Asked whether he felt like a villain, Dave Roberts tilted his head and widened his eyes, startled that he was being categorized as some baseball equivalent of Darth Vader or Lex Luthor.

His Los Angeles Dodgers have been criticized for spending $509 million on its big league roster, more than seven times the $69 million of the big league-low Miami Marlins. The affable manager had yelled to LA fans after last week’s National League pennant clincher: “They said the Dodgers are ruining baseball. Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball!”

“I was just having a little fun with people that said that about the Dodgers,” he explained Thursday, a day ahead of the World Series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays, “but I hope I’m not the villain.”

Los Angeles is the first defending champio

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