Baseball-Yankees and Dodgers giving MLB dream World Series matchup

The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series is a timely boon for MLB, according to sports analysts who say the cast of high-profile players from marquee franchises has global appeal and could generate unprecedented TV ratings.

One year after the World Series drew record low viewership, Japan's Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the Yankees are battling on the sport's most prominent stage in what has become must-see TV.

"Dream matchup. You've got maybe the two best individual players in the game with Shohei and Aaron Judge," said Victor Matheson, a specialist in sports economics who teaches at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. "We have these great, historic and marquee teams.

"Kind of the nice thing for baseball is that there are more lovers of the Dodgers and Yankees than any other team. There's also more haters of the Dodgers and Yankees than any other team. So at least everyone has an opinion about these teams."

The matchup is a far cry from last year's clash between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks which notched the lowest viewership totals of any World Series since Neilsen first began publishing ratings in 1963.

This year, however, presents a vastly different story as the Yankees and Dodgers franchises are steeped in tradition, reside in Major League Baseball's two biggest markets and boast star-studded rosters.

"It's exactly what baseball needs and it's injected a lot of juice into the postseason," said Bob Dorfman, a sports marketing analyst based in San Francisco.

"And the fact that you got Ohtani against Judge, it's not just that it's these two venerable franchises but you've got the two greatest players making it into the World Series so that adds a whole other