No two teams have faced off in the World Series more than the Yankees and Dodgers. Even when the Dodgers left Brooklyn and moved across the coast, the two teams seemed to find a way back to each other come October.
Now, for the first time in 43 years, they will be at it again in the Fall Classic, starting with game one on Friday night in Los Angeles.
The battle is a dream for Major League Baseball, one that is loaded with star power, big-market muscle, and loads of history that even Aaron Boone finds himself feeling now that the matchup is set.
“I think it’s great...that’s right in my wheelhouse, those teams and those days,” Boone said, noting his exposure to the Yanks and Dodgers’ battles growing up as a baseball fanatic in the late 70s and early 80s. “It’s very meaningful to me and not lost upon me.
“I think about Reggie [Jackson] hitting homers and leaning into the ball on a rundown...and just some legendary teams. Reggie, Thurman Munson, Willie Randolph, and on and on. And the Dodgers with the stability in their infield...Dusty [Baker] in the outfield. Just iconic teams, and east meets west. This is Dodgers/Yankees. Lakers/Celtics, whatever you want to say. It certainly has that feel to it.”
Through the eras of baseball history, there were extended stretches where the Yankees and Dodgers were the cream of the crop, overflowing with stars on both sides. In the late 1940s, it was Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra’s Yanks getting the best of Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese. In the early 50s, Mickey Mantle arrived, and the Dodgers had Duke Snider to counter. Fast forward to the late 70s and early 80s, and it was Jackson and Munson and Randolph leading the Yanks to back-to-back titles, with LA getting payback in 1981 with Fernando Valenzuela and Pedro Guerrero getting payback in what was, up until this year, the last time the two teams met in the World Series.
The drought has been long, especially based on the standards of Yankees and Dodgers, but it has finally returned, and given the big names in both dugouts, it couldn’t have come at a better time.
“I’ve always had that sense being here that there’s that underlying craving for that,” Boone said. “Even going back the seven years now that I’ve been here, there’s always been that occasional talk about Yankees and Dodgers.”
The craving will certainly be satisfied in the coming weeks, as the likes of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman will all share the same stage. Six MVP awards since 2017 will be on the field, soon to be eight considering Judge and Ohtani seem like locks to take home the award in their respective leagues this year. Judge and Ohtani both led their leagues in home runs this season, marking the first time a World Series featured both home run leaders since 1956, when, unsurprisingly, the Yanks and Dodgers met with Mantle pitted against Snider.
The 2024 World Series will carry more hype than and in recent memory. TV ratings will likely be shattered. A collection of the game’s best players will be on full display. The iconic Yankee pinstripes against the classic Dodger grays. Yankee Stadium and Dodger Stadium. A resumption of the biggest World Series rivalry the sport has ever seen.
The hype is too great for the players and managers involved to block it out. It will simply have to be embraced.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Boone said. “The stars will be out, the eyeballs will be watching, and hopefully we can deliver on a great series.”