The 2024 World Series, featuring the LA Dodgers and NY Yankees will commence on Friday, October 25. This will be the 12th meeting between these two storied franchises but the first one since 1981. The Yankees have won 8 of the previous 11 meetings, but the Dodgers won the last one 4-2.
Baseball, which until recently was known as the National Pastime, is no longer the most popular sport in America. Most surveys place it second behind football, or even further down the list. However, there is something about the sport that still resonates. It gets in your blood. It is part of the fabric of America. Who can forget their first game of “catch” with their father or their first game? For many of us the WS holds a special place in our memories. For many years the games were played during the day while fans were in school or at work. I can remember many a time when I raced home from school to catch the end of a WS game.
This year we are undoubtedly getting the most preferred WS matchup. There are various superstars on both teams – Ohtani, Betts and Freeman on the Dodgers and Judge, Soto, and Stanton on the Yankees. Fox, which is televising the series, will be happy because this matchup will feature the aforementioned superstars, the two biggest markets, and it will get the highest ratings maybe ever. International ratings will be very high also, especially in Japan because of Ohtani and Yamamoto.
The Dodgers’ franchise was born in 1883. It joined the newly organized National League in 1890. Before being known as the Dodgers, the team was known, at various times, as the Atlantics, the Bridegrooms, the Grooms, the Superbas, the Robins, and the Trolley-Dodgers (a reference to the complex maze of trolley cars that existed in Brooklyn during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The name, Trolley-Dodgers, was shortened to Dodgers in 1898.
The Dodgers have been pioneers in many areas. For instance, they were the first team to:
1. appear on tv (1939),
2. wear helmets (1941), and
3. most significantly, play an African American (Jackie Robinson in 1947).
In addition, I would be remiss if I did not mention that the team employed the same announcer, Vince Scully, for a record 67 years. Many people consider Scully to be the best baseball announcer ever and having watched and listened to him for most of those 67 years, I would be hard-pressed to argue with that assessment.
During the 1940s and 1950s the teams faced each other in the WS six times in the eight-year period between 1949 and 1956. It almost seemed like a preordained annual event.
I was fortunate to attend game 2 of the 1956 WS with my father. As an 11-year-old it was huge thrill. To this day I have a more detailed recollection of that game than of games I saw only weeks ago. For instance, I remember the Dodger starter, Don Newcombe, got knocked out early. The Dodgers fell behind 6-0, but they rallied to win 13-8. Duke Snider, my favorite Dodger, hit a crucial homer. As an added bonus initially, the game was postponed because of heavy rain. It was made up the next day, so I got to miss two days of school.
The Dodgers of that era, aka “The Boys of Summer,” had very strong teams with several Hall of Famers, but they just couldn’t beat the Yankees in the WS. The Yankees weren’t necessarily better, they just played better in the WS. After each loss frustrated Dodgers fans would lament “wait until next year.” Finally, in 1955 “next year” came, and the “Bums” as they were affectionally known prevailed in seven games. The next day the headline in the NY Daily News boldly proclaimed, “Who’s a Bum?!” That was the only championship the Dodgers won in Brooklyn.
The NY Yankees were founded in 1903. The original owners, Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the franchise rights to the defunct Baltimore Orioles, no relation to the present-day team, moved it to NY, and renamed it as the NY Highlanders. It is believed that the name was chosen either because of the team’s location in Upper Manhattan, or in recognition of the team president’s Scottish-Irish heritage.
The media was not enamored of the name because it was too long for headlines. Some newspapers took to calling them the “Invaders.” Eventually, the press began calling the team the “Yankees.” The name became official in 1913.
At the time the NY Giants were the dominant team in NY. The two teams became fierce rivals, which was exacerbated by the bad blood between the National and American Leagues. The NL was the older, more established league. The AL was the upstart. Despite this animosity, between 1913 and 1922 the Yankees played in the Polo Grounds as tenants of the Giants.
The Giants remained the dominant team in NY until the Yanks acquired Babe Ruth in 1920. From then on, the Yanks became the dominant team we all know. The team moved into their own stadium in 1923.
The NY players and their fans became very familiar with each other, especially in Brooklyn. In those pre-free agency days, the players did not make much more money than most of the fans. Many of them lived in the same neighborhoods; their kids went to the same schools. Some even had winter jobs in the area. Some of my friends who grew up in Brooklyn knew players personally; their kids were also friends and played with each other.
During this period fans were treated to classic moments such as Jackie Robinson stealing home in Game 1 in 1955 and Don Larsen’s perfect game in game five in 1956. In the WS despite the presence of superstars often it is the role players that have emerged as heroes. For example, Sandy Amoros was a little-used bench player for the Brooklyn Dodgers, who made a game-saving catch in the 7th inning of the 7th game of the 1955 WS. Amoros was only in the game as a result of a “double switch” (remember in those days pitchers actually batted).
A photo of Robinson’s steal is on display at the Baseball HOF. To his dying day Yankees catcher Yogi Berra insisted he was out. In those pre-instant replay days, it was hard to know for sure. The umpire said he was safe, so he was safe.
As incredible as Larsen’s feat was it was enhanced by the fact that he was not a superstar pitcher like say Whitey Ford, Don Drysdale or Sandy Koufax. A perfect game by one of those pitchers would have been plausible, but Larsen was a journeyman. He pitched for seven teams in 15 years and had a career record of 81-91, although he had gone 11-5 in 1956. Furthermore, the 1956 Dodgers’ lineup was stacked with future Hall of Famers such as Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Pewee Reese, Roy Campanella and a strong supporting cast. It was just an example of a pedestrian player catching “lightning in a bottle” in the WS.
In some 60 years of watching the WS I have been fortunate to witness several other memorable moments, such as Carlton Fisk’s 12th inning homerun just inside the foul pole in the 12th inning of game 6 in 1975, Reggie Jackson’s four consecutive homers in the 1977 WS, and Kirk Gibson’s game winning homerun off A’s closer Dennis Eckersley in game 1 of the 1988 WS. Jackson, whose feat earned him the sobriquet “Mr. October,” was an obnoxious loudmouth who upon first arriving at the star-studded Yankees boldly proclaimed he was the “straw that stirred the drink.” This was a direct insult aimed at the Yankees’ popular captain Thurman Munson, but Jackson didn’t care. He doubled down by adding that “Munson can only stir it bad.” But he had a flair for the dramatic, and he sure could hit. He fit in perfectly with the “Bronx Zoo” Yankees teams of the late 1970s. As I recall Jackson hit the homers in four consecutive swings against four different Dodger pitchers (one in his last at-bat in game 5 and then three in game 6. (Don’t fact-check me on this. A memory is a memory.)
Many of you will recall Fisk standing at homeplate watching his hit and waving his arms as if to “push” his homerun ball “fair.” Alas, the Reds won the WS the next day. So much for momentum.
Gibson wasn’t supposed to play. He was injured and could barely walk. Yet, he hit the homer and then literally limped round the bases. Then, there was iconic announcer Jack Buck’s famous call on the radio, “I don’t believe what I just saw.” To tell you the truth, neither did I.
Thanks to the current format in which three wildcard teams from each league make the playoffs it has become rare for the team with the best regular season record to win the WS. In this century it has only been done six times – the 2007 Red Sox, the 2009 Yankees, the 2013 Red Sox, the 2016 Cubs, the 2018 Red Sox and the 2020 Dodgers. That’s 25%, which is quite low. Why is that?
There are various reasons, but I maintain that the primary reason is the nature of the game, itself. Normally, it takes many games for the best team to assert itself. Even the best teams will lose 60 games over the course of the season. Even the best teams will suffer through short slumps where they could three or four in a row. With the current multilayer playoff format the ultimate winner will have to win three or four short series. It has become common for a team to slump at the wrong time and lose a short three or five game series to an inferior team. Then it’s Sayonara. This is the format the Lords of Baseball want. More playoff games mean more money. They don’t care. They will live with hottest team winning the WS rather than the season’s best team.
This year the Dodgers had the best record, so we’ll see if they can make it seven. This will be the first time in years that the teams with the best record in each league will be facing off in the WS, so whichever team wins will deserve it.
Conclusion
On paper we have two evenly matched teams each of which had the best record in their respective leagues. One team may get the upper hand and win in a short series. But I expect a long series with many memorable moments.
Dodgers in 7.
This was Part 1 of my WS blog. Part2 will be a WS quiz to test your knowledge and recollections.
We Built It Blog by Larry Jacob 