Yankees- Dodgers: The Greatest Rivalry In Baseball
The Greatest Moments From Their Eleven Previous Meetings Before The World Series Begins Friday
Forget what you hear about the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry being the greatest in baseball, nay, all sports. A rivalry, in my opinion, involves both teams being equal and as any Red Sox fan who lives through even part of the 20th century knows, until 2004 the Yankees always had Boston’s number. The figures have changed in the 21st century I admit but right now, the numbers are squarely in Boston’s favor.
No the greatest rivalry and one of the purest is the Yankees vs the Dodgers. The two teams have faced off more often in the World Series then any other pairing in history. That period takes place between 1941 and 1981, when the two teams met in the October classic eleven times. The Yankees apparently had the bigger advantage when it comes to numbers: they beat the Dodgers eight times while the Dodgers only one three. But with only two exceptions none of them could be considered easy for either team. Four of them went to the maximum seven games, many of which could have been won by the team that lost. Four of the others went to six and while the Yankees ended up taking three of them, there were so many opportunities where the series could have gone either way.
Almost all of them have had some of the most dramatic and often inexplicable moments in the history of the World Series. Many have seen cherished records fall often by improbable heroes. And on both teams some of the greatest players of all time have appeared for both teams and have had their finest moments in October. Next Friday that potential looks very much like it will occur again as the two of the most legendary stars in all of baseball — Aaron Judge for the Yankees and Shosei Ohtani for the Dodgers — will meet in the World Series. Both men have already set records in baseball history. And as anyone who is a casual fan of baseball knows, the spotlight may very well end up shining on the least likely of people.
To prepare for this moment I intend to relate to you the dramatic highlights of each of the eleven match-ups. In the case of this writing I will focus on one game that perhaps better than anything represents that drama. Some of the moments are known even to the non-baseball fan. Others forgotten by all the must devoted. All show what baseball is when it is at its best. And I think to make the drama clearer I intend to let two of the greatest sportswriters in history — Shirley Povich of the Washington Post and Roger Angell of The New Yorker — speak for me whenever possible.
1941 World Series, Game 4
The rivalry began in 1941 when Larry MacPhail had after years of careful building constructed the hapless Brooklyn Dodgers into pennant contenders. After one of the greatest pennant races of all time against the St. Louis Cardinals, who would be their great rival for the 1940s, the Dodgers won the pennant by 2 and a half games, the first they had won since 1920.
That year the Yankees had won the American League pennant by sixteen games, powered by Joe DiMaggio’s once-in-a-lifetime 56 game hitting streak that led him to win his second MVP over Ted Williams’s and his .400 average. The Yankees had won four consecutive World Series between 1936 and 1939 and had not lost a World Series since the Cardinals had defeated them back in 1926. The Dodgers seemed outgunned.
After three games the Dodgers were trailing two games to one but it looked like fate was smiling on them. They had a 4–3 lead going into the ninth with two outs and were one strike away from tying the Series at 2 games apiece. I’ll let Shirley Povich tell you the rest:
Get this picture please…The Dodgers leading 4–3, nobody on base, two Yankees already out, two strikes on Tommy Henrich…Casey winding up for the pitch he hoped would strike out Henrich and clinch the game for Brooklyn. Casey feeling for the proper grip on the curve ball he prayed would be the best he ever threw. Casey watching Henrich swing and miss.
…Catcher Mickey Owen muffed the ball, Heinrich a strike out victim reaching base, how the Yankees, capitalizing the break, rushed four runs across the place. How the strikeout that didn’t retire the batter paved the way for Casey’s defeat. No pitcher ever had victory snatched from him in a manner quite so brutal.
The Dodgers never recovered from that loss. The next day they lost 3–1 and the Yankees had won the World Series, four games to one. It was a bizarre end to a great year for baseball two months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and America was thrust into World War II.
1947 World Series, Game 4
Historically of course this World Series is the first one in which an African-American ever played. Jackie Robinson had led the Dodgers with one of the most incredible rookie years in history and brought Brooklyn its first pennant in six years. They won six more in the next nine and face the Yankees in all of them.
Robinson played well but the greatest moment in the series — arguably the most improbable in the history of the World Series to that point — came in Game 4. Bill Bevens was pitching for the Yankees. He had gone 7–13 that year on a team that had gone 97–57. And he did not have his best stuff. By the 8th inning he’d already walked eight batters but he was still pitching a no-hitter. The Yankees were winning 2–1 when Bevens walked out to pitch the ninth.
In the bottom of the ninth he got catcher Bruce Edwards to fly out. He walked Carl Furillo. Al Gionfriddo pinch ran for Furillo. Spider Jorgensen flew out. Pete Reiser pinch hit for pitcher Hugh Casey and while Reiser was at bat, Gionfriddo stole second base. The Yankees intentionally walked Reiser. The Dodgers then set up Cookie Lavagetto to pinch hit for Eddie Stanky. Lavagetto had come to bat just 69 times that season and gotten just 18 hits. But on a 1–0 pitch, he lined a fast ball that ricocheted off the wall in Ebbets field driving in both runs and giving the Dodgers the, evening the series at 2 games apiece.
Unbelievably the very next day, it looked like history would be made again in the ninth. The Dodgers were trailing 2–1, Bruce Edwards was on second with two out and the Dodgers sent Lavagetto up with the tying run on. But Spec Shea struck Lavagetto out. Neither he nor Bevens ever played in another big league game. The Dodgers would ultimately lose the World Series to the Yankees four games to three in what had been one of the greatest World Series to date. New York fans had no idea how many similar dramatic moments they would witness.
1949 World Series, Game 1
During the 1949 season both the Yankees and the Dodgers had been involved in two wire to wire pennant races with both teams clinching only on the final day of the season. The World Series that followed featured two mostly exhausted teams and the Yankees ended up easily winning 4 games to 1. But the opener was one of the greatest in baseball.
Don Newcombe, the first African-American pitcher in the National League had just completed a sensational rookie season, going 17–8 and having one of the best records of any pitcher in the National League. His opponent was Allie Reynolds, who’d gone 17–6 though with a 4.00 ERA.
Don Newcombe and Allie Reynolds both pitched magnificently. Reynolds gave up just two hits and struck out 9 through 9 innings. Newcombe gave up four hits and struck out 11 through 8. The first man up in the ninth was Tommy Henrich. He hit the first pitch Newcombe threw into the bleachers for the first walk-off home run in World Series history.
Newcombe was one of the greatest pitchers of his era but he never came close to winning another World Series game, notching a record of 0–4. Reynolds by contrast was one of the greatest World Series pitchers of all time, going 7–2 and also notching 4 saves. Neither pitcher has been inducted into the Hall of Fame and both are more than worthy.
1952 World Series, Game 7
The 1952 series featured incredible moments for many of the greatest players. Duke Snider became the third player in World Series history to hit four home runs, something that only Ruth and Gehrig had done before. Mickey Mantle hit the first two home runs of the record setting 18 he hit during his long career. Joe Black became the first African-American pitcher to win a World Series game. Johnny Mize, a former National League first basemen now essentially a replacement player, went 6 for 15 with 3 home runs. And in one of those events that could never have today — and wouldn’t happen even ten years later — in Game 5 Brooklyn starter Carl Erskine was lit up for five Yankees runs yet manager Charlie Dressen kept him in the game. Erskine rewarded him by retiring the last nineteen batters and the Dodgers won 6–5, taking a 3 game to 2 advantage.
But the most remarkable came, as you might expect, in Game 7. The Dodgers were down 4–2 in the seventh. Casey Stengel brought in Vic Raschi to relieve despite having pitched 7 2/3 innings the day before. (The fifties, man.) Raschi promptly loaded the bases and only retired one batter. Stengel brought in Bob Kuzava, who himself thought that Stengel was crazy to bring him in. He retired Duke Snider on a popout. The next man up was Jackie Robinson.
Robinson also popped up. Yogi Berra yelled for first baseman Joe Collins to make the catch. But Collins was blinded by the afternoon sun. As it dropped the tying runs had scored and the winning run was heading towards home. Billy Martin at second realized Collins didn’t see the ball and no one else was going after it. He raced beside the mound, caught the ball belt high and fell to his knees with the game-saving catch. Martin didn’t realize until after the game how far he had run.
The Dodgers never recovered and Kuzava saved the game and the Series for the Yankees.
1953 World Series, Game 3
Martin was the unquestioned hero of the 1953 World Series batting .500 with twelve hits, including one double, two triples and two home runs, driving in 8. It was one of the greatest performances in World Series history to that point. This series was one based on offense with both teams scoring a combined 60 runs in the six games. And yet in the midst of it the most remarkable record was held by one of the pitchers.
Carl Erskine was a pitcher known for his wicked curve ball and on October 2nd the Yankees were held at bay by it. Mantle and Collins were the biggest victims each striking out four times.
In the top of the ninth, with the Dodgers ahead 3–2 Erskine had struck out twelve. At that point the World Series record was held by Howard Ehmke, who in the opening game of the 1929 World Series had struck out thirteen Chicago Cubs for the Philadelphia A’s.
Erskine struck out punch hitter Don Bollweg. Johnny Mize, who’d been telling the batters all game to lay off the curve, pinch hit for Raschi. Erskine struck him out for the record. But the game wasn’t over. Joe Collins was up. Both men were terrified: Collins because he didn’t want to set the record of futility by striking out five times in a World Series Game and Erskine because he was afraid Collins could hit a home run to tie the game. Neither man’s fears were realized as Erskine got Collins to ground out.
Ehmke’s record had last for twenty-four years. Erskine’s would last considerably less as will see later on.
1955 World Series, Game 7
If you were a Brooklyn fan this game was the brightest moment in your existence. And the fact that the Dodger victory came at the hands of Johnny Podres of all people must have been the biggest shock of all. Podres had got 9–10 that year and after three years on the staff was considered by Brooklyn fans as a disappointment: his two winning seasons were considered primarily of his being the beneficiary of the Dodger hitters considering his often horrible ERA. But after winning Game 3 in a surprising performance he got the call to pitch Game 7.
Things were going well for the Dodgers in the first five innings. Too well. They were ahead 2–0 but everyone was waiting for the bad break to hit. In the sixth it looked like it was coming. Martin worked Podres for a walk. Gil McDougald singled. The next man up was Yogi Berra who already was one of the greatest postseason hitters in history, especially against Brooklyn. He’d hit .429 against them in 1953. He’d hit two home runs against them in Game 5. And everyone in baseball knew Berra could hit anything, bad pitch or good.
Podres threw a fastball. Berra was looking for a change up and swung late. He hit the ball deep to left-field, a place that everyone in the stands and at home knew was not where Berra hit baseballs. It looked like it was going to be a long foul, a ground rule double or a home run. Catching it was not conceivable.
But Sandy Amoros had inexplicably not played Berra to pull and was closer to the foul line then normal. As a result the speedy Amoros was able to cover ground and in a moment that will live in Dodger lore forever, caught the ball on his gloved right hand just before it landed in the railing. He wheeled and threw a perfect strike to Pee Wee Reese, who through it to Hodges in time to catch the desperate McDougald before he could get back to first. Hank Bauer grounded out and the rally was over.
In the ninth Podres retired the last three batters and Reese threw the ball to Gil Hodges. As Povich said in his article: “The Brooklyn Dodgers champion of the baseball world…Honest.”
1956 World Series, Game 5
I wrote extensively about the 1956 World Series last year and at this point I don’t have anything to add about it or the perfect game that Don Larsen pitched. So instead, I’ll let Povich speak for me:
The million-to-one shot came in. Hell froze over. A month of Sundays hit the calendar. Don Larsen today pitched a no-hit, no run, no-man-reached first game in a World Series.
On the mound in Yankee stadium, the same guy who was knocked out in two innings by the Dodgers on Friday came up today with one for the record books, posting it there in solo grandeur as the only Perfect Game in World Series history.
There wasn’t a Brooklyn partisan left among the 64,519 (Yankee Stadium attendance) it seemed, at the finish. Loyalties to the Dodgers evaporated in sheer enthrallment at the show big Larsen was giving the, for this was a day when the fans could boast they were there.
It was, of course, the last World Series that the Brooklyn Dodgers ever played in and it signified a turning point in the Yankees dominance. To that point, Casey Stengel had managed the Yankees to seven pennants and six World Series in his first eight years. The following year the Yankees lost in seven games to Milwaukee, rebounded to beat them in seven in 1958, barely went .500 in 1959 and won the pennant in 1960 only to lose the World Series in a heartbreaking — to Yankee fans at least — seven game series to Pittsburgh. Stengel was forced out at the end of 1960 as was General Manager George Weiss.
The Dodgers, after moving to LA, won the World Series their second full season there over the White Sox. But by 1960 the Boys of Summer were retiring or past their prime. And when the Dodgers blew the pennant to the Giants, first by losing a four game lead with seven to play in the final week of the season and then the third play-off game in the ninth inning many thought the Dodgers were washed up.
They were wrong.
1963 World Series, Game 1
During Ralph Houk’s first three seasons managing the Yankees, they looked very much like the dynasty was never going to end. They averaged 106 wins over those three years and despite the increasing injuries to Mantle and Maris’ own health concerns, the Yankee dynasty looked as strong as ever in 1963. They’d won 105 games that year and most of it was due to their pitching. Whitey Ford had gone 24–7 with a 2.74 ERA. Jim Bouton in his first year in the rotation had gone 21–7. Ralph Terry had gone 17–14 and threw eighteen complete games. Rookie Al Downing was 13–5 with a 2.56 ERA. The Dodgers, who they were facing for the first time, since they’d relocated to Los Angeles had no chance.
In what was the definition of hubris before Game 1 of the World Series the Yankees said that Sandy Koufax — who’d gone 25–5 with 11 shutouts and a 1.88 ERA — “doesn’t throw that hard.” Koufax greeted the Yankees by striking out the first five batters who came up — the first three batters in the first and Mantle and Maris in the second.
Koufax efficiently moved past Carl Erskine’s record of strikeouts retiring 15 Yankees. That he struck out Mantle three times was hardly shocking; that Bobby Richardson who’d only struck out 22 times all season did so three times astonished everybody. After Richardson struck out for the third time he passed Mantle. “There’s no use me even going up there.”
The Yankees managed to get 2 runs off him in the eight on a Tom Tresh homer. They would be half the runs the Yankees scored in the entire series. The Dodgers won easily 5–2 in Game in what would be a four game sweep of the Yankees the first in franchise history. The Yankees went home still convinced in their own brilliance, sure that they had the better team.
But they were wrong. Though they won the American League pennant that year — the fifth consecutive one — the cracks in the armor were showing. In 1965 they dropped to sixth place while the Dodgers would win their second World Championship in three years.
Much of the next decade involved rebuilding for both teams. The Yankees had to do more but by the middle of the decade they were contending again. After Koufax retired the Dodgers spent a few years in the wilderness but slowly began to rebuild as much on offense as pitching. They were a strong team in the 1970s but they had the misfortune of being in the NL West against one of the greatest teams of all time: the Big Red Machine. They finished second to them four times during the decade, and the one year they managed to win both the division and the pennant they were swept by another dynasty. (I’ll get to that in a different series.)
By 1976 the Yankees were back in October and after they were swept by the Reds they entered the market of free agency. The Reds began to unravel mainly because their GM Bob Howsam, steadfastly refused to embrace it. The vacuum would be filled by the Dodgers.
1977 World Series, Game 6
Once again, there’s nothing I can say about Reggie Jackson’s performance. So I’ll let Roger Angell, who was actually there speak for me. Here he is after Jackson hit his first home run:
Jackson stepped up to the plate with two out and Willie Randolph on first and this time I called the shot. “He’s going to hit it out of here on the first pitch,” I announced to my neighbors in the press rows and so he did…
My call was not sheer divination. With the strange insect gaze of his shining eyeglasses, with his ominous Boche like helmet pulled low, with his massive shoulders, his gauntleted wrists, his high-held bat and his enormously muscled legs spread wide Reggie Jackson makes a frightening figure at bat. He is not a great hitter…(but) he is the most emotional slugger I have ever seen. Late in a close big game — and with the deep baying cried from the stands rolling across the field: “Reg-gie! Reg-gie! Reg-gie! — he strides to the plates and taps it with his bat and settles his batting helmet and gets his feet right and turns his glittery regard to the pitcher and we suddenly know that it is a different hitter we are watching now. Get ready everybody — it’s show time.
I did not call the third homer. One does not predict miracles…The ball flew out on a higher and slower trajectory — inviting wonder and incredulity — this time toward the unoccupied faraway center field that forms the background for the hitters at the plate, and even before it struck and caromed out there and before the showers of paper and the explosions of shouting came out of the crowd, one could almost begin to realize how many things Reggie Jackson had altered on this night.
Jackson had won this game and this World Series, and he had also, in some extraordinary confirming fashion, won this entire season, reminding us all of its multiple themes and moods and pleasure, which were now culminated in one resounding and unimaginable final chord.
And having done so Reggie, Billy and George Steinbrenner embrace in glory and happiness and tranquility reigned in Yankee stadium forever more. Or you know, until spring training the next year.
1978 World Series, Game 2
It was harder for a Yankees-Dodgers rematch for many reasons in 1978 then it was in 1963 and both teams had to work very hard. The Yankees remarkable comeback to win the AL East is well-known and they had to fight hard to get past Kansas City, who they’d beaten twice before in the ALDS the previous two years. It took only four games instead of five but that was not a picnic.
The Dodgers struggles were less historic but no less arduous. They had to beat both the Reds and the Giants for the NL West in 1978, beating the latter by 2 and a half games. They then had to face the Philadelphia Phillies in the process of their own mini-dynasty. The Dodgers had managed to beat them in four games in an NLDS that was much closer than the results indicated. This time the Dodgers easily won the first two games, lost the third to Steve Carlton and then barely won the fourth in extra innings.
The Dodgers seemed to be the better team initially winning the first game 11–5 and eventually taking a 2 game to none lead. The Yankees then managed to win four straight in a series where the heroes of the season underperformed (Ron Guidry won his only start but gave up eight hits and seven walks in a complete game) and the little guys were heroes — Bucky Dent batted .417, drove in seven runs and was the World Series MVP.
But the iconic moment of the series came in Game 2. The Dodgers were ahead 4 to 3 in the ninth inning of Game 2. With two men and two men out Reggie Jackson was at bat. The Dodgers sent it to face him a rookie pitcher named Bob Welch. He’d won 7 games his rookie year with a 2.02 ERA and had pitched four innings of relief to earn the victory in Game 1 of the NLDS for the Dodgers. He had not pitched a single inning since that day.
A rookie pitcher coming in during the bottom of the ninth against a man who was already the greatest World Series home run hitter of all time. It is one of those moments that baseball does so well, perhaps more than any other sport. Again I’ll let Angell tell the story:
The wonderful confrontation was executed in broad strokes. With Dent on second and Paul Blair leading off from first Jackson needed only a single to do his primary task but his full, staggering foul cut at Welch’s third fastball…told us Reggie was not interesting in shortening up. This was all or nothing: the famous millionaire slugger was going to take the kid downtown. Two more burning fastballs were fouled off with Reggie’s lurching swing each time resembling a dangerous defective drilling machine and we were all on our feet. Jackson took a ball, fouled off another pitch, then took another ball. I had been secretly hoping that Welch would throw a changeup…but Bob Welch, too, wanted the entertainment pure. He started in, stretched and reared, the two runners took off, fifty-six thousand fans yelled together, and Reggie cut mightily at a high fastball and the game and the marvelous moment were over. Jackson, enraged at his failure, smashed his bat in the dugout but he calmed down quickly. “The kid beat me,” he said in the clubhouse.
And of course because this is baseball in the seventh inning of Game 6, Reggie hit a two run home run off Welch on the first pitch he threw that inning. They were the insurance runs that clinched the Series for New York.
1981 World Series Game 3
Even if they had known it would be the last time that they would see the Yankees face the Dodgers for more than forty years I seriously doubt baseball fans would have cared much about the 1981 World Series. Because that summer the longest strike that Major League Baseball had endured to that point disrupted the sport for more then two months, causing almost all the fans to loathe the game of baseball. The Dodgers very appearance in the World Series at all had the stink of the strike on it. Baseball had decided the fairest way to determine the winners of the postseason was to divide it between the winners of the first half of the season and the second. The flaws in this system were clear throughout baseball and nowhere more appallingly then the NL West. The Cincinnati Reds had managed the best record in baseball that year but because they had not won either half of the postseason (the Dodgers took the first half, the Astros the second) they were not invited.
Still the Dodgers remarkable play that October should not be denied. They came back from a 2–0 deficit against the Astros to win the first found of the postseason, then defeated the Montreal Expos on a day that has come to be known as ‘Blue Monday’. And they started against the Yankees down two games to zero.
Still the season was saved — and in a way 1981 was redeemed by the performance of rookie pitcher Fernando Valenzuela. Down 2 games to nothing and already incredibly overworked Valenzuela pitched a game that was far from his best but one of pure heart. Down 4 to nothing by the start of the third he nevertheless managed to pitch a complete game, despite issuing seven walks and nine hits. Thanks to Ron Cey with a three run homer and the winning run scoring on a double plays, the Dodgers took Game 3 5–4. They took the momentum and won the World Series over the Yankees four game to two.
It was the end of an era for the Yankees who wouldn’t return to the World Series for fifteen years. The Dodgers would be one of the most consistent teams in October baseball for the next seven years, winning two more division titles and a shocking pennant and even more stunning World Series in 1988. But for Valenzuela it was as good as it got. While he was one of the most dominant strikeout pitchers of the decade, he was also completely overworked. He never pitched in the 1988 postseason for LA; his star eclipsed by Orel Hershiser.
Who knows what we will see when the Dodgers and Yankees face off this time? Will Judge entered the home run record books that Mantle and Jackson once held? Will Ohtani manage set records held by Snider? Or will the story be told by smaller forces, little known relievers like the Bob Welches of the world? A lot has changed in 43 years but the excitement of Dodgers-Yankees still enthralls. There’s a reason the world of television is looking forward to it as much as the fan is.
Opening pitch in Friday. See you there.