There’s nothing more old school baseball than the relationship between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Keep in mind, this was just one piece of the original three-pronged Subway Series. The Yankees played at majestic Yankee Stadium at East 161st Street and River Avenue. Take a short drive over the Harlem River across the Macombs Dam Bridge, and you’d find Willie Mays and the Giants at the expansive Polo Grounds.
But if you were to get on what’s now the 2 (Red, for the tourists reading) or 5 (Green) trains and took the long ride to Flatbush, Brooklyn? Get off at Sterling Street, and you would see the Dodgers work their magic at Ebbets Field.
This is what set the Dodgers and Giants apart from the Yankees. The old Yankee Stadium, as much as we love and miss her to this day, stood alone with her commanding presence at East 161st and River. Nothing surrounding her except a local bar or two, some baseball-adjacent businesses, and Grand Concourse’s courthouse a short bus ride away.
The Polo Grounds and Ebbets, meanwhile, were very much neighborhood stadiums. Moreover, Dodgers players famously lived in Brooklyn during the team’s prime years. They weren’t just on the favorite team, but they were neighbors too. The same went for the Giants, though Mays famously lived in the Bronx’s more suburban Riverdale.
We are so lucky as baseball fans to get to witness a World Series which brings this rivalry back into the limelight. The last time both teams met in the Fall Classic was 1981, when the Dodgers beat the aging Yankees in six games after dropping Games 1 and 2.
Let’s take a look at each Yankees-Dodgers World Series ahead of what may be the most exciting one yet.
1941
The team’s first October faceoff was all but competitive, despite New York and Brooklyn winning 101 and 100 games respectively. In the end, the difference came down to a pair of factors. First, the Dodgers battled St. Louis for the NL Pennant into the season’s final week. But more importantly, Brooklyn first baseman and NL MVP Dolph Camili was the only elite power bat in the lineup with 34 longballs on the year.
The Yankees’ starting outfield alone, by comparison, hit a combined 94 homers: Charlie Keller (33), Tommy Heinrich (31), and future Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio (30). The Yankees won the Series in five games and outscored the Dodgers 17-11.
1947
Brooklyn was at the center of this World Series for one reason: star rookie infielder Jackie Robinson finally breaking MLB’s color barrier. Both teams also won their respective leagues comfortably and the stage was set: the mighty Yankees versus the beloved “Bums” of Brooklyn. What’s more, both teams were pretty evenly matched this time compared to the powerful ’41 Yankees.
That didn’t stop either team from scoring. A combined 67 runs were scored on 119 hits. Sadly for the Dodgers, the Yankees’ deeper pitching won out in seven games. Robinson himself had a fairly modest performance, batting .259 with three RBI.
1949
This one should have been closer. Both the Yankees and Dodgers finished with the exact same record and each won their leagues by a single game. DiMaggio was also injured and the Dodgers had a great power core in their lineup: Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, and Roy Campanella. Robinson hit .342 and was named NL MVP.
What did the Dodgers in, unfortunately, was their pitching. Brooklyn’s rotation was too heavy at the top between Preacher Roe and Rookie of the Year Don Newcombe. Only four other Dodger pitchers tossed more than 100 innings that year and only one, righty Jack Banta, finished with a sub-4 ERA.
And when you consider both teams traded 1-0 victories in the first two games before the Yankees pulled away? New York beating Brooklyn in five games makes all the more sense.
1952
This one was a seven-game nailbiter from start to finish. Except for the Yankees’ 7-1 win in Game 2, every game was decided by two runs or less. The Dodgers’ strong lineup was met with a new Yankees core duo of Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle. Brooklyn looked poised to finally pierce the Bronx Bombers’ armor when they took Game 5 in the Bronx and headed home with a 3-2 series lead.
This is where the teams batting .215 and .216 in the Series came back to bite them. Brooklyn couldn’t get the timely big hits. Yogi Berra’s game-tying homer in the seventh inning of Game 6 rallied the Yankees. Both teams were tied 2-2 halfway through Game 7, but then Mantle added a solo shot and later an RBI single as the Yankees won again.
1953
The 1953 Series must have felt even worse for Dodgers fans, especially since Brooklyn won 105 games to the Yankees’ mere 99. Both teams matched up well once again, but the Yankees pulled off the upset as Brooklyn sighed again. Five trips to the World Series, five World Series losses.
It didn’t help matters that the Dodgers had rallied to tie the game in three of their four Series losses. The worst was easily Game 6: Carl Furillo’s home run tied the game 3-3 in the top of the ninth, and Yankees infielder Billy Martin won the Series with an RBI single in the bottom half.
1955
Good things do indeed come to those who wait, and the Dodgers made clear that losing was not an option. Robinson’s infamous steal of home in Game 1 set the tone, even though the Dodgers lost and then again in Game 2. Then, the switch flipped.
Brookyn outscored the Yankees 21-11 through Games 3-5 before New York finally answered back in Game 6. Come Game 7, in front of a rowdy Bronx crowd, Dodgers lefty Johnny Podres tossed his famous Game 7 shutout. Brooklyn was officially a championship spot.
1956
It was back to business as usual when the Yankees and Dodgers met again the following year. New York practically made sure of it. Mantle won his first of three MVPs and 34-year-old Hank Bauer slugged a career-best 26 home runs. Young ace Whitey Ford had some support behind him in the rotation in soft contact specialist Johnny Kucks, and then the wild Don Larsen.
What followed was, arguably, one of the best World Series in baseball history. Brooklyn beat Ford in Game 1 and then rallied from being down 6-0 to win Game 2, 13-8. And then, the tides turned back in the Bronx.
Ford returned on three days’ rest to win Game 3. Mantle slugged two home runs to help win Game 4. Larsen, who started Game 2 and didn’t even last two innings, pitched a perfect game in Game 5.
The Dodgers gave it their absolute best as Robinson gave his swan song in Game 6, when his RBI single in the 10th inning gave Brooklyn a 1-0 win. Sadly the Dodgers were gassed out and New York dominated Game 7 to win 9-0. Brooklyn only hit .142 as a team after dominating the first two games.
It was the last World Series in Brooklyn.
1963
A change of scenery helped loads as a fresh new Los Angeles Dodgers team took the aging Yankees core to school. New York hit .171 in the series and never led once. Mantle and Roger Maris were banged up and Sandy Koufax won two games en route to being named World Series MVP. This was quite an upset too, as the Yankees won 104 games that year despite injuries to Mantle and Roger Maris.
1977
Everyone remembers this one for the simplest reason: Reggie Jackson’s three home runs in the deciding Game 6. It was a fitting cap to a tumultuous season, but the World Series itself was once again the old Yankees-Dodgers rivalry on display.
Game 1 was tight through and through until Paul Blair finally singled home Willie Randolph in the 12th inning. The Dodgers owned Game 2 after the lineup jumped on Catfish Hunter, who hadn’t pitched in over a month. The Yankees then held on for two close victories in Games 3 and 4 before the Dodgers dominated again in Game 5.
But in the end, it was Jackson’s Game 6 heroics that decided everything.
1978
Everyone loves a rematch and the Dodgers seemed primed to win this World Series quickly. The Yankees only made the playoffs after winning a one-game playoff in Boston and had otherwise been streaky all year. Sure enough, Los Angeles took the first two games at Dodger Stadium and outscored the Yankees 15-8.
The scene shifted back to Yankee Stadium, and the Bronx Bombers arrived. New York took Game 3 easily with Cy Young winner Ron Guidry on the mound, and then won Game 4 on Lou Piniella’s walk-off RBI single after trailing 3-0 earlier in the game.
Game 5 was a 12-2 blowout and enough to swing all momentum towards the Yankees. They won Game 6 at Dodger Stadium by a decisive 7-2.
1981
Lucky for the Dodgers, they’re the victors in this long rivalry’s most recent chapter. 1981 was something of a weird season, as a midyear strike interrupted play. After a two-month stoppage, MLB decided the best solution was “splitting” the season in two: The first-place teams pre-strike would get playoff spots, and in turn would play whomever finished first in the games after play resumed.
New York and LA, both of whom were in first place before the strike, were the last teams standing come the World Series. It looked like another typical result early on with the Yankees winning the first two games at home.
The Dodgers had clearly had enough. Los Angeles attacked early to win Game 3 behind a strong start from Fernando Valenzuela. In Game 4, the Dodgers trailed 4-0 before the lineup rallied en route to an 8-7 win. LA came from behind again in Game 5 when Steve Yeager and Pedro Guerrero’s back-to-back homers sealed a 2-1 win.
The momentum game was over, and the Dodgers won Game 6 at Yankee Stadium, 9-2.
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