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The Yankees and Dodgers will meet in the World Series for the 12th time

The Yankees and Dodgers will meet in the World Series for the 12th time

NEW YORK (AP) – Broadway vs. Hollywood. Subway vs. highway. Judge vs. Ohtani.
New York’s neighbors-turned-cross-country rivals, the Yankees and Dodgers, are renewing their illustrious battle in the World Series for the first time in 43 years.

“I’ve always felt like there was a desire here,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Monday. “The stars will be outside. Eyes will be on the edge of our seats and hopefully we can deliver a great series.”

Two of baseball’s most successful teams will face each other at Dodger Stadium starting Friday: the Yankees will win their 41st American League pennant and the Dodgers will win their 25th National League championship. New York is seeking its 28th World Series title, but its first since 2009, while the Dodgers are seeking their eighth and second in a five-year span.

“When you play for the Dodgers and for the Yankees, it better feel different,” L.A. manager Dave Roberts said at Yankee Stadium last June. “If not, you’re better off doing something else professionally.”

Yankees vs. Dodgers Pinstripes Pantone 294. The Bronx Bombers vs. the Descendants of the Dem Bums. The granite and limestone of the new Yankee Stadium on cool fall nights compared to Dodger Stadium in sunny Chavez Canyon, with the San Gabriel Mountains behind the pavilions.

“It’s kind of what people wanted, what we all wanted,” Dodgers star Mookie Betts said. “It will be a battle between two good teams, many long flights across the country.”

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New York is 8-3 against the Dodgers in most World Series matchups, including 6-1 against Brooklyn and 2-2 since the Big Apple vs. Tinseltown rivalry.

Mickey Owen, Al Gionfriddo, Cookie Lavagetto, Sandy Amoros, Johnny Podres, Don Larsen, Sandy Koufax and Reggie Jackson created indelible images in the duel that began with one of the craziest twists of the 1941 World Series.

After trailing the series 2-1, Brooklyn led 4-3 with two outs in the ninth inning at Ebbets Field when Tommy Henrich missed Hugh Casey’s third strike. The ball bounced away from Owen and was rolling toward the Dodgers’ dugout as Henrich missed the third strike. Joe DiMaggio hit a single, Charlie Keller hit a two-run double and Joe Gordon added another two-run double later in the inning as the Yankees won 7-4 and won the title in five games.

Lavagetto’s two-out, pinch-walk-off double in the ninth ended Bill Bevens’ no-hit effort in the fourth game of 1947, and two games later Gionfriddo DiMaggio robbed a matching three-run home run.

New York defeated the Dodgers again in 1949, 1952 and 1953, frustrating fans in Flatbush, but Brooklyn finally won the title in 1955 when Podres pitched a Game 7 shutout at Yankee Stadium and Gil Hodges drove in both runs. Amoros kept the lead when he caught Yogi Berra’s two-hit drive in the sixth inning in the corner of left field and passed it to shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who threw to Hodges first and Gil McDougald doubled. These players were celebrated in Roger Kahn’s 1972 book “The Boys of Summer.”

Larsen pitched the only perfect game of the 1956 World Series in Game 5 in the Bronx, Berra jumped into his arms after the final out, and the Yankees won Game 7 behind Johnny Kucks’ three-hit shutout in the final World Series game at Ebbets Field.

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Walter O’Malley was traded to the Dodgers in California after the 1957 season, and Koufax wore an interlocking “LA” on his cap instead of a “B” when he struck out a then-Series record 15 in the 1963 opener at Yankee Stadium. The rivalry did not resume until 1977 with the first of three duels in five years.

Jackson’s three home runs led the Yankees to a decisive victory in Game 6 in 1977. The Yankees won another six-game series the following year, highlighted by third baseman Graig Nettles’ diving stops against Reggie Smith, Steve Garvey and Davey Lopes.

Los Angeles lost its first two games in the Bronx in 1981, then won four in a row, capped by a 9-2 victory that had Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda dancing. The loss prompted Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, whose hand was bandaged after an alleged fight with Dodgers fans in a hotel elevator, to issue a written apology “to the people of New York and New York Yankees fans everywhere.”

Both teams feel the history of their predecessors.

“When you put on the jersey and the pinstripes, it just feels different,” Yankees slugger Juan Soto said.

Shohei Ohtani and Los Angeles won two of three when they faced Aaron Judge and New York in a highly publicized series in June.

Roberts is reminded of history as he approaches Dodger Stadium.

“I can’t believe I drive up Vin Scully Way when I go to work,” he said. “It’s overwhelming, but I try not to put my head there too much; I’m just trying to do my job.”