Editor’s note: This story is taken from the pages of Dodger Insider magazine.
by Mark Langill
On their 2024 postseason joyride to a championship, the Dodgers twice left the comforts of Tinseltown for the bright lights and swirling baseball ghosts populating Gotham City.
Six months later, with the crown firmly on their heads and the World Series trophy residing in Southern California, the same billboard ballyhoos one of the most anticipated homestands in recent Dodger Stadium history.
New York! New York!
In addition to serving as a playoff encore, the seven games between today and June 5 mark the first time the Dodgers host the Mets and Yankees in consecutive home series.
The spirit of Brooklyn also returns to mix the memories of what each current New York franchise represents to the Dodgers and their fan base. Since joining the National League in 1890, the Dodgers’ home city scoreboard is now tied — 68 seasons in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles.
“I played in five World Series against three different teams, but everyone remembers the ones against the Yankees,” said former All-Star first baseman Steve Garvey. “Whether we won or lost, it’s always a topic of conversation, especially Reggie Jackson. He hit three home runs in the final game of the 1977 World Series in Game 6 on three consecutive pitches.
“In 1978, we won the first two games of the series in Los Angeles, but Reggie was in the middle of things in Game 3 when he was struck in the hip by Bill Russell’s throw from shortstop. Whether he stuck out his hip on purpose will always be up for debate, but that non-interference call changed the momentum of the World Series, and we lost in six games.”
After a 43-year absence, a new generation of Dodger and Yankee supporters met in the 2024 World Series, each boasting the best record in their respective league, along with league MVPs Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge.
The series opener was played just three days after the Oct. 22 passing of Dodger pitching legend Fernando Valenzuela, who beat the Yankees in his only career World Series appearance in 1981, a 5–4 victory in Game 3 at Dodger Stadium as Los Angeles eventually prevailed in six games.
The start of interleague play in 1997 made it possible for the Yankees and Dodgers to meet other than in a World Series. The Yankees are making their seventh regular-season trip to Los Angeles after visits in 2004, 2010, 2013, 2019 and 2023.
The Yankees, who lead all Major League teams with 27 championships, were the Dodgers’ World Series nemesis as New York won the first five meetings between 1941 and 1953.
The Dodgers finally captured their first World Series over the Yankees in 1955; an event celebrated in 2005 when the Dodgers invited the 13 living members from the team for a 50th anniversary reunion at Dodger Stadium.
“We could never beat the Yankees,” former Dodger pitcher Carl Erskine said in 2005. “After a while, we wondered whether it was ever going to happen.”
The 2005 reunion group photo, along with other artifacts from the 1955 season, are part of the memorabilia displays outside the Vin Scully Press Box on the Suite Level.
Having grown up with three Major League teams in New York, Scully brought his knowledge and passion of that baseball era when he relocated to the West Coast with the Dodgers in 1958.
Scully, the 67-year voice of the Dodgers from 1950 to 2016, was a New York native who rooted for the Giants at the Polo Grounds. He became a baseball fan at age eight. Walking home from school, he noticed posted in a storefront window the line score from Game 2 of the 1936 World Series in which the Yankees beat the Giants, 18–4. Although the Giants were the NL champs, Scully perceived the Giants as the underdogs.
Overall, four of the Dodgers’ eight World Series championships have come against the Yankees. And a four-game sweep of the Bronx Bombers in the 1963 Fall Classic is the only time the Dodgers clinched a title on their home field.
The Mets became an expansion team in 1962 after the longtime NL rivals, the Dodgers and Giants, relocated to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively. The Mets adopted the home colors of the departed Dodgers (blue) and Giants (orange).
“These three teams — the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets - — create the emotion that has been preserved through the generations,” said Gil Hodges Jr., the son of the Dodger Hall of Fame first baseman who managed the Mets to their first World Series title in 1969. “There was frustration when the Dodgers couldn’t beat the Yankees in the World Series. When they finally won in 1955, the celebration didn’t last long because the Dodgers moved away a couple years later.
“There are still people in New York who haven’t forgiven the Dodgers for leaving. Or that feeling was passed down to their children.”
Although Yankees’ Hall of Famers Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig never faced the Dodgers in a World Series during the 1920s and 1930s, most Yankee players and managers whose respective numbers were retired faced either Brooklyn or Los Angeles when the teams met 11 times in the World Series between 1941 and 1981.
New York’s prized pinstripe roster includes Billy Martin, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Bill Terry, Roger Maris, Phil Rizzuto, Thurman Munson, Whitey Ford, Elston Howard, Reggie Jackson and Ron Guidry. And the retired numbers list doesn’t even include Graig Nettles, the slick-fielding third baseman whose spectacular defense garnered 1978 World Series MVP honors.
Hall of Famer Joe Torre managed the Yankees to four World Series titles between 1995 and 2007. After leaving the Yankees, Torre guided the Dodgers to consecutive NL Championship Series appearances in 2008 and 2009. Torre, also a Mets player (1975–77), followed in the footsteps of Hall of Famer Casey Stengel when representing the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees.
Stengel was a Dodger outfielder (1912–17) and manager (1934–36) who later led the Yankees to 10 World Series appearances in a 12-year span from 1949 to 1960, including a 4–1 record against Brooklyn in the World Series. Stengel later became the first manager in Mets history. Stengel’s uniform number 37 is retired by both the Yankees and Mets.
Before they became contenders, the Mets employed former Brooklyn Dodgers in their early years, including Hodges, outfielder Duke Snider, infielder Charlie Neal, pitchers Roger Craig and Clem Labine.
The Mets and Dodgers have met four times in the postseason. The Mets won Division Series matchups in 2006 and 2015 while the Dodgers punched World Series tickets with NL Championship Series wins in 1988 and 2024.
“Beating the Mets in the 1988 NLCS Game 7 was one of the biggest highlights of my career,” said former second baseman Steve Sax, a Dodger from 1981–1988 and a Yankee from 1989–1991. “I loved my time with the Dodgers, but I’m so glad I was also able to experience playing in New York. They have such great baseball fans. The atmosphere for Mets and Yankees home games is intense.”
But if last year showed anything, Dodger Stadium brings it, too. The sounds of last October still ring loud and clear.
From Dodger Insider magazine: A coast to coast connection was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.