WILLIAMSBURG — Twin brothers Will and Jon Rhymes, who attended William & Mary together and played baseball for the Tribe, both recently won a World Series as members of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.
Will serves as Vice President of Player Development and Jon serves as Video Operations and Game Planning manager.
Will recalls how fun it was to play with Jon at William & Mary.
“During my junior year, my brother broke the school record for hits at the time, and then the next year, I broke his record. It was definitely fun to do,” Will said.
Will went on to a professional career after being drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 2005. He retired from playing after a 10-year major league career in 2014.
“Most people, when they get done playing, there is this period where you really don’t know what to do. I definitely didn’t, I had no backup plan, I thought I’d play another year or two but I just ended up not getting a playing job. I started reaching out to my contacts in baseball and sent resumes and tried to connect with as many teams as I could. I ended up with a couple offers from the Dodgers and Tampa Bay and I ended up choosing the opportunity with the Dodgers,” Will said.
He started out as a pro scout and has worked his way up to overseeing the farm system for the Dodgers.
The Dodgers posted the best record in baseball for the 2024 regular season, wrapping up with a 98-64 record. In the postseason, they defeated the San Diego Padres and New York Mets to reach the World Series against the New York Yankees.
The Dodgers opened up to a three-game lead on the Yankees.
“After we won game three, I went down to the clubhouse and I told my brother, ‘we just won the World Series.’ When you are up 3-0, I trust the Dodgers to win one of those four games left. I think we kind of won it there,” Will said.
The Yankees took game four, the Dodgers were looking to close out the series during game five at Yankee Stadium. With the Yankees up 5-0 heading into the fiften inning, Will recalls sitting on his phone, getting ready to book a hotel in Los Angeles.
“As we were losing early on in game five, I was on my phone booking a hotel in LA because I’m thinking we’re going to play game six and seven at home. It was a real swing of emotions because we’re all preparing to go back for what is going to end up being a real dogfight if it gets back to LA,” Will said.
Slowly, the Dodger Magic started to return as Yankees throwing and fielding errors allowed the Dodgers to tie it up. The Yankees went ahead again in the sixth inning, but the Dodgers answered with two runs in the eighth which ultimately to put them ahead for good and win and the World Series title.
For Will, it was a special moment to win a ring with his twin brother by his side.
“Winning with my twin brother and getting to spend so much time with him, it was a really emotional experience. It was like seeing all your life’s work pay off and be worth it.”
