Yankees vs. Dodgers a dream World Series matchup for MLB
Aaron Judge of the Yankees reacts after his third-inning RBI double against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Yankee Stadium on June 9. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Yankees-Dodgers in the World Series has a certain magical sound to it, and Aaron Boone even touched upon a bit of “Magic” in talking about it Monday.
“Iconic teams. East meets West. Dodgers-Yankees. Lakers-Celtics. Has that feel to it,” Boone said, referencing the famous NBA Finals battles of the 1980s between Magic Johnson’s Lakers and Larry Bird’s Celtics.
The stars came out in force for those epic series — Jack Nicholson sitting courtside at the old Forum in Inglewood is in every highlight reel to this day — and they are sure to show up for this series, both at Dodger Stadium and Yankee Stadium.
“I’m looking forward to all of it,” Boone said. “The stars will be out, eyeballs will be watching. Hopefully we can deliver on a great series.”
Game 1 is set for Friday night at Dodger Stadium, with Game 2 Saturday night.
To the surprise of no one, Boone announced during Monday afternoon’s Zoom news conference that ace Gerrit Cole, who started Game 1 of the Division Series against the Royals and Game 2 of the ALCS against the Guardians, will start Friday night. The Yankees’ rotation for the Cleveland series was Cole, Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil, and though Boone wouldn’t commit to that being the order against the Dodgers, he said, “There’s a good chance we roll it out like that.”
There will be plenty of time between now and Friday’s series opener to provide some hype, of which there will be no shortage.
It is a matchup of Major League Baseball’s most iconic franchises, which currently happen to have the sport’s most popular and marketable players in Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani.
Judge is expected to be named American League MVP in a runaway and Ohtani is expected to do the same with the NL award.
The clubs stood out throughout the regular season. The Dodgers were an MLB-best 98-64 and the Yankees were an AL-best 94-68.
“It's what you always dream about as a little kid, getting to play in the World Series. Playing for the Dodgers against the Yankees, it's pretty surreal,” said the Dodgers' Tommy Edman, the MVP of the six-game NLCS victory over the Mets.
It is a dream matchup for MLB, which entered the postseason privately dreading the nightmare scenario that would have played out from a TV ratings standpoint if the World Series matchup had been, say, Royals-Brewers or Guardians-Padres.
“I think the whole world was looking forward or hoping for this potential matchup, this showdown,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who still lives in the minds of many Yankees fans because of his stolen base against Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS — the very first step in the Red Sox's historic rally from a three-games-to-none deficit. “It's going to be great. They're a very talented team.”
The franchises have met 11 times in the World Series and the Yankees have won eight of them.. The most recent of those came in 1981, as the Dodgers won that series in six games after dropping the first two.
The Yankees won the two preceding matchups — in six games in 1978 and 1977. The latter series was most famous for Reggie Jackson’s three-homer game, off three different pitchers, in Game 6 at old Yankee Stadium.
The first World Series meeting between the franchises was 1941, with the Yankees winning in five games over the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Dodgers beat the Yankees in the 1955 World Series, moved to the West Coast before the 1958 season and renewed the rivalry in 1963, when they stunned the Yankees by sweeping the series.
Boone, who led the Yankees to their 41st pennant — and their first since Joe Girardi won the franchise’s last World Series in 2009 — took the job as Yankees manager in December 2017, replacing Girardi.
Boone said from his earliest days in the manager’s chair, “I’ve always had the sense being here there’s that underlying craving for that,” meaning a Yankees-Dodgers World Series.
“The seven years I’ve been here, there’s always been that occasional talk about Yankees-Dodgers,” he said. “I think it’s great.”
Boone’s father, Bob, played for the Phillies from 1972-81. Those contending Philadelphia clubs from the late '70s and early '80s often clashed with some of Tommy Lasorda’s best Dodgers teams.
“The Dodgers sent them home in back-to-back championship years with the right to play the Yankees [in ’77 and ’78],” said Boone, who spent much of his youth trailing his father to the ballpark. “That’s right in my wheelhouse, those days. [Dodgers-Yankees] is definitely meaningful to me.”
