The history behind the Dodgers-Yankees World Series rivalry
There is history and nostalgia and YouTube videos to scour through just in the names alone: New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. It's a matchup of the two best teams from the 2024 season -- a rare occurrence in this age of expanded playoffs -- and a showdown that requires a look back at the 11 previous World Series between the two franchises.
That history began when the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn, their home for the first seven of those World Series battles before the franchise moved to L.A. in 1958. The Yankees won six of those and also won in back-to-back years in 1977 and 1978. They last met in 1981 -- Fernando Valenzuela's memorable rookie season. Valenzuela's shadow will now loom over this World Series after his death on Tuesday, a reminder not only of his significance to the Dodgers and the Latin American community in Los Angeles, but of the last time these two historical franchises met with everything on the line.
Let's take a little history lesson and look back at their 11 previous matchups.
1941: Yankees over Dodgers (4-1)
Key highlight: Dodgers catcher Mickey Owen's dropped third strike leads to a two-out winning rally in the ninth inning of Game 4.
The Yankees were already eight-time World Series champions when they met the Brooklyn Dodgers, who had played in two World Series but had never won and were mostly known as lovable losers, earning the affectionate nickname "Dem Bums" from their fans. The Yankees featured Joe DiMaggio -- this was the season he hit in 56 consecutive games -- while fellow outfielders Charlie Keller and Tommy Henrich also hit 30 home runs, forming perhaps the greatest outfield of all time. The Dodgers had NL MVP Dolph Camilli, who led the National League in home runs and RBIs, and 22-year-old center fielder Pete Reiser, who hit .343 but would eventually see his career end early after crashing into too many outfield walls.
In Game 4, Brooklyn led 4-3 entering the ninth, looking to tie the series. With two outs, Dodgers reliever Hugh Casey struck out Henrich, but the ball got by Owen, Henrich reached first base, and the Yankees went on to score four runs. Casey, a drinking and boxing buddy of Ernest Hemingway, died young at age 37, leaving Owen to shoulder the blame -- indeed, for a long time, it remained a famous play in World Series history. Owen would say Casey threw a hard slider when he was expecting a slow curveball. Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese said it was a spitball. The great writer Roger Angell, then a college student in attendance, would later say, "The moment it happened, everybody knew the Yankees would win." Of course. The Yankees always won; the Dodgers did not.
1947: Yankees over Dodgers (4-3)
Key highlight: Yankees pitcher Bill Bevens loses a no-hitter -- and the game -- with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
Bevens, a hard-throwing -- but wild -- right-hander pitched his near no-hitter in Game 4, though he walked 10 batters in the game. He had already allowed a run entering the final inning but had a 2-1 lead. He walked Carl Furillo with one out and pinch runner Al Gionfriddo stole second. With two outs, the Yankees intentionally walked Reiser. Cookie Lavagetto pinch hit and lined a two-run double off the wall in right to win it for Brooklyn. It would be the final hit of his career. A distraught Bevens went out drinking until 5 a.m. after the game.
The Yankees would win the series anyway, as the Dodgers came up short in Jackie Robinson's rookie season. It was a weird series. Every Brooklyn starter got knocked out early: 4 IP, 4 IP, 4 IP, 0 IP, 4 IP, 2 IP in the first six games. The Dodgers managed to force a Game 7 but had run out of options: Manager Burt Shotton went with Hal Gregg, who had a 5.87 ERA that season (but had pitched seven good innings in relief in Game 4). Gregg got knocked out in the fourth and the Yankees won 5-2 -- with Bevens pitching 2 scoreless innings of relief.
1949: Yankees over Dodgers (4-1)
Key highlight: Yankees win the opener 1-0 on Tommy Henrich's walk-off home run in the ninth.
Henrich's home run off Don Newcombe was not only the first walk-off home run in World Series history but remains the only walk-off home run in a 1-0 game in the World Series (there have been just two others in postseason history, by Jeff Kent in the 2004 NLCS and Oscar Gonzalez in the 2022 ALDS). The Dodgers would rebound with their own 1-0 victory in Game 2, but the Yankees would take the next three games.
Allie Reynolds, who beat Newcombe in Game 1 and got the save in Game 4 with 3 scoreless innings, was on his way to becoming one of the many unsung World Series heroes for the Yankees through the years. He would pitch in six World Series between 1947 and 1953 -- and the Yankees won all six. Reynolds went 7-2 with four saves and a 2.79 ERA, tossing two shutouts among his nine starts and winning another with a 10-inning complete game.
1952: Yankees over Dodgers (4-3)
Key highlight: Billy Martin saves Game 7 for the Yankees with a lunging grab of an infield pop fly with the bases loaded in the seventh inning.
After losing the NL pennant on the final day of the season in 1950 and then losing to the Giants on Bobby Thomson's famous home run in the 1951 tiebreaker, the Dodgers made it back in 1952. The Yankees, meanwhile, were going for a fourth straight World Series championship.
In a series full of Monday morning quarterbacking, one of the most interesting decisions was Dodgers manager Walter Alston electing to start 28-year-old soon-to-be-named Rookie of the Year Joe Black (although a veteran of the Negro Leagues) three times in the series, after Black had started just twice in the regular season. The Dodgers were without Newcombe, their best starter through the years, because he was in the military in 1952 (and '53). Black had gone 15-4 with a 2.15 ERA, with 54 of his 56 appearances in relief.
It looked like it might work. Black won the opener 4-2 as the Dodgers hit three home runs. Reynolds outdueled Black 2-0 in Game 4 to even the series. Brooklyn won Game 5 on Duke Snider's go-ahead double in the 11th inning. The Yankees won 3-2 in Game 6 as Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle homered. Game 7 was tied 2-2 when Mantle homered off Black in the sixth. The Yankees added another run in the seventh on Mantle's RBI single. In the bottom of the seventh, the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out. Bob Kuzava came on for the Yankees. He got Snider to pop out to third base and then Robinson hit a little pop fly just to the right of the pitcher's mound. For a split second, it appeared no Yankees infielder was going to get it, but then Martin raced in from second base and snagged the ball just before it hit the ground. Kuzava breezed through the final two innings and the Yankees, again, were the champs.
1953: Yankees over Dodgers (4-2)
Key highlight: Martin's RBI single in the bottom of the ninth of Game 6 wins it for the Yankees.
This was going to be the year. It was the best Brooklyn team yet, even with Newcombe still in the Army. The Dodgers went 105-49 behind one of the best offenses of all time: Snider (.329, 42 home runs), Roy Campanella (.312, 41 home runs), batting champ Furillo (.344), Robinson (.329, 95 RBIs), Gil Hodges (.302, 31 home runs), Reese (.374 OBP, 108 runs) and Jim Gilliam (.383 OBP, 125 runs).
It was not to be. The Yankees won the first two games, then Brooklyn took the next two. The Yankees hit four home runs in an 11-7 victory in Game 5. In Game 6, Furillo hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth off Reynolds (pitching in relief of Whitey Ford) to tie the score. In the bottom of the ninth, however, Hank Bauer drew a walk off Dodgers reliever Clem Labine, Mantle singled him to second and then Martin singled to center to win the Series.
As always, it was "wait 'til next year" for Dodgers fans.
1955: Dodgers over Yankees (4-3)
Key highlight: Sandy Amoros makes a key running catch in left field and 23-year-old Johnny Podres tosses a 2-0 shutout in Game 7.
Next year would finally come two years later. The Yankees won the first two games at Yankee Stadium -- Newcombe getting bombed for three home runs in the opener and the Yankees winning 4-2 in Game 2 with a four-run rally in the fourth inning. The Dodgers, however, won all three in Brooklyn: Podres tossed a complete game in Game 3; Campanella, Hodges and Snider homered in Game 4; Snider hit two more home runs in Game 5. The Yankees then forced Game 7 as Ford tossed a complete game in Game 6 and they scored five runs in the first inning.
Game 7. Yankee Stadium. Podres was in his third season, had just turned 23 and had gone 9-10 with a 3.95 ERA. The Dodgers could have used Newcombe, who hadn't pitched since Game 1, but he would later say he had injured his arm in September, of which only Alston was aware. But Newcombe had by then also earned a reputation as a pitcher who didn't perform well in big games. Podres got the ball.
The Dodgers scored in the fourth when Hodges' two-out single plated Campanella. Hodges added a sac fly in the sixth. The Dodgers had pinch hit for second baseman Don Zimmer that inning, so Alston moved Gilliam from left field to second base and inserted Amoros in left -- upgrading the defense at both positions. In the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees got a walk from Martin and a bunt single from Gil McDougald to lead off the inning. Berra drove a ball into the left-field corner, but Amoros raced off and reached out to make a spectacular grab -- and doubled McDougald off first base. Podres would finish it off from there.
"I guarantee, there was more celebrating in Brooklyn that day than there was for the end of World War II," Buzzie Bavasi, the Dodgers' general manager at the time, would remark half a century later.
This was also the World Series that featured Robinson's famous steal of home -- and Berra's resulting argument with umpire Bill Summers. It came in Game 1 in the top of the eighth inning with two outs and cut the Yankees' lead to 6-5, which would end up the final score. Replays seem to show that Robinson was indeed safe, as Berra didn't get his glove down in front of the plate, allowing Robinson to slide his foot in before the tag was applied. While the steal ultimately didn't affect the game, it remains the iconic image of the Yankees-Dodgers rivalry from that era. And here's a fun fact from that game: Martin was caught trying to steal home in the sixth inning.
1956: Yankees over Dodgers (4-3)
Key highlight: Don Larsen tosses a perfect game for the Yankees in Game 5.
Larsen was the surprise starter for Game 5 -- manager Casey Stengel didn't even announce his decision until the morning of the game, with a ball placed in Larsen's locker to let him know (Larsen had faced 10 batters in Game 2, allowing four runs). The journeyman right-hander -- he had gone 3-21 just two years before for the Orioles -- proceeded to toss the only perfect game in postseason history. Wrote Shirley Povich in The Washington Post: "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-reach-first game in a World Series."
The series wasn't over, though. The Dodgers won Game 6 1-0 in 10 innings as Labine went the distance. But Game 7 was a 9-0 blowout for the Yankees as Berra homered twice off Newcombe. And just like that, the New York-Brooklyn rivalry was over: The Dodgers played just one more season at Ebbets Field and departed for the sun and palm trees of Los Angeles.
1963: Dodgers over Yankees (4-0)
Key highlight: Sandy Koufax pitches two complete-game wins, including 15 strikeouts in Game 1.
The old Boys of Summer were gone, but the Dodgers now had Koufax and Don Drysdale. The Yankees were nearing the end of their decaying dynasty -- 1964 would be their final pennant until 1976. Koufax set a then-World Series record with his 15 strikeouts, Drysdale tossed a 1-0 shutout in Game 3 and Koufax beat Ford for a second time to complete the sweep.
1977: Yankees over Dodgers (4-2)
Key highlight: Reggie Jackson swings three times in the clinching Game 6 -- and hits three home runs.
It was a new generation of players, with Jackson -- the self-proclaimed "straw that stirs the drink" -- leading the Yankees after signing a huge contract as part of baseball's first free agent class in 1977. The Dodgers featured Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Reggie Smith, Dusty Baker and a deep pitching staff led by Hall of Famer Don Sutton, 20-game winner Tommy John and Burt Hooton.
Jackson entered the World Series in a slump. Manager Billy Martin, who had fought with Jackson all season, had benched him in the final game of the American League Championship Series. Then Jackson heated up. He homered in Game 4 and again in Game 5. In Game 6, he offered at just three pitches, homering in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings, the final one a humongous blast into the center-field bleachers. He rounded the bases to chants of "Reg-gie! Reg-gie!" Mr. October was born.
1978: Yankees over Dodgers (4-2)
Key highlight: Rookie Bob Welch strikes out Jackson for the final out in Game 2 -- but Reggie gets his revenge with a home run in Game 6.
This was the World Series where Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles made several spectacular plays to crush Dodgers rallies and also the World Series where Jackson, the runner on first base, stuck out his hip to deflect a throw from second base, allowing a crucial run to score.
The Dodgers won the first two games at home. Game 2 was a 4-3 win with the hard-throwing Welch fanning Jackson in an epic nine-pitch battle with the go-ahead runs on base. With the help of Reggie's hip, the Yankees won Game 4, 4-3 in 10 innings. Game 5 was a 12-2 blowout for the Yankees as rookie Jim Beattie pitched a complete game and the Yankees pounded out 18 hits. In Game 6, the Yankees were up 3-2 in the sixth when Brian Doyle -- a light-hitting backup second baseman playing only because Willie Randolph was injured -- hit a big RBI single and then later scored (Doyle hit .438 in the series). Reggie then iced the series with a two-run homer off Welch in the seventh.
1981: Dodgers over Yankees (4-2)
Key highlight: Yankees reliever George Frazier loses three games.
This was the year of the split season and Fernandomania, with the Yankees taking the first two at home and looking like they would beat the Dodgers once again. Then the Dodgers won 5-4 in Game 3 behind Valenzuela's complete game. He labored to the finish line, walking seven batters and throwing 147 pitches, but held on. In Game 5, the Dodgers won 2-1 as Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager hit back-to-back home runs off Ron Guidry in the seventh. The Dodgers clinched at Yankee Stadium when the Yankees controversially pinch hit for starting pitcher Tommy John in the bottom of the fourth of a 1-1 game and Frazier came on and immediately gave up three runs on the way to a 9-2 rout for the Dodgers.
The Yankees would not return to the World Series until 1996 -- and the Dodgers and Yankees would not meet again in the World Series until 43 years later. It's a new cast of characters, a new cast of stars -- and new opportunities for history to be made.
