California's Sporting Civil War: the Dodgers versus the Giants

The Dodgers versus the Giants:

            It is the modern-day equivalent of a baseball Civil War. In terms of American History the rivalry between the Dodgers and the Giants is an ancient feud. For more than one hundred years the two teams have competed in New York and continued the war in California. This struggle for dominance in the National League (West) has elements of high drama and bitter farce. Families argue over the qualities of teams. Fans regularly insult each other, throw beer and peanuts and even come to blows over the matter. Mockery and scorn are part of the game. Giant’s broadcasters always note with amusement the tendency of Dodger’s fans to throw beach-balls on the field as an example of silly, shallow LA behavior. Dodger’s fans have noted that the cream colored home jerseys worn by the Giants are somehow suspect or lacking in machismo. Dodger Stadium is now one of the oldest in modern-day baseball and it is gorgeous. One barely senses that one is in downtown Los Angeles. A.T. &T.Park in San Francisco is considered the most beautiful in baseball and the most expensive for the consumer. Players and/or managers who change sides are never quite trusted again. The argument twists and turns into obscurest rants. The Dodgers have drawn the most fans over time; therefore they are the more beloved. The Giants have won more individual games over time, therefore they could be considered better. The Brooklyn Dodgers had won the World Series once and the LA Dodgers five times. The New York Giants won it all six times and the San Francisco Giants never until 2010. Pennant, Division and Wild-card victories aside; this equaled a flat-footed tie at six prior to the Giant’s recent triumph. Therefore; the next team to win the Series now claims some rather large bragging rights, much to the annoyance of the other side. Because baseball is now divided into two three division leagues the stakes are higher and the teams engage each other often during season.

            An examination of this fascinating sporting history might be broken down into two main sections. First, the history in New York would be examined. Basically stated; the two tended to wear each other out fighting for the National League Pennant only to find themselves crushed by the New York Yankees in the World Series. The Yankees play in the Bronx. The Dodgers played in Brooklyn at Ebbets Field while the Giants played at the Polo Grounds in Queens/Manhattan. They have been playing each other since 1901. This amounts to over 2,000 games played to another statistical tie with the Giants winning 1,054 and the Dodgers 1035 as of 2006. The teams finish closes in the standings; first or second far more regularly than the Yankees and Boston Red Sox do. These are rather incredible statistics given the intensity of the competition and the length of time in terms of years. The shift of population and economic power from the East-Coast to the West is an important factor. Therefore, the rapid growth and modernization of America is part of the story.

            The second, natural course of this narrative is the move to California. Some unscrupulous business deals went down as the City of Los Angeles moved a poor Latino neighborhood out of Chavez Ravine in order to lure the Dodgers with some fine real-estate. The Giants almost went to Minnesota before cutting a deal to move to San Francisco. Obviously, there was some level of cooperation between the rivals in order to move the rivalry and business west. The entire enterprise would have been a scheduling impossibility without air-travel. The great theme running through this story is the heartbreaking (depending on one’s loyalties) regularity in which one of the two teams wrecks the aspirations of the other. Another interesting theme is that of race in America. The Dodgers signed the first African-American player to play in the Major Leagues. Robinson’s struggles were a heroic journey, near equal to Martin Luther King’s. The Giants have possibly the greatest and famous and infamous outfielders in Willie Mays and Barry Bonds. The Dodgers were ahead of the curve in terms of signing Asian players. Historically speaking the Giants tend to feature great hitting and the Dodgers great pitching. Both teams have done well with Latino players with a slight edge to the Giants in recent years. There are many notable incidents or brawls between the teams. The most notorious is the outrageous fight between Dodger catcher Johnny Roseboro and Giant pitcher Juan Marichal. These teams simply don’t like each other no matter who wears what uniform and no matter where they are in the standings. Remember Willie McCovey, remember Sandy Koufax; the cast of heroes and villains continues. There is the ‘Zen’ of baseball, a subtle thing that non-fans never seem to understand. Walking through the concrete tiers to see the green’ field of dreams, ‘The Star Spangled Banner’, popcorn, beer, hotdogs, the empty spaces of lulling non-action, the bursts of athleticism and grace, summer days suspended in tension waiting for the result of every pitch and finally the brutal fact that there are no ties in baseball. What follows is a list of some of the more notable events in recent years. The mere listing of these notable games hints at this great American drama.

1951: The Dodgers lead all season but falter badly near the end while the Giants catch and tie them. This forces a three-game playoff for the Pennant. This short series is tied at one game apiece. Bobby Thompson of the Giants hits the winning homerun off of Ralph Branca, ‘The Shot Heard Around the World’. It is now known that the Giants were stealing signs with a telescope hidden behind the scoreboard! The signs were then electrically relayed to a buzzer system near the third-base coach. The Giants go on to lose the World Series to the Yankees. In fact, once settled in San Francisco, the Giants take until 2010 to win the Series while their enemies, the Dodgers win five times.

1954: The New York Giants win the World Series with a sweep of the Cleveland Indians. While this is not the last appearance for the team in ‘Fall Classic’, they never manage to become the champions of baseball again until 2010.

1955: The Brooklyn Dodgers finally win a World Series against the hated and dominant NY Yankees.

1956: The Yankees bite back and take the Series from the Dodgers.

1959: The now SF Giants lead in early September, the LA Dodgers sweep three games and take the Pennant.

1962: The teams find themselves tied on the last day of the season. This forces yet another playoff series. The Giants score four runs in the ninth of the last game to break their foe’s hopes. The Giants go on to lose a well played Series to the Yankees (4-3).

!965: LA takes a tight Series from the Minnesota Twins (4-3).

1966: The Baltimore Orioles sweep the Dodgers right out of the Series.

1974: The Seventies were a period of dominance for the Cincinnati Reds and Oakland Athletics. In this case the A’s beat LA in the Series (4-1).

1980: A late season loss to the Giants forces the Dodgers into a one-game playoff with the Houston Astros which they lose.

1981: The Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series. Yankee owner George Steinbrenner loses his temper when he gets stuck in a broken down Dodger Stadium elevator after the loss. This event avenges Series defeats to the Yankees in 1977 and 1978.

1982: The Giants take the Pennant away from the Dodgers on the very last day of the season with a homerun by Joe Morgan. Rather typically; the Dodgers had eliminated the Giants on the day before with a 15-4 thrashing.

1988: A weak hitting LA team with great pitching beats the Oakland Athletics in the World Series largely because of a homerun by Kirk Gibson off the great reliever Dennis Erkersly.

1989: San Francisco is swept in the World Series by the Oakland A’s. Even an ‘act of god’ in the form of the Loma-Prieta Earthquake does not seem to distract the Athletics.

1991: LA loses two of three in the final series with SF and thus finishes in second place behind the Atlanta Braves.

1993: The Giants need to win only one of the four last games to take the pennant. Already eliminated, the Dodgers beat the Giants 10-3 in the final game after losing the first three resulting in SF losing the pennant race.

2000: The Dodgers manage to make second place, a bitter pill because this dubious honor means they finish eleven games behind the Giants.

2001: The Giants find themselves exactly two games out of first place after losing 2 of 3 games to the Dodgers in the last series of the year.

2002: The Dodgers are not much of a factor. The Giants make it to the World Series vs. the Anaheim Angels. However, the ‘baseball karma gods’ strike when manager Dusty Baker (a former Dodger) gives the game ball to his pitcher before the game is over during the sixth. The Angeles win the final two games, taking the series 4 to 3.

2004: The Dodgers win the Wild-card berth. This is done in a thrilling fashion. Trailing 3-0 in the ninth inning vs. the Giants the Dodgers score seven runs. However, they are quickly knocked out of the playoffs by the Saint Louis Cardinals. In a rare display of sportsmanship the two teams actually shake hands. This becomes known as, ‘The Handshake Series’.

2006: The Giants while having a bad season still manage to ‘Beat LA’ enough times to force the Dodgers into the Wild-card berth even though the Dodgers are tied for first place in the standings with the San Diego Padres (a team LA never seems to defeat in recent years). The Dodgers are quickly eliminated thereafter.

2007: At the Dodgers look better on paper with a good combination of skilled pitchers, veterans and rookies while the Giants field many journeyman players, fine young pitching and one super-star, Barry Bonds (who as at the end of a controversial and spectacular career). LA finishes at 82-80 in fourth place while SF stumbles to a last at 71-91.

2008: The Dodgers get knocked out of the place-offs by the Phillies 4 games to 1. The Giants do not manage to play .500 baseball that year.

2009: LA suffers the same fate at the hands of the Phillies (4 games to 1) including a horrible 11-0 loss. This era of Dodger baseball features the distracting shenanigans of left fielder Manny Ramirez (a slugger from the Red Sox) who finally goes to the Chicago White Sox in 2010 only to leave MLB. SF plays well but not well enough to garner a play-off spot.

2010: It finally happens; the San Francisco Giants win the World Series for the first time since the franchise moved to The City! This is rather amazing in part due to an almost total collapse of the San Diego Padres late in the season. The Giants went on to win tough playoff series versus both the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies. They then cruise past the Texas Rangers to win the championship (4-1). Northern California goes wild with joy. An oft injured, fragmented Dodgers team struggles mightily, showing signs of low morale (largely blamed on a bitter divorce between the owners…the McCourt’s) as they fade.

2011: As of this writing (June) a very weird season unfolds. In an apparent gang related act a Giant’s fan is beaten into a coma on opening day at Dodger Stadium. For once the two teams unite to condemn the incident. The Giants lose one of their best players for the year, catcher Buster Posey in a collision at home plate. The team hangs on always near or in first place in spite of a weak offense due to great pitching. It is crazier in LA. The messy divorce between the McCourts leads MLB to take over some control of the Dodgers while dubious financial matters are probed. Attendance plummets in LA in part due to the heavy police presence and frustrated fans. However; with good pitching and the leadership of center fielder Matt Kemp, the Dodgers play fairly well. As always, we shall see.

Keith Keller

Note: My thanks and credit to Jim Capel of ESPN for his article, “Giants-Dodgers best rivalry in baseball.” This fine piece provided the background and inspiration for my article while the rest comes from my research and experiences living in both halves of California. KK