The Los Angeles Dodgers have won back-to-back World Series, and this time it was because of a former Louisville Cardinal:

The photo at the top of the page is from Will Smith’s bio on the University of Louisville Baseball page. He had a great year in 2016, with career honors listed as:

• 2016 MLB Draft – 1st Round (32nd overall) – Los Angeles Dodgers
• 2016 NCAA Louisville Regional All-Tournament Team
• 2016 All-ACC Third Team
• 2016 Team Captain

Smith made another mark in baseball this past summer. In July, Sports Illustrated noted:

Former Louisville baseball star and current Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Will Smith has been named to the 2025 MLB All-Star Game as a starter for the National League, Major League Baseball announced Wednesday.

This is Smith’s third time being named an MLB All-Star, all coming in consecutive seasons. He’s the also the first former Louisville player to be a starter for the Midsummer Classic.

And Smith isn’t the only former Cardinal on the Dodgers:

Dalton Rushing was with the Cards in 2022, with career highlights including:

• 2022 MLB Draft, 2nd Round (40th overall), Los Angeles Dodgers
• 2022 Collegiate Baseball Newspaper All-America Second Team
• 2022 ABCA All-America Third Team
• 2022 Perfect Game All-America Third Team
• 2022 All-ACC Second Team
• 2022 All-ACC Baseball Academic Team

And Bobby Miller was with the 2020 covid-shortened season, with career honors including:

• 2020 MLB Draft, 1st Round (29th overall), Los Angeles Dodgers
• 2018 Freshman All-America (Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, D1 Baseball, Perfect Game)
• 2018 All-ACC Third Team
• 2018 ACC All-Freshman Team

Here’s an interesting little bit of trivia on Miller, from MLB.com:

The Orioles selected him in the 38th round (in 2017), but he declined to attend Louisville instead, citing the Cardinals as the program he wanted to play for growing up. In fact, Miller didn’t visit any other schools or entertain other scholarship offers before he committed to Louisville as a high school sophomore.

Remember: This year’s team went to the College World Series. That’s a sign we’ll have more former Cardinals with MLB World Series titles in the years to come.