At the ceremony where he received his ring for the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the 2020 World Series, David Anderson '15, then in his first year with the organization, was jokingly told by a club official, "Don't get used to it! It's not that easy."

Although he doesn't take it for granted, Anderson, now in his sixth year with the Dodgers, is kind of used to it. The defending World Series champions will be going after another ring, which would be Anderson's third, when they take on the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2025 World Series beginning Friday night.

And even if the Dodgers don't win the Series, at least one other former Mule athlete will have close ties to the championship team. Matt Schneider '00, who played basketball at Muhlenberg, is the older brother of Blue Jays manager John Schneider.

Pictured clockwise from bottom left: Anderson in the dugout with the Oklahoma City Comets (photo courtesy Oklahoma City Comets), Anderson as a Mule, Matt Schneider as a Mule, and Matt Schneider and family with John Schneider at Fenway Park.

Anderson, who won seven games in his career as a Mule hurler, is one of two pitching coaches for the Oklahoma City Comets, the Triple-A affiliate of the Dodgers. Since joining the organization following collegiate coaching stints at Muhlenberg, Cornell University, and Emory University, he has climbed through the ranks from Rookie ball in Arizona to the High-A Great Lakes Loons in Michigan to the highest level of the Minor Leagues.

That climb has paralleled some of the pitchers who might throw in the World Series.

"We were at dinner last night in the locker room and I was looking around, and of course you've got Shohei [Ohtani], Freddy [Freeman], Mookie [Betts], that whole group," he says. "But then there's a large group of guys that came up like Justin Wrobleski, Emmet Sheehan, and Kyle Hurt, that we had in Great Lakes and then we had in Oklahoma City. 

"And it's just kind of a full-circle moment to see the guys come into our organization that we had at lower levels who are now contributing in different roles to a potential World Series run. So it's really cool in a lot of ways."

Anderson was speaking by phone from Los Angeles, where he was assisting in pre-Series workouts for Dodger players. He was working with the "stay hot" group — players who were not on the active roster for the League Championship Series but are eligible to be added for the World Series. 

With the Dodgers providing World Series tickets for all of their employees, Anderson had plans to attend the first two games in Toronto, although he wasn't sure if he would go straight there or fly home to Syracuse and make the drive with his parents.

Anderson, who in a 2020 article called current Mule skipper Tod Gross "one of the most influential coaches I've been around," is taking his enviable success and the success of his organization in stride, enjoying his opportunity for another World Series title ("I don't imagine something at this level ever getting old," he says) and not thinking too much about what the future may hold. He did admit to having a "pinch-me" kind of moment this summer, though, when Clayton Kershaw was making a rehab start for the Comets.

"You can say anything you want about various pitchers … that dude is on the Mount Rushmore for me," he says. "So just watching him warm up in the bullpen three feet away, that was kind of a surreal moment."

For Matt Schneider, a surreal moment was watching George Springer hit a pennant-winning home run in the seventh inning of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series — the hit that propelled the Blue Jays to their first World Series in 32 years.

Schneider was sitting at home watching the game with his three daughters, ages 8 to 15, all decked out in Blue Jays gear. His mother, who was at the game, actually spoiled the big moment by texting Matt about it a few seconds before he saw it on his television screen. But that didn't lessen the impact of that moment, or the feeling two innings later when the game was over.

"It was crazy," says Schneider. "It was like a dream. A lot of emotion. I was crying, everybody was crying. It was just like, this is what you try to get to."

Matt Schneider has always been close to John, who is two years younger and came to see Matt play basketball at Memorial Hall during his Muhlenberg days. John played baseball at the University of Delaware, was drafted by the Blue Jays, and played six years in the Minor Leagues, reaching as high as Triple-A, before retiring as a player in 2007 and transitioning to a coaching career.

Like Anderson, John climbed through the ranks, coaching stars such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette along the way, and was promoted to the Major League coaching staff in 2019. He was named the interim manager of the Blue Jays in July 2022 and hired as full-time manager that winter.

Matt has been along for the ride every step of the way.

"Even in this unconventional situation where a close brother and family member rises to this kind of meteoric place of spotlight, we have a very family-first mentality," says Matt, who planned to attend the first two games of the World Series with his wife, daughters, and parents. "[John] always stays true to who he is, and we've done a nice job keeping that relationship through the ebbs and flows of his career, even in the highest of highs and lowest of lows. And now is that case where it's obviously really high."

Matt, who still lives in the same house in Lawrence, New Jersey, where the two (and a third younger brother) grew up, says he talks to John about twice a week during the baseball season. John will run lineups and pitching decisions by Matt, who is always eager to offer his opinion. Matt goes to watch the Blue Jays when they play in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore, and occasionally in Toronto. John FaceTimed Matt from the clubhouse during the league championship celebration.

Asked how proud he is of John on a scale of one to 10, Matt joked, "Can we go with 15?", and it's likely that the pride is mutual. Matt is a senior vice president for Area 23, a health care marketing company based in Manhattan. It's a field he's been in ever since he finished up at Muhlenberg, where he scored more than 800 points, was a two-year captain, and earned All-Centennial Conference honors in basketball.

"I'm still in touch with a core group of guys from that team, and we always say it was literally the best four years of our lives," he says. "I think it was the perfect blend of academics, athletics, and social. Muhlenberg really helped me build a nice foundation for where I am now."

Matt's basketball career included the 1998 Centennial Conference championship, although he was injured and unable to play in the championship tournament. So he had to contribute by supporting his basketball family from the sidelines, just as he'll support his real family in the coming week in pursuit of another championship.