Yankees vs. Dodgers: What to know about the World Series’s biggest rivalry

In the beginning, the World Series matchup of the Dodgers against the Yankees was a kind of charming intra-city showdown of two New York City boroughs, blue collar Brooklyn, equipped with a neighborhood called Gravesend, against the pretentious Bronx, with the fancy Grand Concourse. It was an intriguing matchup that carried bragging rights in the city as well as baseball’s world championship, and it caught the attention of brilliant sports cartoonist Williard Mullin, who gave it the catchy nickname of “The Subway Series.” That was because, after all, New York City’s rapid transit system could get you from one ballpark to the other for just 5 cents. The trip will cost considerably more when it resumes on Friday for the 12th time in a Broadway-meets-Sunset Boulevard version of baseball’s most frequent World Series rivalry. This one brings together this season’s winningest teams in a coast-to-coast collision featuring some of the game’s biggest stars in the Yankees’s Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, and the Dodgers’s Shohei Otani and Mookie Betts. Their October showdowns have produced some of the game’s most memorable moments, from Don Larsen’s perfect game and Reggie Jackson’s three straight home runs to the one-handed circus catches of Al Gionfriddo and Sandy Amoros. Yankees vs. Dodgers had a modest World Series beginning The Dodgers won their first National League pennant in 21 years in 1941 and found the Yankees, already constructing a dynasty, waiting for them in the World Series. It was the first of their 12 Fall Classic meetings. Mullin also gave them cartoon images—a down-and-out but very proud Brooklyn Bum shuffling along with a ragtag wardrobe and a high-and-mighty New York Yankee, strutting around with his chest out, celebrating his dominance of baseball. This would be a match of the haves and the have-nots. The haves prevailed, but not without one of the strangest plays in World Series history—the last out strikeout that instead became a game-turning rally for the Yankees. The teams split the first two games at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won Game 3 at Ebbets Field, but the Dodgers were clinging to a 4-3 lead in Game 4—set, it seemed, to even the Series. Reliever Hugh Casey retired the first two hitters and went to a 3-2 count on Tommy Henrich and then broke off a wicked curveball—some thought it might have been a spitball. Henrich swung and missed, but the ball skipped past catcher Mickey Owen. Henrich raced to first base. The Yankees had life. Casey still needed one out to seal the win. He never got it. Joe DiMaggio singled and Charlie Keller doubled, driving in two runs. The Yankees added two more for a 7-4 victory that left the Dodgers stunned and Owen the goat. The Yankees won the next day to clinch their ninth World Series triumph. The 1947 World Series had Yogi and Jackie—but Bill Bevens was the story When the sides next hooked up in the World Series in 1947, they included a few notable new faces. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with Brooklyn that season and won Rookie of the Year. And in Game 3, New York got the first pinch-hit home run in Series history by a rookie catcher named Yogi Berra. But Game 4 was the most memorable of this Series because Bill Bevens, a marginal Yankees pitcher who won just seven games during the season, flirted with the first no-hitter in World Series history. Bevens carried a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning despite issuing eight walks. He then walked Carl Furillo by mistake and Pete Reiser intentionally. Cookie Lavagetto batted for Eddie Stanky and smashed a double off the right-field wall, ending the no-hit bid and winning the game for Brooklyn. It was the last pitch Bevens threw in the major leagues. The Yankees won Game 5 by 2-1, sending the Series back to the Bronx. The Dodgers led 8-5 in Game 6 but New York rallied in the sixth inning and had two men on base with two outs and DiMaggio at bat. The Yankees star sent a drive that seemed headed for the left-field seats. AL Gionfriddo, inserted for defense at the start of the inning, took off on a dead run with his back to the ball, twisted his body at the last moment and speared the shot for the out. DiMaggio, never one to show emotion on the field, kicked the dirt in frustration. The Dodgers hung on to win that game, but New York took Game 7 and the Series. Like Bevens, Lavagetto and Gionfriddo never played another major league game. The golden age of Dodgers vs. Yankees Two years later, the two rivals were back at it again, this time with Casey Stengel managing the Yankees. The opening game of the 1949 Series was a classic. The two teams were scoreless through eight innings with Brooklyn’s Don Newcombe dueling the Allie Reynolds. Tommy Henrich led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a home run, giving the Yankees a 1-0 victory over the Dodgers ace, who never won a World Series start. Brooklyn responded with its own 1-0 victory in Game 2,