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.
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