant and his passion for baseball

Growing up, a young Kobe was surprisingly a New York Mets fan. In an interview, he spoke about his admiration for right fielder Darryl Strawberry. Later in his career, he turned into a hardcore Dodgers fan. Here’s a video of Kobe wearing a Manny Machado #8 jersey and dancing with joy after watching Yasiel Puig hit a 3-run home run – 

Bryant was also very respected in the MLB, and this was one reason the LA franchise invited him to throw the first pitch in 2015 and then again to announce the game 4 Dodgers lineup in World Series 2018. 

Kobe was a true Los Angeles guy who would support everything related to the name. 

The loss of Black Mamba was felt and mourned by the baseball community

The MLB was in shock after they lost their homeboy in January 2020. However, the Dodgers, especially Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger, must take pride in fulfilling one of Kobe’s wants.

In an interview just a couple of weeks before his sad demise, the 5-time NBA champion had said, “You can’t change things that were, you can’t change the outcome. What you can do is control what you can control, which is your performance, how well you hit the ball, how well you pitch the ball, how well you defend. I think it’s important to focus on that and try to bring a World Series back to Los Angeles.”

The Dodgers went a step further in making this happen. This reinstates the feeling that Kobe’s influence reached far and wide.