Fall’s Classic

Later today, before Jack Flaherty delivers the first salvo of the 120th Fall Classic, presumptive NL MVP Shohei Ohtani will be a central focus during one set of lineup introductions. AL MVP favorite Aaron Judge will absorb the same sort of attention in the other roll call.  Before a single pitch thumps into the catcher’s mitt, before a single offering meets bat and we all feel the slightest twitch in our stomach, before we can even guess at a single outcome of an inning or game or the series, before any of it:  this 2024 Fall Classic will have given us an on-field landmark so that we may position our coordinates and then time travel across decades along the most repeated phrase in World Series history – “The Dodgers and Yankees are meeting in the Fall Classic.”

The very first time these two clubs dueled for both borough superiority and bragging rights among all 16 AL/NL clubs, that season’s MVP award winners were on the field, too.  It was 1941 – the Dodgers in Brooklyn, the Yankees’ home, the original House That Ruth Built – and Dolph Camilli was taking on Joe DiMaggio.  

In a way, the ‘41 Fall Classic matchup was a continuation of a steady narrative.  MVPs had gone head to head in the World Series in six of the previous 10 years, and this was the third time in six seasons teams from New York were vying for the championship.  On the other hand, the Dodgers had replaced the Giants as the Yankees’ foil and so a new chapter heading was typeset.

Eight future Hall of Famers played in that ’41 series, including all four glovemen in the two teams’ keystone combinations (Billy Herman and Pee Wee Reese, Joe Gordon and Phil Rizzuto).  Both clubs were led by Cooperstown-bound managers (Leo Durocher and Joe McCarthy).  Brooklyn had the National League HR and RBI leader – Camilli – and the league batting champ (Pete Reiser) on its side, along with the co-owners of the league’s wins crown (Kirby Higbe and Whit Wyatt).  New York countered with DiMaggio (AL RBI leader and 56-game hitting streak guy) and an outfield trio who had just authored one of the most valuable combined seasons in the game’s history (Tommy Henrich and Charlie Keller supporting their MVP center fielder).  

The first three contests were decided by a run, including Game 3 when Marius Russo – born in Brooklyn – twirled a brilliant four-hitter to give the Yankees a 2-1 series lead.  The next day, Reiser gave the Dodgers a one-run lead with a homer in the fifth only to watch the Yankees mount an inexplicable rally in the ninth when Henrich swung and missed on a Hugh Casey 3-2 pitch (a spitter?) down low.  What should have the third out and the ballgame was instead a chance.  Catcher Mickey Owen took a lot of guff, the Yankees rose from near-loss to score four runs, and New York was in position for another victory.  

This series contained most everything, except the stamina to stretch the tension to a full seven games, as the Yankees took the Fall Classic in five.  But we had our first act in a serial that now spans 10 decades (with a hiatus here and there): a comedy and drama full of leading men and bit players, turns and twists and cliff-hangers, single episodes of magic and misfortune, heroes and villains and goats.  

The Dodgers and Yankees have faced each other on the World Series stage 66 times …

There’s been a no-hit bid broken up with two outs in the ninth and a perfect game seen to its conclusion. 

Cookie Lavagetto (erasing that chance for a no-hitter), Henrich, Billy Martin, Jackie Robinson, Paul Blair and Lou Piniella struck walk-off hits.  Davey Lopes touched Catfish Hunter for a leadoff homer in 1978.  Gene Woodling did the same to Johnny Podres in 1953.  Sandy Koufax authored a record-setting strikeout performance in 1963; Reggie Jackson scripted a record-matching home run display in 1977.

Unforgettable wizardry with the glove frequented this matchup:  Al Gionfriddo in 1947, Martin in 1952, Sandy Amorós in 1955, Graig Nettles (again and again and again) in 1978.  

Bob Welch fanned Reggie to end a contest in 1978.  Allie Reynolds rang up Roy Campanella to snuff out a rally in 1952.  

Reese throwing out Elston Howard in the ninth inning of Game 7 to begin the celebration in 1955 … Johnny Kucks going all the way in Game 7 the very next year to keep the Dodgers off the board and from repeating as champs.  Ron Guidry seeing what more he could do after his extraordinary 1978 regular season. Valenzuela bringing Fernandomania to the Fall Classic in 1981.  

Whitey Ford versus Koufax in 1963’s Game 1 and Game 4.  Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider manning the same center field in 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1956.  Campanella and Berra trading spots behind the dish in all those same Fall Classics, plus 1949.  Reese and Rizzuto occupying short in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953 and 1955.  The Boys of Summer and the Bronx Bombers … the Bronx Zoo and Dodger Blue.  

Tommy Lasorda missed a chance to pitch against the Yankees in 1955, but got to manage against them in ’77, ‘78, and ‘81.  Tommy John experienced the drama from both sides.  So did Moose Skowron.  Reese played in seven career World Series and had to confront the Yankees all seven times.  Ewell Blackwell appeared in only one World Series game ever and started against Brooklyn.  Hall of Famers Don Sutton and Don Drysdale and Johnny Mize and Bill Dickey (and others) had the chance to gild their baseball immortality with appearances in a Dodgers-Yankees World Series.  All-timers Koufax and Jackson captured MVP awards for their work against their rival; so did Podres and Don Larsen and Bucky Dent and Ron Cey and Steve Yeager and Pedro Guerrero.

Besides Camilli and DiMaggio in 1941, regular season MVPs have represented the two contestants in a Dodgers-Yankees World Series three other times:  1955 (Berra and Campanella), 1956 (Don Newcombe and Mantle) and 1963 (Koufax and Howard).

66 World Series box scores have told the story of a Dodgers-Yankees clash …

Reese and Berra are the all-time leaders – across these 66 games – in hits and games played (Reese tops Berra in both).  Reynolds and Carl Erskine are the pitching pace-setters when it comes to strikeouts and  appearances (Reynolds leads Erskine in K’s, the two are tied in games). Reynolds has more wins than anyone, his five outdistancing a quintet holding three (Ford, Guidry, Vic Raschi; Podres and Burt Hooton).  No one homered more often in these 66 than Snider, who just edges his center field counterpart Mantle, 10-9.  

Each of the 11 World Series featuring the Dodgers and Yankees has been a spectacle in itself, a monument emblazoned with faces and performances and arrays of numbers to tell a unique story.  Each of the 11 also marks a milestone to chart an ongoing journey:  layer upon layer of Fall Classic connecting to what came before or after (except for 1941, when there is only “after”).  The moments and the men who came together to create them are not in amber; they are alive, a multi-dimensional mosaic in different shades of blue and white pieced together to present a singular image, a one-of-a-kind expression that says, “The Dodgers and Yankees are meeting in the Fall Classic.”  Over the next week, we’ll get to peer at this masterpiece and see how the individual pieces might shift and make room for Ohtani or Judge, or Mookie Betts or Juan Soto, or Gerrit Cole or Jack Flaherty.  Or maybe someone else – right now, it’s unknown.  We’ll just have to see.  

Happy Dodgers-Yankees World Series, everyone.

Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.