Jewelry has become just as paramount to baseball uniforms as bats and gloves. But while gold chains are a dime a dozen on the baseball diamond, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher—and 2025 World Series MVP—Yoshinobu Yamamoto opted for something a bit bolder.
Ahead of the season, Yamamoto approached jeweler Gabe Arik of Happy Jewelers with a brief: “He told me, Gabe, make me something really cool for the beginning of the season,” Arik tells Vogue. “He wanted something different and unique, and he wanted to represent the Dodger Blue.” So Arik fashioned the star pitcher a 14 karat gold tennis necklace with over 30 carats of vibrant blue sapphires. “He told a lot of his buddies that it’s his good luck charm,” he adds. “He wears it every time he pitches.”
A second-generation jeweler, Arik’s father set up shop in Istanbul, Türkiye in 1973; Arik opened Happy Jewelers in Orange County 25 years ago. Though he is an avowed Dodgers fan, Arik’s business caters to teams across Major League Baseball. “Happy Jewelers has become a destination,” he says. “Other teams that play the Dodgers or the Angels come visit the store to take out new chains or to come pick up a new piece of jewelry for their girlfriend or their wife.”
In fact, his entrée to the major league wasn’t via the Dodgers, but the Chicago White Sox. “Frank Thomas from the Chicago White Sox started using me through a friend of his that wasn’t a baseball player,” Arik says. “He and his wife, Megan, started referring me to a lot of their friends and it just became from one team to another.”
Yamamoto was introduced to Happy Jewelers by his teammate Kiké Hernández, who likes to take big swings with his bling. This season, the utility player gave Arik full creative license. The result: a double-strand tennis necklace with multiple shades of blue sapphires. Other pieces in his collection include a rainbow sapphire tennis necklace and a multicolored ruby necklace.
But it was Yamamoto’s bold blue necklace that caught spectators’ eyes as it hung over his gray World Series Champion t-shirt on November 1. Happy Jewelers has already sprung into action, listing the MVP-approved piece for sale on their website, both in natural and lab-grown sapphires.
While Los Angeles is still basking in the afterglow of a second consecutive World Series win, Arik is already looking forward to next season. “I’m sure we’ll be making him something very unique next year,” he says of Yamamoto. “I have a couple of ideas coming for him during preseason.”
