The Seven Beards You Meet in Hell

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“Is this really the worst-ever era in MLB facial hair, or just the first in HD?” —@ataccini, July 25

Facial hair is always a lively topic on Twitter, my own mustache included. Last night, as Matt Garza was en route to a no-hitter, I mocked his beard, suggesting it could overtake that of Boone Logan in the annals of all-time horrors, setting off a conversation that continued through the final innings of his gem and well into a postgame meetup with some of my baseball scribe friends. In honor of Garza’s achievement and that conversation, I present this list of the seven most horrific facial hair atrocities of the past few years.

7. Scott Spiezio: Made famous during St. Louis’ run to an unlikely world championship in 2005, this totally horseshit look broke new ground in the modern era of facial hair because the soulpatch-farming utilityman took the trouble to dye it an unnatural shade of red. No doubt the toxicity of the dye helped trigger his freakout and subsequent arrest for assault, hit and run, and driving under the influence.

6. Matt Garza: The man who threw the no-hitter last night had tamed his beard somewhat in the last few weeks. This recent look drew comparison to the Duke Blue Devil by one of my tweeps.

5. Matt Clement: By forgoing the matching mustache, Clement set off the modern era of facial hair travesties with this “pubic beard,” so named because, well, that’s what it looks like.

4. Ryan Franklin: The Cardinals closer’s beard is simply disgusting. It looks as though a mangy piece of roadkill was nailed to his chin shortly before he began warming up in the bullpen.  Or as Steven Goldman put it, “It’s like he just ate a Wookie and forgot to wipe his chin.”

3. Boone Logan: Now that he’s in the Yankee organization, Logan’s been forced to shave his beard, but this one dating back to his days with the White Sox is so bad that when I showed it to Emma Span, she complained that it began haunting her dreams. ‘Nuf said.

2. Chad Gaudin: As with Logan, his two tours of duty with the Yankees have forced him to shave this beard, which one tweep described as Amish. To me it looks like the very fires of hell materialized on a man’s face.

1. Bobby Jenks: I knew the burly White Sox closer had a bad beard, but I have to confess that I was unaware of this monstrosity. Between the pink dye and his giant set of man-tits, this whole tableau may constitute the most unflattering photograph ever taken of a professional athlete. As Baseball Prospectus colleague Colin Wyers quipped, he “looks like a Treasure Troll doll.”

Ain’t that a beaut? And what is it with Chicago, anyway? Jenks, Logan, Gaudin and Clement all grew theirs while toiling for Windy City teams. Makes you appreciate the Yankees’ facial hair policy all the more, Chan Ho Park’s post-Phillies meltdown notwithstanding.

Special thanks blame for inspiration goes to @AbPow, @amandarykoff, @ataccini, @cwyers, @EJGoose, @emmaspan, @injuryexpert, @jaydestro, @jessespector, @joe_sheehan, @matthewhleach, @metsgrrl, @pb_steve, @rebeccapbp and others for their contributions to this discussion. Yeah, you’re welcome.

Whole Lotta Jay

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It’s been a big day — a big week — for me at Baseball Prospectus, with the Replacement-Level Killers piece on Tuesday, the NL Hit List on Thursday, and then a double dip today featuring the AL Hit List and a piece comparing Tim Raines’ Hall of Fame case to that of Andre Dawson, who’s being inducted this weekend. There’s an ESPN Insider version of the latter — featured on the front page of the baseball section — and I also did a BP chat with the Hall of Fame as one of the main topics. Got all that? To the excerptomobile…

• The top story in the NL, in my view, was the #7-ranked Dodgers’ SNAFU from Tuesday night:

Can’t Get No Relief: Two days after the Dodger bullpen squanders a 4-0 eighth-inning lead to enable a four-game sweep by the Cardinals, they fritter away a five-run outburst against Tim Lincecum and lose in bizarre fashion when acting manger Don Mattingly is improperly charged with a second mound visit due to a technicality and is forced to remove Jonathan Broxton. The Dodgers’ closer has now been lit for 11 runs in his last 7 1/3 innings dating back to his meltdown against the Yanks, exacerbating a bullpen situation where Ramon Troncoso has been Ronald Belisario placed on the restricted list for a substance abuse problem, and George Sherrill waived due to excessive craptacularity. Add it up and it’s a six-game losing streak for a team that’s still got rotation issues and now sans Manny Ramirez for another three weeks, after compiling just four plate appearances since his last trip to the DL.

I think I gave myself a concussion banging my head against the wall over Mattingly’s gaffe, the proper resolution of which  should have resulted in him getting ejected and Broxton being forced to stay for one more hitter before being pulled. So much went wrong here. Mattingly forgot the rule, crew chief Tim McClelland incorrectly interpreted it according to MLB’s Bob Watson (and remained defiant about it the next day), Sherrill failed to ask for more time to warm up, and all of the Dodger relievers in the ninth failed to execute. It was defeat snatched from the jaws of victory, and while the Dodgers have since snapped out of their slide with a pair of 2-0 wins, they’re in fourth place, with a deeper hole to climb out of than they should have had.

• As for the AL, the gem was the #2-ranked Rays entry, which featured one of my favorite Simpsons references, albeit an uncomfortable one:

Baseball in the Groin! Baseball in the Groin!: With a 12-5 record this month, the Rays recover the .700 clip they showed during April, with Evan Longoria (.348/.463/.591 this month) leading the way. His two-run homer and two-hit effort—his fourth multi-hit game out of seven—against the Orioles helps erase the sting of a walkoff loss the previous night. Still feeling the sting is Carl Crawford (.348/.375/.609), who takes a pickoff throw right in the stones; whether out of brazen stupidity or sheer defiance, he’s still going to play without a helmet. Alas, George C. Scott is unavailable for the big-budget remake.

• As for Raines and Dawson, those who follow my JAWS series and in particular read last winter’s dispatch on the two cases will be familiar with most of it. Here’s a bit of the non-JAWS stuff:

Over the course of their fascinating and often dazzling careers, “The Hawk” notched more career hits, home runs and RBI than “The Rock” did, and he was awarded more hardware (whether he earned it is a different story):

Player     H    HR   RBI   SB   AVG   OBP   SLG  AS  MVP GG
Dawson   2774  438  1591  314  .279  .323  .482   8   1   8
Raines   2605  170   980  808  .294  .385  .425   7   0   0

As flashy as those credentials are, Raines trumps his former teammate not only in stolen bases (he’s fifth all time, and his 84.7 percent success rate ranks third among players with at least 300 attempts), but in the categories which equate most directly to measurable value on the diamond: he reached base over 500 times more than Dawson while using nearly 900 fewer outs in a similar number of opportunities, advancing himself or his teammates further around the diamond, and creating more runs per plate appearance basis:

Player     PA    BB    TOB   BG    Out   TAv
Dawson   10769   589  3474  5692  7404  .285
Raines   10359  1330  3977  5805  6528  .306

TOB is times on base (H + BB + HBP), BG is bases gained (TB + BB + HBP + SB – CS), presented here to show that Raines’ edge on the basepaths made up for Dawson’s edge in power. The comprehensive True Average metric boils all of that down, translating each player’s runs created per plate appearance onto a batting average scale.

…Along with a keen batting eye, dazzling speed, and all-around athleticism, Raines did offer a reasonable amount of pop. Like Dawson, he was at his most valuable during his time in Montreal (1979-1990) before injuries took their toll, and like Dawson, he was victimized by collusion, unable to cash in when his earning power was at its highest. He’s is often slighted because he doesn’t measure up to Rickey Henderson, his direct contemporary and a 2009 Hall of Fame inductee; unlike Henderson, he doesn’t have 3,000 hits, the all-time runs and stolen base records, or a persona backed by a bevy of amusingly apocryphal anecdotes. But if Rickey was the best leadoff hitter of all time, Raines has a strong case as the second best, and he was no less cerebral. Those bemoaning today’s increasingly power-oriented game take note: Raines was among the best ever at getting himself around the basepaths.

…[Dawson is] a below-average Hall of Famer, one who doesn’t advance the cause of recognizing the cream of the crop. If he’s worth enshrining, so are dozens of others around the diamond.

• As for the chat:

K. Olbermann (New York, NY): What does JAWS say about George Steinbrenner’s chances of making the Hall of Fame?

JJ: Oh, a wise guy, eh? JAWS is notably silent on the non-numerical aspects of the Hall, even moreso when it comes to owners. Joe Posnanski recently had an excellent post on the small sample of them in the Hall of Fame. Suffice it to say that if Tom Yawkey, an open racist who ran his team like a country club and spent lavishly in pursuit of a championship that never came is in the Hall of Fame, then Jeffrey Loria belongs, to say nothing of the twice-suspended Steinbrenner.

That said, I do believe you can make a stronger case for him than that. Yes, it’s possible the Yankees might not have won without his suspensions given that the groundwork for both was laid during them, but anyone who thinks he was divorced from the team’s affairs during that period is deluded – read John Helyar’s excellent Lords of the Realm to find out how involved he was in the Catfish Hunter signing, for example. I think he belongs. So does a previous Yankee owner, Jacob Ruppert.

Nick Stone (New York, NY): What’s up with Phil Hughes? His numbers lately haven’t been too impressive. Fatigue? Over-reliance on the cutter? Has the league adjusted to him and does he need to make a re-adjustment? Injury?

JJ: Hey, Nick, thanks for dropping by! As I noted first via Twitter yesterday (@jay_jaffe) and then again in today’s Hit List, Hughes has a 6.85 ERA since the Yankees skipped his turn a few weeks back, and a 5.51 ERA over his last 11 starts. I think everything you mentioned could be a factor in varying degrees, with the bottom line being that he doesn’t seem to be getting as much movement on his pitches, and hitters are responding better. Let’s not forget the fact that he’s pitched a ton of competitive innings this year already, far more so than he’s been on pace for in recent years, and could be having a physical and mental impact on his game.

Guillermo (Montevideo, Uruguay): hi Jay! So, we went pretty far in the WC (I am talking ’bout La Celeste here). And, coincidentally or not, Uruguay was the only South American team using some sort of “Sabermetrics” system. From what I´ve heard, this kind of things are extremely rare in soccer, since that sport suffers from the same “old school” mentality as baseball. So, no question here, just to comment that, down here in Montevideo, we´re still celebrating! 4th place in the WC doesn´t come along that often (in fact, Uruguay has the record of 3 fourth place finishes, and one not to be overtaken soon, since the only country with 2 is the now defunct Yugoslavia). Besides, the guys from the team have shown great proffesionalism and a way to carry themselves that can lead only to profound respect for their effort.

JJ: I meant to write about this somewhere, but I’ll say my piece here. I enjoyed this past World Cup immensely, in part because along with getting wrapped up in the US team’s fate I latched onto the Uruguay team from the get-go. I was already sympathetic to the cause, having come away impressed with Montevideo from visiting last fall, but their style of play and particularly the relentless attack of Diego Forlan made them one of the most riveting teams to watch in the whole tournament. I loved the Posnanski piece about “Garra Charrua” and the history of Uruaguayan soccer. And let’s face it, for the incredible spectrum of human drama that sports can produce, the Uruguay-Ghana match was just about the pinnacle of triumph and heartbreak.

So I’m pretty proud of the team too, and glad I got to connect with some people including BP’s possibly lone Uruguayan reader, and I’m thinking I’ve got to get the cable package which carries La Liga so I can see more Forlan in the future.

WARPspeedfreak (Headspace): Where do you rank Jim Thome among possible Hall of Famers? There doesn’t seem to be much buzz except from the bees. Care to stir up that nest?

Jay Jaffe: I certainly think Thome belongs, and so does JAWS, which had him one point ahead of the 1B standard at the outset of the year. Even so, he’s well behind Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Mark McGwire on the scale, and below Keith Hernandez and Will Clark. Not having an MVP award has led to the perception that he’s just an accumulator, and I think he’s gonna be a guy whose candidacy gets fought over for little reason. He belongs, though.

Whew, quite a week. Meanwhile, I found it quite eerie that Ralph Houk passed away on the same day I wrote about him and chatted about him with Steve Goldman. Goldi-locks has stuff up at BP and the Pinstriped Bible about Houk. Don’t miss it.

And while we’re on the subject of friends and colleagues, Will Carroll’s got a must-read post about the announcement that baseball will begin testing minor leaguers for human growth hormone. He points out that the test itself isn’t very effective, hGH is expensive for a minor leaguer and needs to be stored properly, something these young road warriors probably can’t do even if they could afford it, hGH itself isn’t proven to be effective, and that this announcement is more about public relations than anything else — not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, as he points out. For the shorter version, you can just absorb the tweet he passed along from former Giants minor leaguer Garrett Broshuis: “Testing minor leaguers for HGH is like looking in your daughter’s room for Playboys. You’re looking in the wrong place.”

Girardi to the Cubs? Fuhgeddaboutit

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Gotta call bullshit on Joel Sherman’s suggestion that Joe Girardi could consider the soon-to-be-vacant Cubs managerial position upon Lou Piniella’s retirement at the end of this season:

Joe Girardi’s free agency be came a little more interesting yesterday when Lou Piniella announced his retirement as Cubs manager, effective at the conclusion of the season.

It had been assumed for a while that this would be Piniella’s final season as Cubs manager, especially because this year has gone so horribly wrong for the team. But now it is definitive that Chicago will be looking for a new manager, and there is little doubt Girardi would be near the top of any dream list. In fact, he might be the front-runner.

However, like the Yankees’ other prominent free agents — Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera — the assumption has been that the Yanks will want Girardi back, and what the Yanks want they almost always get.

But Cliff Lee did slip from their grasp, and it should be remembered that Girardi still has strong ties to both Chicago and the Cubs; the team is now owned by the Ricketts family, and word around baseball is that the new ownership is planning to spend big on the team, including on a manager if necessary; and don’t forget that Girardi described the Yankees as his “dream” job after the 2007 season, but kept negotiating with the Dodgers even after the Yanks made an offer, as a way to gain a better contract.

Translation: The Cubs will at least give Girardi leverage if he wants.

At NYMag.com, Will Leitch notes that Girardi has ties to the city and the franchise:

First off, there’s the obvious: Girardi grew up in Peoria, Illinois, went to Northwestern, met his wife there, and still has ties to the community of Evanston. The north side of Chicago is Girardi’s home turf, essentially, and the Cubs are to the north side of Chicago what the Yankees are to New York City as a whole: the company in a company town. You can be assured that at get-togethers among the extended family, he’s been having the “When you gonna come manage the Cubbies?” conversation for years.

He also has history with the Cubs franchise. He played for the Cubs on two separate occasions: The first time he actually played in the 1989 National League Championship series loss to the Giants, and the second time, at the end of his career, was marked mostly by announcing to the Wrigley Field crowd that the day’s Cardinals-Cubs game would be canceled because of “a death in the Cardinals family.” (It was the day Darryl Kile was found dead in his hotel room.) He even has broadcasting history with the team: He was on the ESPN Radio microphone the night of the Steve Bartman game.

Leitch also argues that Girardi’s quality of life would likely to improve upon returning to the midwest, and that he could be a hero if he were able to pilot the Cubs to their first World Series since 1908. Hasn’t that siren call lured managers such as Piniella and Dusty Baker to their doom?

As intentionally provocative as all of this may be, the real problem I have with accepting this boils down to one thing: there’s no recent precedent for a Yankees manager voluntarily leaving his post for another job. Joe Torre? No, he was lowballed in a contract deal, and then the Dodgers pounced upon him instead of Girardi, their initial choice. Buck Showalter? Fired. Stump Merrill? Fired. Bucky Dent, Dallas Green, Piniella, Billy Marin, Yogi Berra, Bob Lemon, Gene Michael, Dick Howser, Clyde King, Bill Virdon… all fired.

The closest precedent would appear to be Ralph Houk, who resigned at the end of the 1973 season due to the constant booing of Yankee fans (who hadn’t seen a winner since 1964) and conflicts with George Steinbrenner, who had purchased the team earlier in the year. He had piloted the team to an 80-82 record — many of the aforementioned were whacked for worse — and then resurfaced the next spring as the Tigers manager, taking over a team that had finished in third place with an 85-77 record and piloting them all the way to 72-90 the following year.

Even there, the parallel breaks down. Houk was departing a team that hadn’t finished in first place since 1964, the year Yogi Berra managed the Yankees to the pennant, only to be canned when the Yankees lost a thrilling seven-game World Series; the hatchet man on that hit was Houk himself, who had moved up to the team’s GM position the year before. Before that, the closest parallel is Joe McCarthy, who after 15 full seasons, eight pennants and seven world championships walked away early in the 1946 season rather than work with Larry MacPhail, who was a few loose lugnuts short of a tire change; McCarthy’s own drinking was said to be a factor as well. In any event, he didn’t resurface until 1948 with the Red Sox. (Thanks to Steve Goldman for a lively recap of the Yankees’ mid-century managerial follies.)

Girardi could end up as the Cubs manager next year, but the only scenario via which that’s likely to happen is if the Yankees fire him or decide they don’t want him to return, and there’s nothing right now to suggest that the manager who helped break their championship drought and who thus far this year has piloted them to the majors’ best record is in any danger of that happening. That’s without even considering the fact that the Cubs are in disarray right now, hamstrung by bad contracts and a weak farm system, having not won a World Series in 102 years. So no, I’m not buying it. Move along, nothing to see here, folks…

The Nagging Joba Question

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This morning, Steven Goldman and I had a lively conversation about whether or not the Yankees should trade Joba Chamberlain. Steve initially came at the question prepared to argue that it made sense to use Joba as trade bait while he still had some mystique about him, but a look at his peripherals changed his mind. Chamberlain has thrown 39 innings, allowed two homers (one of them the dispiritng grand slam to Russell Branyan a couple weeks back), walked 14 and struck out 43. His estimated earned run average according to BP’s SIERA is 3.27, while his FIP is 2.66, both much better than his actual mark of 5.77. The reason for the discrepancy is batting average on balls in play:

What the heck is going on, then? Well, hitters are averaging .391 on balls in play. Whether that’s a result of bad luck or bad mechanics on Joba’s part I don’t know, but I do know that it should be fixable. The stuff is still there; with the return to the bullpen, he’s letting his fastball go at higher speeds than last year, if not the 100 mph form of 2007. The things that Joba can control — walks, strikeouts, keeping the ball in the park — are still there. The rain of hits is very likely transient. The one thing we can’t say for certain is when it will end, only that it should.

Additionally complicating any trade is Chamberlain’s upcoming eligibility for arbitration. He’s making just under $500,000 this year, but that figure is going up. Few, if any, teams will want to be on the hook for a big raise given his performance so far. It’s just another reason why those that are so angry and disappointed by Joba’s performances of late had better holster their hate and count to 10; it’s going to be very difficult for Cashman to get something like real value for him right now. Battered AND expensive? That’s not going to bring a starting pitcher of position player, and as my wise Baseball Prospectus colleague Jay Jaffe says, “trading him for another reliever is a recipe for sitting next to Bill Bavasi and Dave Littlefield at the next winter meetings banquet.” The Yankees need a solid reliever, but he doesn’t want to be the guy who replaces Lou Gorman in the annual, “Which GM traded a coming star for one month of Larry Andersen?”

So please, hang up the phone. Joba is a problem, part of a bullpen gone awry, but at 24 years old and with a fastball that has averaged 94 this year, it’s spectacularly premature to give up on him. He’s not the new Rob Dibble, sorry. He’s not an ace starter. Again, sorry. He’s been through a great deal in a short career, and the least the Yankees can do — for the team, not for him — is to leave him alone and figure out what they’ve got. They should be rewarded. Now, if Jerry DiPoto is reading the same numbers I am, if his scouts are telling him that the stuff is still there, and he calls up Cashman and says, “Hey, I’ll give you Dan Haren and Justin Upton for Joba and a prospect,” you can throw the foregoing out the window, but that isn’t going to happen. Failing that, holding on is the best choice.

It’s idiotic to trade a player when he’s at the nadir of his value, and health aside, Chamberlain has been knocked down to the point. He won’t bring back a quality starting pitcher in trade, won’t bring back a quality position player. Sure, he could net a reliever or a bench bat, but for a guy who once could have been the centerpiece of a deal for Johan Santana, that’s pennies on the dollar. The Yankees broke Joba, mentally and mechanically if not physically. It’s their job to fix him while they still can.

Here Come the Replacement-Level Killers

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It’s that time of year again:

When it comes to playoff races, every edge matters. Yet all too often, managers and GMs fail to make the moves that could help their teams for reasons rooted in issues beyond a player’s statistics, allowing sub-par production to fester until it kills a club’s post-season hopes. Back in 2007, I compiled a historical all-star squad of ignominy for our pennant race book, It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over, identifying players at each position whose performances had dragged their teams down in tight races: the Replacement-level Killers. The concept has been revisited on a more or less annual basis here at Baseball Prospectus, both by myself and my colleagues, with an eye toward what teams can do to solve such potentially fatal problems. With the trading deadline less than two weeks away, the window for contenders to take their best shots at parlaying their resources into solutions are closing.

What follows is a quick trip around the diamond to run down some of the most glaring situations among teams with records above .500…

This year’s Killers don’t include any current Yankees or Dodgers, but former Yankee Hideki Matsui is the DH, and former Dodger Juan Pierre the left fielder. The right fielder is quite familiar too:

Left Field: Juan Pierre (.242 TAv, 0.8 WARP), White Sox
This one goes out to all of the pundits who celebrated Unlucky Pierre being freed from the tyranny of fourth-outfielderdom in Los Angeles. Even with his 33 steals, Pierre has the second-lowest True Average of any left fielder with at least 200 plate appearances. His mark is 32 points lower than the average left fielder, equivalent to a shortfall of 13 runs (-13 RAP). With the White Sox embroiled in a three-team race in a division that’s gone to a Game 163 playoff in each of the past two years, they can ill afford to employ a player who costs them more than a full win in the standings.
Remedy (?): Just about anything short of sitting on their hands would be an improvement, though it will cost the Sox varying degrees of blood and treasure. Adam Dunn is the big game being hunted, and the likes of Cody Ross or Jose Bautista, both making relatively little in salary, could appeal as well. Hell, even The Return of Podzilla would be welcome; Scott Podsednik is hitting .302/.350/.376 and would of course satisfy Ozzie Guillen’s need for speed, though the only thing really separating him from Pierre is a handful of balls in play falling for hits.

Right Field: Jeff Francoeur (.253 TAv, -0.3 WARP), Mets
The end of the world appeared nigh when Frenchy walked eight times in his first 12 games, but he steered us clear of the apocalypse by drawing just six unintentional passes in his next 77 games, batting .227/.270/.332 along the way. During one 37-game, 137-PA stretch, he “hit” .146/.197/.228, yet manager Jerry Manuel didn’t let a day go by without making sure he got a chance to take his hacks.
Remedy (?): With Carlos Beltran making his 2010 debut last week, the Mets’ most productive outfielder, Angel Pagan (.300 TAv, +12 FRAA) was displaced from the position he’s manned so capably all year. According to WARP, Pagan has been the team’s second-most valuable player behind David Wright, with 4.1. The obvious solution if the Mets insist upon playing Beltran in center regularly—something that’s probably not a good idea given his arthritic knee—is to shift Pagan to right and shoot Francouer out of a cannon. The second most obvious solution — which Manuel went with last week, though he wouldn’t exactly come out and say it — would be to platoon the switch-hitting Pagan, who’s much stronger against righties over the course of his career (.306/.360/.463) than against lefties (.252/.295/.416), with Francoeur (.300/.343/.480 vs. lefties, .256/.297/.406 vs righties), though that still means a bit more Frenchy than necessary when Pagan shifts to center to give Beltran the day off. If Beltran stays healthy and hits like the guy in the catalog, problem solved, but the Mets could probably use some anti-Frenchy insurance in case Beltran gets hurt and Pagan returns to center.

As the July 31 trading deadline approaches, it will be interesting to see which teams specifically target upgrades at these positions, and which paper over such problems out of self-delusion. Bet on the latter to find themselves staying home in October.

Yankees Are Making Big Gains Afield

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Defense is a slippery beast to get a handle upon. As my Baseball Prospectus colleague Colin Wyers points out, the current generation of defensive metrics — such as Ultimate Zone Rating, Plus/Minus, and BP’s own Fielding Runs Above Average — aren’t as objective as we’d like to believe due to questions about the quality of the data and systematic errors in the way it’s recorded.

That’s why I generally prefer to focus on defense at the team level, using the objective Defensive Efficiency metric as my starting point. DE is simply a record of how often a team turns a ball in play into an out, using the formula 1 – ((H + ROE – HR) / (PA – BB – SO – HBP – HR)). Over the past few years I’ve gotten into the habit of tracking teams’ year-to-year changes in that department, with the 2008 Rays, who set a record by improving 54 points over the previous year, the best-case scenario. The acquisition of shortstop Jason Bartlett, promotion of Evan Longoria and shifts of Akinori Iwamura and B.J. Upton did wonders for the team’s ability to prevent hits on balls in play, giving their young pitching staff an instant boost. I followed that story at BP, and also took note of the Rangers attempting to do something similar last year via the promotion of rookie shortstop Elvis Andrus. The Rangers didn’t win a pennant, but they posted their first winning season since 2004 while staying in contention well into September, and they’ve held onto those gains this year.

In today’s piece, I took a look at which teams have improved the most over last year in that department. While there’s no team which can lay claim to being “this year’s Rays,” the A’s have upgraded their defense at a level which would rank among the top 20 improvements of the Retrosheet era (1954 onward).  The number two team? Well, they’re not exactly underdogs:

Rk Team 2010 2009 +/-
1 Athletics .710 .683 .027
2 Yankees .718 .697 .021
3 Red Sox .699 .679 .020
4 Royals .692 .675 .017
5 Padres .710 .694 .016
6 Rays .710 .696 .014
7 Braves .699 .687 .012
8 Blue Jays .694 .682 .012
9 Phillies .699 .694 .005
10 Rangers .704 .699 .005
11 Twins .695 .691 .004
12 Rockies .691 .689 .002
13 Orioles .682 .682 .000
14 White Sox .690 .690 .000
15 Indians .681 .681 .000
16 Marlins .685 .685 .000
17 Cardinals .693 .694 -.001
18 Giants .704 .707 -.003
19 Angels .684 .689 -.005
20 Reds .700 .705 -.005
21 Mets .688 .693 -.005
22 Nationals .681 .686 -.005
23 Tigers .687 .695 -.008
24 Mariners .703 .712 -.009
25 Diamondbacks .676 .687 -.011
26 Astros .665 .676 -.011
27 Pirates .678 .691 -.013
28 Cubs .685 .701 -.016
29 Brewers .668 .688 -.020
30 Dodgers .685 .714 -.029

The Yankees lead the majors in Defensive Efficiency, converting batted balls into outs at a more efficient clip than any team in the league for the first time since 1998 and any pinstriped team since 1978, though many a club from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies bettered that mark, because DEs of that era were much higher. Only three teams since 2000 have topped that .718 clip. Here’s what I had to say about the Yanks and the Red Sox:

The Yanks, who haven’t exactly been known for their D in recent years, lead the majors overall; only three teams have posted marks higher than their .718 since the turn of the millennium, the 2001 and 2003 Mariners (.727 and .721) and the 2002 Angels (.719), so it’s probably fair to expect some second-half regression. The Yanks have improved by 21 points since last year and a total of 36 points since 2008 thanks to the arrival of Mark Teixeira, the steady gains of Robinson Cano (+19 FRAA this year), and the swap of Johnny Damon for Curtis Granderson, with Brett Gardner shifting from center to left. The Red Sox, whose general manager Theo Epstein took a lot of heat for his offseason pledge to emphasize run prevention, have seen their defense improve by 20 points despite an injury stack which has allowed Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron to pair up in left and center just five times, none since April 11. That said, at least in the eyes of FRAA, the upgrade on the left side of the infield from Mike Lowell (-2) and a cast of six shorstops (-3) to Adrian Beltre (+5) and Marco Scutaro (-7) hasn’t been quite the slam-dunk improvement one would have expected.

At the other end of the scale, the team which has declined most, are the Dodgers:

Having accentuated the positive, we’ll move onto lambasting the negative, since eliminating it doesn’t seem to be an option, or even very much fun. And number one on the list of teams that deserve it are the Dodgers, who went from leading the league in DE last year by a whole seven points to ranking 10th this year. Not surprisingly, one key culprit appears to be the loss of Orlando Hudson (+17), though Blake DeWitt and friends have been a respectable two runs above average at the keystone. At third base, Casey Blake has declined (+13 to -5), and Rafael Furcal has dropped off (+13 to +4), surprising given how much more Furcal-like he’s been when available. In the outfield, Matt Kemp has lost 10 runs himself (+8 to -2), a particularly rough blow when coupled with his 20-point drop in True Average. Luckily for the Dodgers, they’re second in the league in strikeout rate, minimizing the number of balls in play.

So while there are no “this year’s Rays,” count the Padres and the Braves among teams whose defensive improvements have helped put them into contention. And count the Dodgers as a team whose decline could cost them a spot in the postseason. If only there was some way they could have kept Orlando Hudson…

Gearing Up for the Second Half

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It’s been a rough whirlwind of a week in Yankeeland, not only with the passing of Bob Sheppard but also the Big Boss Man, George Steinbrenner, but as the second half dawns, things are looking up in terms of their on-field situation. I’ve got a pair of pieces up at Baseball Prospectus and ESPN Insider today to that effect.

The first (BP/Insider) compares each team’s current Playoff Odds with what they were as of Opening Day, dividing teams into the 10 biggest gainers, the 10 biggest losers, and the 10 least changed. The Yankees, whom PECOTA saw as being the team on the outside looking in, are in that upper tier:

Team Win % 3Ord% Div WC Total Proj. +/-
Padres .580 .531 38.9 18.6 57.5 4.2 53.3
Rangers .568 .528 79.3 0.1 79.4 37.9 41.5
Reds .544 .513 48.3 5.3 53.6 12.8 40.8
Yankees .636 .592 58.0 26.4 84.4 44.4 40.1
Braves .591 .548 69.5 8.6 78.1 44.9 33.2
White Sox .563 .528 40.9 1.3 42.2 26.1 16.1
Rays .614 .571 27.1 37.8 64.9 51.3 13.6
Mets .545 .507 16.1 11.5 27.6 15.0 12.6
Tigers .558 .526 31.9 1.4 33.2 26.5 6.7
Rockies .557 .558 37.2 19.0 56.2 49.6 6.6

The above columns represent each team’s actual winning percentage (Win%), third-order winning percentage (3Ord%), estimated chances of winning their division (Div) and wild card (WC), total chance of reaching the postseason, their pre-season odds of reaching the postseason (Proj.), and the change in those cumulative odds over the course of the first half (+/-).

…Elsewhere, the Rangers have put themselves in a commanding position in an AL West race with no overwhelming favorite as of opening day, with Josh Hamilton and Vladimir Guerrero rebounding impressively from subpar 2009 showings. Their acquisition of Lee to prop up an underperforming rotation is as much about playing deep into October as it is getting there. The Yankees, who failed to land Lee just when they appeared to have sewn up a deal, have overtaken the Red Sox and Rays to finish the first half with the majors’ top record. Andy Pettitte, CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes have formed a strong big three, and Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher have picked up the slack for an offense elsewhere affected by injuries, age, and subpar performances by Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson. The Braves have filled the void atop the NL East thanks to timely comebacks by Troy Glaus, Tim Hudson and Billy Wagner, not to mention the emergence of rookie Jason Heyward.

Given that the Yankees boast the best record in baseball, it’s not surprising that their odds of making the postseason (84 percent) are the highest in the majors. By comparison, the Rays are at 66 percent, the Red Sox 45 percent.

The second piece (BP/Insider) is part of a six-piece series of midseason prescriptions for what ails each team, offering suggestions about what they can do to fix it. Here’s what I had to say about the Yanks in the AL East Rx:

In the wake of their failed attempt to trade for Cliff Lee, Saturday night’s game exemplified why the Yankees’ bullpen remains a bigger concern than their rotation, which ranks second in SNLVAR. Beyond the still-incredible Mariano Rivera, their relievers have a 4.75 Fair Run Average, as righties Joba Chamberlain (4.85), David Robertson (5.01) and Chan Ho Park (6.79) and lefty Damaso Marte (5.84) have failed to build a reliable bridge to Mo. Internally, Jonathan Albaladejo has reinvented himself with an improved four-seamer; he’s whiffing 11.9 per nine with a 4.9 K/BB and 1.01 ERA at Scranton/Wilks-Barre. Beyond their own system, plays for Toronto lefty Scott Downs or righty Jason Frasor would make sense, while their ability to take on salary might appeal to the Indians in a deal for Kerry Wood, who’s got a 3.55 ERA since June 1. Their bench needs an experienced bat; aside from Marcus Thames and slumping backup backstop Francisco Cervelli (.202/.277/.246 since May 18), weak-hitting Ramiro Peña, who often plays third while Alex Rodriguez DHs, is the only player with more than 100 career PA. Freshly-signed cornerman Chad Tracy is a minor upgrade on Peña, though it’s worth seeing if the Royals would part with Alberto Callaspo.

Albaladejo, who closed out the International League’s win over the Pacific Coast League in Wednesday night’s Triple-A All-Star Game, has certainly caught Joe Girardi’s attention, and it would appear as though there’s a good chance the Yanks will give him a look sometime over the next couple of weeks so that they can more properly gauge their needs as the July 31 trading deadline approaches.

Bluster and Luster: George Steinbrenner (1930-2010)

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Death comes a-callin’ again at 161st St. I just posted this at Baseball Prospectus:

A titan has fallen, and an era has ended. Just two days after legendary Yankee Stadium public address announcer Bob Sheppard’s death, and nine days after celebrating his own 80th birthday, principal Yankees owner George Steinbrenner passed away Tuesday morning due to a heart attack. He had been in failing health for several years, rumored to be suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, and had ceded control of the team to sons Hank and Hal as his handlers increasingly protected him from the glare of the spotlight.

Often a bully and sometimes a buffoon, George Michael Steinbrenner III was unequivocally “The Boss,” and occasionally as unhinged as the British monarch with whom he shared both a name and a numeral. A football player at Williams College and an assistant coach at Northwestern and Pudue, he fully subscribed to Vince Lombardi’s “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” ethos, often failing to understand that running a baseball team on a daily basis required a subtler touch and a deeper reserve of patience than his gridiron sensibility could muster.

Nonetheless, aside from Connie Mack and Walter O’Malley, perhaps no other owner in the history of baseball was as influential or successful over such a long period of time as Steinbrenner was. Beyond the latter, who uprooted the Dodgers from Brooklyn, none gave more ammunition to his critics and detractors, or unified so many in their hatred. Steinbrenner spent much of his tenure as a cartoon villain, and was suspended from baseball by commissioners not once, but twice. Even in absentia, had the foresight to embrace the dawn of the free agent era, and for all of his tyrannical meddling — hiring and firing 21 managers in his first 20 years, and burning through general managers at a similarly absurd clip — he stayed out of the way of what his baseball men built in his absences long enough to preside over four pennant winners and two world champions from 1976-1981, and six more pennants and four world champs from 1996-2003, adding one final victory last October. For all of his notorious bluster — and brother, did he have a lot of it — he was a big softy at heart, quick to put the Yankees name behind charitable causes (even the Red Sox-related Jimmy Fund), and to give people in his organization second (and third, and fourth…) chances, just as he had received. In the end, he was the benevolent despot who restored the luster to the Yankees franchise, turning it into the most valuable property in professional sports, estimated to be worth $1.6 billion.

Like Reggie Jackson, Steinbrenner was a larger-than-life character in my imagination as a youth. He was well ahead of his time with regards to understanding free agency, though he certainly made his mistakes both with that and with how he handled himself and his employees. Ultimately, I think he deserves less credit for winning the championships themselves — the groundwork for which was laid in his absence — than he did rebuilding the Yankee brand, though he could not have done that without a keen understanding that nothing drove value like winning. Pal Steven Goldman summed it up thusly at the Pinstriped Bible:

Steinbrenner’s legacy is obvious: a team which he bought for relative peanuts is now the most valuable sports property in America, if not in the world; a beautiful new ballpark; seven championships and 19 postseason teams. More than those things, Steinbrenner understood something that should have been an object lesson to his fellow owners decades ago: the best way to build a successful franchise is to put an exciting, winning team out on the field. To compete for the New York City entertainment dollar, Steinbrenner knew his team had to be a compelling, can’t miss entertainment. He spent money to get eyeballs, be they on television, on the newspaper pages, in the stands. He knew that in the end those eyeballs would translate into revenue for his team, be it in demand for seats, merchandising, or the most lucrative cable deal in the business, and, ultimately, his own regional sports network. If that meant that he and his limited partners sometimes took home less money at the end of the year, so be it. Comparatively few owners have had such a firm grasp on the basics of baseball: nothing succeeds like success.

About 12 years ago, I first entered George Steinbrenner’s office at the old Yankee Stadium. I had read things about that office over the years, that Steinbrenner had had inspirational mottoes on display there: “Show me a man with guts.” “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” I didn’t see any of those things. What I did see surprised me: countless awards from charitable institutions, many of which benefitted police and firefighters. I was looking for words and I found deeds. I think that gets at the essence of the man: there were words, sometimes too many words, words you would not have had him say. There was anger, frustration, bluster, and yes, sometimes cruelty. But there was also accomplishment. There was an identification with and pride in his team that in these days of transient ownership, corporate ownership, or both, you just don’t see anymore. His was a unique and complex personality, but beyond that, he was the last of the old-time baseball owners, the men who lived and breathed baseball. We won’t see his like again.

Perhaps my favorite epitaph comes from the New York Times‘ Harvey Araton. Back in 1998, after the Yankees had blown the doors off the rest of the league by winning 114 games and producing a team that seduced even this heart-hardened third-generation Dodgers fan, Araton had pleaded with Steinbrenner not to sell out to the Dolan family via an open letter:

Steinbrenner may be a windbag but he’s our windbag. He may call his players ”my kids” and use every cliche in the book, but that’s part of the act many baseball fans and even a few nonfans (let’s not even get into the sportswriters) are used to. I would bet there are more people than we realize who relish the idea that the Yankees’ owner is a character even Seinfeld couldn’t resist.

Yankee fans at least know they can scream at someone when the season falls apart. Good luck to suffering Rangers fans these days, waiting for Dolan to chat up reporters, or go on with Mike and the Mad Dog. For that, he has his basketball and hockey person, Dave Checketts. Can you imagine Steinbrenner fronting for Dolan, parroting the company line about not being able to pursue a player he wants? Not through the first long losing streak, can I.

Dolan, who is mostly interested in addressing his customers via their expanding cable bill, is your classic back-room deal-maker who is generally held accountable for nothing. His Madison Square Garden partnership with the Dodgers’ owner, Rupert Murdoch, should be raising many ethical questions, as it relates to Cablevision’s Yankees bid. At the very least, it is another ominous sign to the big-market owner who is unbound by hidden agendas and potential conflicts of interest.

Compared with these guys, Steinbrenner is practically a peon, a dying breed. He is a rich guy who bought a team for $10 million a quarter century ago to exercise his birthright of megalomania. His primary source of income is his baseball team, which means the Yankees are not just another revenue-producing toy in his corporate playland. The Boss isn’t about synergy. He has one vision, and that is the Yankees’ prominence, for the benefit of his pocketbook.

Above the bottom line, even Steinbrenner’s worst critics have to admit the guy lives for the competition, which counts for much. Dolan, for all we know, gets all his thrills from winning another team’s broadcast rights.

Today Araton reprises that with a piece that’s part of a series of remembrances at the Times‘ Bats Blog:

He was a bully with a big heart, a man who commanded stage and spotlight and was twice naughty enough to be forcibly (though temporarily) removed from it.

He was born into wealth, on third base, but he put together the deal to buy the Yankees without family help and that certainly qualifies him as a self-made sportsman.

Publicly at least, Steinbrenner was the most unreasonably demanding owner in the modern era but he got what he wanted and leaves behind an expanding core of Yankees –- from Reggie Jackson to Derek Jeter -– who would swear on a stack of their own rookie cards that Steinbrenner’s way was the right way.

…George Steinbrenner came, he bought, he conquered. He died as he no doubt wished to be remembered, as a defending World Series champion.

If you lived in New York and rooted for the Yankees, Steinbrenner was your windbag, your rich uncle, your benevolent despot. He won more than any owner of his era, and built the most valuable property in sports, becoming synonymous with the brand in the process. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

Bob Sheppard (1910-2010), RIP

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Like virtually anyone who set foot in any iteration of Yankee Stadium over the past 60 years — Yankees fan or tourist — I’m greatly saddened to learn of the passing of public address announcer Bob Sheppard. The New York Times obituary‘s first sentence says it all:

Bob Sheppard, whose elegant intonation as the public-address announcer at Yankee Stadium for more than half a century personified the image of Yankee grandeur, died Sunday at his home in Baldwin, on Long Island.

Sheppard was 99 years old and had been in ill health since calling his last game on September 5, 2007, so ill that he had to forgo attending the closing ceremonies of the old ballpark in 2008 and the opening ceremonies of the new one in 2009. Yet his presence remained a vital part of the Yankee Stadium experience in the form of an absolutely indelible prerecorded introduction, one delivered in an unforgettably graceful cadence which seemed to boom from the heavens: “Now batting for the Yankees, number two, Derek Jeter, number two.”

Jeter has requested that the introduction be used so long as he’s a Yankee. One has to assume his desire accounted for the contingency of Sheppard’s passing, but as of yet, no official announcement has been made.

According to Keith Olbermann (via Jon Weisman), Sheppard invented the role of the modern sports public address announcer:

In the ’40s and ’50s, public address announcing at Yankee Stadium – and elsewhere – was an afterthought. [Yankees public relations director Red] Patterson did it in between bon mots with the writers. He and other Yankee officials attended a football game played by the old Yankees of the All American Football Conference and were struck by the professionalism and thoroughness of the PA announcer there. They approached him as early as 1948 about doing baseball, but Sheppard could not fit the team’s weekday schedule into his full-time life as a speech professor at St. John’s University. Bob was more of a football guy anyway – he had quarterbacked St. John’s in the ’30s – and once confessed to me with a laugh that he had never attended a baseball game at Yankee Stadium until the team hired him during what would be Mickey Mantle’s first year (and Joe DiMaggio’s last).
In the new job, Sheppard essentially invented the process with which we are familiar today. Before him, stadium announcers rarely provided any information to the audience. Line-ups would be announced, and then each batter’s first plate appearance as we, but often thereafter the fan was on his own. The idea of the dramatic announcement in the ninth inning of a tie in the Bronx: “Now batting for the Yankees, number seven, Mickey Mantle,” was Sheppard’s. It truly changed not just the fans’ experience at the game, but the game itself.
LoHud’s Chad Jennings has a good rundown of Sheppard’s career, while New York Daily News‘ Jesse Spector unearthed this fantastic, goosebump-induing tribute video which was created for the dedication of Sheppard’s addition to Monument Park in May 2000:

Over at Bronx Banter, Layton’s successor, the current Yankee organist Ed Alstrom has his own personal remembrance, from the Banter’s “Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories” series in which I participated. He concludes:

Whatever our collective vignettes are of Yankee Stadium, Bob Sheppard’s narration to that soundtrack is a thread that runs through all of them, and an essential component of it. His humanity, wit, and warmth are every bit as momentous as that voice, and I am honored to have shared some time on this Earth with him. He is Yankee Stadium, in a lot of ways.

I think the quote that sums up Sheppard the best comes from my favorite part of Roger Angell’s uneven A Pitcher’s Story: Innings With David Cone, namely the description of Sheppard’s postgame ritual:

Up in the pressbox, every night ends the same way. Herb Steier, a retired Times sports copy editor, comes to every game and sits motionless in the third row, his hands in front of him on the long table. He doesn’t keep score but watches the action intently, with bright, dark eyes. When the ninth inning comes, he gets up and stands by the railing behind the last row of writes, near the exit, and after the potential final batter of the game has been announced, Bob Sheppard, the ancient and elegant Hall of Fame announcer, comes out of his booth and stands next to him, with a book under his arm. (He reads novels or works of history between announcements.) Eddie Layton, the Stadium organist is there, too, wearing a little skipper’s cap. Eddie has a private yacht  — well, its a mini-tug, called Impulse — that he peeks on the Hudson, up near Tarrytown. He gets a limo ride to the Stadium most days from his apartment in Queens — it’s in his contract — and a nice lift home with Bob Sheppard and Herb Steier at night. Eddie and Bob Sheppard make a bet on every single Yankee game—the time of the game, the total number of base runners, number of pitches by bullpen pitchers, whatever — but won’t tell you which one of them is ahead. The stakes are steady: a penny a game.

Steier is Sheppard’s neighbor, out in Baldwin, Long Island, and he drives him to work every day and home again at its end; they’re old friends. Sheppard, a stylish fellow, is wearing an Argyle sweater and espadrilles tonight. This is his fiftieth year on the job at Yankee Stadium, and once in a while I ask him to enunciate a player’s name for me, just for the thrill of it. “Shi-ge-to-shi Ha-se-ga-wa,” he’ll respond, ringing the vowels. It sounds like an airport.

The instant the last batter strikes out or pops up or grounds out Sheppard and Steier and Layton do an about-face and depart at a slow sprint. Out the door they go and turn right in the loge-level corridor, still running. A few kids out there are already rocketing down the tilted runways. “Start spreadin’ the noooss…” comes blaring out from everywhere (the Yanks have won again) but Bob and Herb and Eddie have turned right again, into the quiet elevator lobby, where the nearer car waists them, it’s door open. Down they go and out at street level, still at a careful run. Herb’s car, a beige 1995 Maxima, is in its regular spot in the team parking lot, just across the alley—the second car on the right. They’re in, they’re out, a left turn up the street, where they grab a right, jumping onto the Deegan, heading home. The cops there have the eastbound traffic stopped dead, waiting for Bob Sheppard: no one else in New York is allowed to make this turn. Two minutes, maybe two-twenty, after the game has ended and they’re gone, home free, the first of fifty thousand out of the building, every night.

No one else in New York is allowed to make this turn — that sums up how unique and exceptional Sheppard was. All of us who experienced Yankee Stadium are honored to have shared some time in the presence of his voice. May he rest in peace.

A Thumbnail Guide to the Dodgers-Yankees Fall Classics

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With the Dodgers and Yankees set to square off in L.A. tonight, I’ve got a rant at Baseball Prospectus wondering why Major League Baseball has never brought this matchup to the Bronx in 14 seasons of interleague play:

Tonight the Yankees and Dodgers kick off a three-game interleague series in Los Angeles. The two teams have matched up in the World Series a record 11 times, seven of them while the two shared the Big Apple with the Giants, six of them during baseball’s so-called “Golden Decade” between 1947-1956. It matters less that the Yankees have won eight of those World Series than that the two have combined to create what’s undoubtedly the game’s top interleague rivalry, not to mention some of baseball’s most indelible moments: Mickey Owen’s dropped third strike, Al Gionfriddo’s catch to prevent a Joe DiMaggio homer, Cookie Lavagetto’s double to break up Bill Bevens’ no-hitter, Jackie Robinson’s steal of home, Johnny Podres’ gritty effort to bring Dem Bums their first world championship, Don Larsen’s perfect game, Reggie Jackson’s three home runs, Graig Nettles’ Octopus-like leaps, George Steinbrenner’s phantom elevator fight…

Amazingly, it’s just the second interleague series the two teams have played in 14 years, the first coming in 2004, when the boys in blue took two out of three in Dodger Stadium. As if that fact alone — three measly games in 14 years! — weren’t enough of a scathing indictment of the entire misbegotten enterprise of interleague play, the game’s schedule makers have yet to bring the Dodgers back to the Bronx, where they clinched the 1955 and 1981 World Series. Hell, you’d think ESPN or Fox would strong-arm MLB into bringing Joe Torre back to the Bronx just because it provides a readymade storyline.

As a third-generation Dodgers fan living in New York City (Manhattan for nearly 13 years, Brooklyn for past two and a half) and sharing a Yankees ticket package — a conflicting set of priorities I’ve spent the better part of the past nine years documenting at my Futility Infielder website — I’ve admittedly got a vested interest in such a matchup. Not to mention no real qualms about rooting for the Dodgers; blood is thicker than geographic happenstance, after all. So I’ve been pulling my hair out while waiting for Bud Selig and the game’s marketing geniuses to come to their senses and and milk the cash cow by scheduling the most potentially lucrative interleague battle of all time.

As it turns out, Dodgers-at-Yankees isn’t the only site-specific interleague pairing which has evaded the schedule-makers…

In honor of the matchup, I present to you an encore presentation of  a thumbnail guide to their 11 World Series matchups, written to commemorate their previous matchup in 2004. While the Yanks have won eight of those Fall Classics, the two teams have been fairly evenly matched; the Yanks hold only a 37-30 edge in games won, four of the Series have gone the distance, and the two teams have split their last six pairings.

This series is dedicated to the two men in my life who suffered through so many of these Dodger defeats and savored the infrequent triumphs while passing their love of the game down to me: my late grandfather Bernard Jaffe and my father, Richard Jaffe. A belated Happy Fathers Day to them.

1941: Yankees 4-1 over Dodgers

Prior to this meeting, the Dodgers had appeared in only two World Series in the franchise’s 57-year history, 1916 against the Red Sox and 1920 against the Indians, losing both. By contrast, the Yanks were already well-acquainted with the Fall Classic, having won eight out of the eleven Series (including four straight from 1936-1939) in which they participated.

Skippered by Joe McCarthy, the ’41 Yanks (101-53) ran away with the AL by 17 games. Joe DiMaggio hit a monstrous .357/.440/.643 with 30 homers and 125 RBI, reeled off his 56-game hitting streak, and won the MVP, and the potent lineup featured Hall of Famers Bill Dickey and Phil Rizzuto as well as Joe Gordon, Red Rolfe, Tommy “Old Reliable” Henrich, and Charlie “King Kong” Keller. The rotation was anchored by Hall of Famers Lefty Gomez and Red Ruffing, who tied for the team lead with 15 wins, along with ace reliever Johnny Murphy. Yeah, these guys could play ball.

The upstart Dodgers (100-54) were managed by the fiesty Leo Durocher, who in the span of three seasons had turned around the second-division-dwelling Bums. The Dodgers’ biggest bat was wielded by first baseman Dolf Camilli .285/.407/.556 with 34 homers and 120 RBI, accompanied by a stellar outfield of Dixie Walker, Pete Reiser, and Hall of Famer Joe Medwick, All Star third baseman Cookie Lavagetto and All-Star catcher Mickey Owen, and 22-year-old Pee Wee Reese. Starters Whit Wyatt and Kirby Higbe both won 22 games, while Hugh Casey was the team’s bullpen ace.

The first three games of the Series were all decided by one run, two of them going in the Yankees’ favor. The two teams were scoreless through seven innings of the third game, but the outcome of the Series may have hinged on Yankee starer Mario Russo lining a ball off of Dodger pitcher Freddie Fitzsimmons’ kneecap, breaking it. Casey came on in relief and yielded two runs in the eighth on four straight singles before getting the hook. Casey’s fortunes went from bad to worse in the next game. After entering with the Dodgers trailing 3-2 and the bases loaded in the fifrth, he held the Yankee bats at bay while his team rallied. Holding a 4-3 lead with two outs in the ninth and nobody on, he threw strike three to Henrich, but the ball got away from Owen and Henrich reached first base. DiMaggio followed with a single, and the Yanks rallied for four runs to take the game. They wrapped things up the next day for their fifth crown in six years. Though they didn’t start awarding the Series MVP award until 1955, Gordon, who hit .500/.667/.929 with a homer and 5 RBI, would have been a good choice.

1947: Yankees 4-3 over Dodgers

The game of baseball had changed forever by the time the two teams next met, as the Dodgers (94-60) had signed Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier which had been in place since 1884. Playing out of position at first base, Robinson hit .297/.383 /.427 with 12 homers. Adding a new dimension to the offense with his speed, he scored 125 runs while leading the league with 29 steals. All of this happened while he endured endless taunting and baiting by racist opponents and hostile crowds and frigid responses from some of his own teammates. That wasn’t the only distraction, as manager Durocher was suspended for the season for associating with gamblers and Burt Shotton took the reins. The team didn’t have much power (Jackies’ 12 homers tied for the team lead with Reese, of all people), but the team’s .361 On Base Percentage easily outdistanced opponents, and the lineup, which still featured Walker and Reiser along with Carl Furillo and Eddie Stanky, was without a glaring weakness. Ralph Branca was tops on the staff, while Casey was still the relief ace.

Piloted by Bucky Harris, the Yanks (97-57) had again run away with the AL pennant, winning by 12 games. DiMaggio had another MVP season (.315/.391/.522 with 20 HR and 97 RBI). Henrich and Rizzuto were still on hand, along with a young Yogi Berra, but the rest of the lineup was a curious collection; Snuffy Stirnweiss, Billy Johnson, Johnny Lindell, and George McQuinn aren’t exactly hallowed names in Yankee lore. Allie Reynolds was the Yankee ace, winning 19 games, and Joe Page was the team’s formidable fireman.

The Yanks took the first two games of the Series in the Bronx, but the Dodgers rallied back to tie it up in memorable fashion. Yankee starter Bill Bevens was one out away from an ugly 10-walk no-hitter — which would have been the first in Series history — when pinch-hitter Cookie Lavagetto laced a two-run double (oh, those bases on balls!), giving the Dodgers the game and sending the Ebbets Field crowd into a frenzy. But that wasn’t the only classic moment of the Series. The see-saw Game Six began with the Dodgers jumping out to a 4-0 lead, KO’ing Reynolds in the third, but the Yanks rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the inning and chased Dodger starter Vic Lombardi. An RBI single by Berra put the Yankees on top, but the Dodgers put four runs across on Page in the fifth. With two men on and two out in the bottom of the sixth, DiMaggio sent a long fly ball to leftfield which defensive replacement Al Gionfriddo reached for and hauled in at the 415-foot sign for one of the greatest catches in Series history. Halfway to second, DiMaggio kicked the dirt in frustration, said to be his only show of emotion on the ballfield during his storied career.

For all the drama leading up to it, things still weren’t destined to go the Dodgers’ way. Though the Bums took a 2-0 lead in Game Seven, chasing Shea in the second, Bevens and Page held the Dodgers scoreless the rest of the way while the Yanks spread five runs over four innings, taking the lead for good in the two-run fourth inning. The Dodgers’ storybook season ended in defeat at the hands of the damn Yankees. Surprise hero Lindell .500/.609/.778 with 9 hits and 7 RBI, merited MVP honors. It was literally a last hurrah for Lavagetto, Gionfriddo and Bevens; none ever appeared in another major-league game after the Series.

1949: Yankees 4-1 over Dodgers

In their first year under manager Casey Stengel, the Yankees (97-57) held off a challenge by the Boston Red Sox which went down to the season’s final weekend, with the Yanks taking a pair from the Sox to win the pennant by one game. DiMaggio missed the season’s first 69 games with a painful heel injury but made up for lost time with a 4-homer, 9-RBI series against the Sox upon rejoining the team and going on to hit .346/.459/.596 with14 homers and 67 RBI. Henrich and Berra were the team’s other big bats, but the season was really a testament to the burgeoning genius of Stengel, who mixed and matched the team through injuries and maximized his players’ production through the use of platoons, not all of which were based on simple lefty-righty matchups. Rizzuto was the only player to appear in more than 128 games. Reynolds and Vic Raschi led the starters, while Page remained the team’s fireman.

Like the Yankees, the Dodgers (97-57) didn’t sew up the NL pennant until the seasons’ final day. Under Shotton, the team which would dominate the NL for much of the next decade began to jell. Robinson’s dominating MVP season (.342/.432/.528 with 122 runs, 124 RBI and 37 steals) was augmented by fellow Negro League grad Roy Campanella, old hands Reese and Furillo, and emergent sluggers Gil Hodges and Duke Snider. Another Negro Leaguer, Don Newcombe, earned Rookie of the Year honors while stepping forward as the ace of the staff, and Preacher Roe put forward a strong campaign as well.

The two teams split a pair of 1-0 games to open the Series in the Bronx. In the opener, Reynolds limited the Dodgers to two hits and Henrich smacking a homer in the bottom of the ninth off of Newcombe to spoil his 11-strikeout gem. The Dodgers recovered to win the second behind Roe, but from there it was all Yanks. Tied 1-1 in the ninth of Game Three, the Yanks rallied for three runs thanks to a two-run single by late-season addition Johnny Mize, and while the Dodgers got solo homers from Luis Olmo and Roy Campanella, they fell short, 4-3. The Yanks rocked Newcombe in the fourth game and jumped out to a 10-1 lead in the fifth one before holding on to win 10-6, giving Casey the first of his seven World Championships. Reynolds, with 12.1 scoreless innings, a win and a save, and Bobby Brown, who hit .500/.571/.917 with 5 RBI in only 12 at-bats, helped the Yanks to overcome a combined 3-for-34 from DiMaggio and Berra.

1952: Yankees 4-3 over Dodgers

In the two seasons since their last World Series matchup, the Dodgers had lost a pair of agonizingly close pennant races on the last day of the season. 1950 saw them fall to the “Whiz Kid” Philadelpha Phillies in 10 innings when they could have forced a tie, while 1951 saw them lose a three-game tiebreaker on Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard Round the World” home run. Had it not been for that, the two rivals might have faced each other eight times instead of six within a ten-year span. The 1952 squad (96-57) under Charlie Dressen took the NL flag handily, the Boys of Summer — this was the first of the two teams chronicled by New York Herald-Tribune beat reporter Roger Kahn in his famous book — outdistancing the Giants by 4.5 games. Hodges socked 32 homers and drove in 102 runs, while Reese, Robinson, Campanella and Snider all turned in their usual stellar years. The balanced pitching staff was led by Rookie of the Year Joe Black, who won 15 games out of the pen while saving 15 more.

The Yankees (95-59) went down to the wire for the AL pennant with the Cleveland Indians, both teams roaring to the finish. The Indians won 18 out of their final 21 games, but the Yanks won 13 out of their final 15 to capture their fourth straight flag under Stengel. But these weren’t the same old Yanks. Gone since their last meeting with the Dodgers were DiMaggio, Henrich, and Page, with the most notable addition to the team being Joe D’s replacement, Mickey Mantle. The 20-year-old put together his first fine season, hitting .311/.394/.530 with 23 homers and 87 RBI, augmenting Berra’s 30 homers and 98 RBI. Reynolds and Raschi led the rotation, with Johnny Sain the big man in the bullpen.

In only his third start of the season, Black won the opener in Brooklyn behind homers by Reese, Snider, and Robinson. The Yanks won the second on the strength of Raschi’s three-hitter, and the Series continued to seesaw, with neither team able to put together back-to-back wins. Roe won the third, Reynolds posted a four-hit shutout in the fourth to best Black, and the Dodgers won an 11-inning thriller in Game Five, with Carl Erskine going the distance and Furillo robbing Mize, who already had three homers in the series of a potential game-tying dinger in the bottom of the eleventh.

The Dodgers headed back to Ebbetts up 3-2, and when Snider homered to break a scoreless tie in the bottom of the sixth, they were nine outs away from their first World Championship. Alas, Berra tied up the game to lead off the next inning and the Yanks added two more, including an eighth-inning homer by Mantle, the first of his record 18 Series homers. The finale was another tight contest, with both teams scoring runs in the fourth and fifth, and the Yanks adding runs in the sixth via a Mantle homer and the seventh via a Mantle single. The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the seventh,; Bob Kuzava came on in relief and got Snider to pop out and then got Robinson to pop up as well. First baseman Joe Collins lost the ball in the sun and it looked like the ball would drop, but at the last moment Yankee second baseman Billy Martin snared the ball at his knees, quelling the threat. That was all she wrote. There was no shortage of heroes in this series, Reynolds and Raschi split the four wins while posting ERAs under 2.00, Mantle hit .345/.406/.655 with 2 homers and Mize .400/.500/1.067 with 3 homers, while Snider’s 4-homer, 8-RBI .345/.367/.828 effort went for naught. Hodges’ 0-for-21 performance is one for the annals, but in exactly the wrong way; had he gotten hit or two here and there, the Dodgers might have prevailed.

1953: Yankees 4-2 over Dodgers

The Yankees (99-52) rolled to their fifth straight pennant under Stengel. Berra was the team’s outstanding hitter at .296/.363/.523 with 27 homers and 108 RBI, with Mantle putting up a strong season as well. The staff was led by Whitey Ford, a 24-year-old lefty who returned from missing the previous two seasons due to military service. Ford went 18-6 with a 3.00 ERA, and he had plenty of help from Raschi and Eddie Lopat. Swingmen Sain and Reynolds combined to make a formidable bullpen while absorbing plenty of starts as well. Ho-hum, another great managing job by Casey Stengel.

The Dodgers (105-49) put forth the strongest team in the franchise’s history. Campanella won his second MVP award with a .312/.395/.611 season with 41 homers and 142 RBI, while Snider nearly matched him at .336/.419/.627 with 42 homers and 126 RBI. Furillo won the batting title at .344, while Rookie of the Year second baseman Jim Gilliam hit 17 triples. No fewer than six Dodgers scored over 100 runs, and the team hit .285/.362/.474 with 208 homers and 955 runs scored — over 6 per game. The team gave up its share of runs, and Carl Erskine was the only starter with an ERA under 4.00. “Oisk” won 20 games. Clem Labine was the team’s top reliever.

Opening in the Bronx, the Yanks battered Erskine for four runs in the first, thanks to Billy Martin’s bases-loaded triple. The Dodgers tied the game at 5-5 in the seventh, but the Yanks scored four more off of Labine and Ben Wade. They came from behind to take the second game, with Martin tying the ballgame with a solo homer in the seventh and Mantle smacking a 2-run shot in the eighth. The Dodgers clawed their way back into the Series on their home turf, with Campy breaking a 2-2- tie with a solo homer in the eighth and Erskine striking out a Series-record 14. They roughed up Ford with three runs in the first inning of Game Four, and Snider drove in four runs on a homer and two doubles to win 7-3. Game Five was a slugfest, with the Yanks rolling to an 8-2 lead on the strength of a Mantle grand slam and two other homers before staving off a late Dodger comeback to win 11-7. The Yanks rolled out to an early 3-0 lead in Game Six, but the Dodgers tied it up in the ninth with a two-run homer by Furillo. The Yanks clinched their record fifth consecutive title (and 16th overall) in the bottom of the ninth with a rally capped by Martin’s single, his 12th hit and 8th RBI of a remarkable .500/.520/.958 performance.

1955: Dodgers 4-3 over Yankees

Having lost four World Series to the Yanks in the previous eight years and gone 0-for-7 in their Fall Classic appearances overall, the Dodgers (98-55) had to wonder if the promised land of “Next Year” would ever arrive. But under second-year manager Walter Alston, they destroyed the rest of the National League, winning the pennant by 13.5 games and putting themselves in a position to test their October fate again. Campanella rebounded from a disappointing season to win his third MVP with a .318/.395/.583 with 32 homers and 107 RBI, and once again Snider gave him a run for his money with a stellar .309/.418/.628 42-homer 136-RBI effort. Furillo, Hodges and Reese had their usual fine years, but 36-year-old Robinson was showing the signs of age, hitting only .256/.378/.363 with a mere 16 extra-base hits while missing 49 games. Newcombe put up a stellar 20-5, 3.20 ERA season that was augmented by an impressive .359/.395/.632 performance with the bat that included 7 homers and 23 RBI and prompted Alston to use him as a pinch-hitter 23 times. Labine remained the team’s ace out of the bullpen.

The Yankees (96-58) won the AL pennant by three games, led by Berra, who like Campy won his third MVP with a .272/.349/.470 27-homer, 108-RBI campaign. Mantle (.306/.431/.611 with 37 homers) was the superior hitter, however, and the team got excellent production from Bill Skowron and Hank Bauer as well. Ford, Bob Turley, and Tommy Byrne gave the Yanks three formidable starters, while 38-year-old former Whiz Kid Jim Konstantny split the fireman role with Tom Morgan.

It looked to be more of the same old, same old, as the Yanks won the first two in the Bronx. Joe Collins’ two homers off of Newcombe paced the Yanks in Game One, though Robinson’s eighth-inning steal of home and Berra’s ensuing argument with umpre Bill Summers remains the game’s signature moment. In Game Two, Byrne five-hit the Dodgers and drove in two runs in a four-run fourth-inning rally, winning 4-2. But back in Brooklyn the Dodgers took the next three. On his 23rd birthday, Johnny Podres went the distance in Game Three while the Dodgers battered Turley for four runs in the first two innings. Campy, Hodges and Snider all homered in Game Four, helping the Dodgers to overcome a 3-1 Yankee lead to win 8-5. Two Snider homers and a Sandy Amoros shot, all off of Bob Grim, put the Dodgers up 4-1, and they survived a late charge to win 5-3 and put them one victory away from their first World Championship.

Their celebration was anything but guaranteed. In Game Six back in the Bronx, the Yanks scored five off in the first off of Karl Spooner, who retired only one batter, with Skowron hitting a three-run blast. Ford limited the Dodgers to four hits and one run, setting the stage for the two teams’ third Game Seven in eight years. It was an experience-versus-youth matchup, with the 35-year-old Byrne facing Podres. The Dodgers struck in the fourth inning with a Campanella double and a Hodges single, and a Skowron error on an attempted sacrifice bunt by Snider (!) led to another run via a Hodges sac fly. In the sixth, Alston inserted Amoros into left field to replace George Shuba, and the move paid off when, with men on first and second and nobody out, Berra sent a drive into the leftfield corner which the fleet outfielder chased down and speared one-handed near the foul line, one of the greatest catches in Series history. The Yanks could do no damage against Podres, who went the distance for his second complete-game win, the first Series MVP award, and more importantly, Brooklyn’s first and only World Championship. “Next Year” had finally arrived.

1956: Yankees 4-3 over Dodgers

On the heels of their first World Championship, the Dodgers (93-61) narrowly eked out the opportunity to defend their crown. Not until the season’s second-to-last day did they overtake the Milwaukee Braves for good, and they won the pennant by a single game. Snider had another fantastic season (.292/.399/.598, 43 homers, 101 RBI), and Hodges added 32 homers, but Campanella slumped to .219/.333/.394 with 20 homers. Robinson, playing what would turn out to be his final season, rebounded from his decline to go .275/.382/.412. Newcombe won both the MVP and the inaugural Cy Young award with a 27-7, 3.06 ERA season, though his bat lacked the magic of the previous year. 39-year-old former Dodger foe Sal “The Barber” Maglie came over from the Indians early in the season to give the rotation a boost. Labine still held down the top spot in the bullpen.

The Yankees (97-57) handily won the pennant by nine games, their seventh in Stengel’s eight years. Mantle won the Triple Crown with a monster season (.353/.464/.705, 52 HR, 130 RBI), unanimously winning the MVP award. Berra and Skowron also enjoyed fine years, the latter’s .308/.382/.528 with 23 homers and 90 RBI representing his peak. Ford won 19 games with a 2.47 ERA, while Johnny Kucks won 18. Byrne and Morgan were tops out of the pen.

The Dodgers zoomed out to a 2-0 lead. Hodges’ three-run homer off of Ford backed Maglie’s gritty 9-hit, 4-walk complete game in the opener. The Dodgers knocked Don Larsen out of Game Two in the second inning, but the Yanks did the same to Newcombe, and it was 6-6 after two innings. But Don Bessent stopped the bleeding for the Dodgers with seven innings of relief, while his team punished a succession of Yankee relievers. Hodges had 4 RBI and Snider 3 en route to a 13-8 win. But the Yanks swept the three games in the Bronx, capped by Larsen’s perfect game, the only one in World Series history.

Back in Brooklyn, the Dodgers forced a seventh game when Labine, drawing a rare start, shut out the Yanks for ten innings and Robinson singled home Gilliam in the bottomf of the 10th off of Turley, only the fourth hit given up by the Yankee hurler. Game Seven pitted Kucks and Newcombe, but it wasn’t even close. The Yanks scored five off of the Dodger ace in three-plus innings, including two home runs by Berra and one by Howard. Newcombe was left winless and carrying an 8.59 ERA in his five World Series starts. Skowron added a seventh-inning grand slam, Kucks limited the Dodgers to three measly singles, and the Yanks returned to their familiar spot as World Champions. This would be the last time the two teams would face each other as crosstown rivals; the Dodgers spent only one more season in Brooklyn before embarking for Los Angeles.

1963: Dodgers 4-0 over Yankees

Though the Dodgers had a lousy inaugural season in L.A., they didn’t take too long to adapt to their West Coast surroundings, winning the 1959 World Series over the Chicago White Sox in their second season, facing a non-Yankee team in the Fall Classic for the first time since 1920. They nearly had another opportunity to face the Yanks in 1962, but lost a three-game tiebreaker to the San Francisco Giants. The ’63 Dodgers (99-63), still managed by Walter Alston, rebounded to win the pennant by six games. In their second season in Dodger Stadium, the ballpark’s high mound and large foul territory heavily favored pitchers, none moreso than 27-year-old lefty Sandy Koufax, who had a breakout season. Koufax went 25-5 with a 1.88 ERA, winning the NL MVP and the Cy Young (still given to only one pitcher in the two leagues). He was accompanied in the top of the rotation by Don Drysdale, who won 19. Bullpen ace Ron Perranoski had one of the best relief seasons in baseball history, winning 16 and saving another 21 with a 1.67 ERA. The offense rested on the broad shoulders of 6’7″ slugger Frank Howard (.273/.330/.518 with 28 HR) and Tommy Davis (.326/.359/.457) but was equally dependent on the speed of Jim Gilliam, Willie Davis and especially Maury Wills — who led the league in steals for the fourth season in a row, but declined to 40 from his record 104 the previous year.

Though their perch atop the American League was familiar, the Yankees (104-57), who won the pennant by 10.5 games, were now piloted by Ralph Houk, who took the team to three straight pennants and the previous two titles. In June, Mantle ran into a chain link fence in Baltimore, breaking a bone in his foot and suffering ligament and cartilage damage in his knee, causing him to miss two months. Fellow slugger Roger Maris was beset by a hand injury. When the two could play — almost exactly one season between them — they combined for 38 homers, 88 RBI and a .570 slugging percentage. Catcher Elston Howard helped to pick up the slack, enjoying an MVP season (.287/.342/.528 with 28 HR and 85 RBI), and Tom Tresh (.269/.371/.487 with 25 homers) was key as well. Ford won 24 games and Jim Bouton went 21-7 with a 2.53 ERA. Hal Reniff was tops out of the bullpen.

The Series was no contest. Opening in the Bronx, the Dodgers jumped on Ford for five runs in the first three innings, with Roseboro hitting a three-run homer and Skowron, now a Dodger, driving in two runs. But the real story was Koufax’s dominance, as he struck out a series-record 15 hitters. The Dodgers won Game Two behind a stellar game by Podres, still clutch after all these years. Drysdale bested Bouton in a 1-0 duel in Game Three, and Koufax wrapped up the sweep, the only one in the history of the rivalry, with a 2-1 win over Ford. Typically, the Dodgers managed only two hits in the decisive game, but one of them was a Howard homer. The Yanks scored only four runs in the entire Series, and the two teams combined for only 16. Koufax’s 2-0, 1.50 ERA line made him the MVP.

1977: Yankees 4-2 over Dodgers

When Sandy Koufax retired Yankee rightfielder Hector Lopez on an infield grounder to close out the Dodgers’ 1963 World Championship, my parents had been married less than a month. By the next time the teams met in a World Series, they had two sons, including a seven-year-old who was starting to catch on to baseball. The Yankee-Dodger rivalry of this era was my real introduction to major league baseball, with the outsized personalities of characters such as Tommy Lasorda and Reggie Jackson drawing me in long enough to discover the game’s true excitement and drama. The continuity of the two teams’ rivalry from 1977-1981, while its participants came and went, provided me with a sense of the game’s history and up-close introductions to the spectacular extremes of achievement on the ballfield and bad behavior off of it, the revolution of free agency, the vagaries of player development, and the harsh realities of the game’s labor situation. A quarter-century removed from all of this, I simply cannot imagine my childhood without the Dodger-Yankee battles, nor can I imagine a better introduction to baseball.

When Tommy Lasorda took the Dodger helm on the final weekend of the 1976 season, it marked the first time since 1953 that the Dodgers had made a managerial change. Walter Alston’s 23-year tenure had seen the team’s first World Championship in 1955, the team’s move west in 1958, the opening of Dodger Stadium in 1962, with eight pennants and four World Championships. Lasorda, who served on Alston’s staff for four seasons, was promoted into some very big shoes. But he’d played an important role in the team’s development, managing many of what would become his key players in the minors, including Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Ron Cey — the longest running infield in the game’s history, a unit that stayed intact for nearly nine seasons. They were mid-tenure when Lasorda graduated to the managerial seat, and from the season’s first month, when Cey drove in 29 runs and the Dodgers jumped out to a 17-3 start, they gave him a significant leg up in the NL. The Dodgers (98-64) ran away with the NL West by 10 games, unseating the two-time World Champion Cincinnati Reds, the Big Red Machine, and then defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Championship Series. Garvey, Cey, Reggie Smith and Dusty Baker all clubbed 30 homers or more, a baseball first for teammates, with the quiet Smith the team’s most devastating hitter at .307/.427/.576. Lopes made for a classic leadoff man with a .372 OBP and 47 steals. The rotation was anchored by veterans Tommy John, who won 20 games, and Don Sutton, but the team went five deep in starters, at the time still a new concept. Knuckleballer Charlie Hough — another Lasorda protegee — anchored a strong bullpen.

The New York Yankees had changed dramatically since the two teams’ last meetings as well. After a decade of oblivion under CBS, the franchise was bought for a song by egomaniacal Cleveland shipbuilder named George Steinbrenner, who took to the game’s new franchise-building rules by embracing free agency. He signed A’s ace Catfish Hunter, coming off of three straight World Championships and granted free agency on a contractual breach, before the 1975 season and then Reggie Jackson before the ’77 season. Brash and quotable, with enough mustard for a ballpark full of hot dogs, Jackson took to the New York limelight like no player before or since, and he delivered on the field as well .286/.375/.550 with 32 homers and 110 RBI. Acrobatic third baseman Graig Nettles contributed 37 homers and 107 RBI, and gritty catcher Thurman Munson drove in 100 as well. Lefthander Ron Guidry developed into the team’s ace, going 16-7 with a 2.82 ERA, and Sparky Lyle won the Cy Young Award with a stellar season out of the bullpen. With fiesty former Yankee World Series hero Billy Martin skippering the club, this team maintained a link to its glorious past, though the intense media scrutiny quickly created a pressure cooker for Martin, Jackson, and Steinbrenner. The Yanks (100-62) won the AL East by 2.5 games, then beat the Kansas City Royals in the AL Championship Series to face the Dodgers.

Opening in New York, the Yanks won the first game in 12 innings, but three Dodger homers off of Hunter early in Game Two helped even the Series. The Yankees took the next two in LA, with Mike Torrez and Guidry both going the distance for the Bombers. With their backs to the wall, the Dodgers routed the Yanks and Don Gullet 10-4, with catcher Steve Yeager driving in four runs. The Series returned to the Bronx, and in Game Six, Jackson put on an eye-popping display for the ages: home runs in three consecutive at-bats off of three different pitchers, each hit longer than the last. The Yanks overcame an early Dodger lead and took their first World Championship since 1963. Jackson, who hit .450/.522/1.250 with a record five homers for the Series, won the MVP.

1978: Yankees 4-2 over Dodgers

A baseball fan could be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu in 1978, as all four division winners repeated, and the playoff results were duplicated as well. The Dodgers (95-67) had won the West by 2.5 games with virtually the same cast of characters as the year before, with Garvey (.316/.353/.499 with 113 RBI) and Smith (.295/.382/.559) leading the way. A severe throat injury to catcher Yeager necessitated some juggling (and led to an equipment change around baseball), but aside from a bit of clubhouse dissent — a fight between the All-American Garvey and the more cynical Don Sutton — the Dodgers rolled. Burt Hooton emerged to lead the deep rotation with 19 wins and a 2.82 ERA, while free agent signing Terry Forster took over the top spot in the bullpen.

If the results were the same in the Bronx, the manner in which they were achieved was anything but. The Yanks (100-63) fell as far as 14 games behind the Boston Red Sox while Martin and Jackson feuded, and in late July, the manager was forced to resign. Replaced by Bob Lemon, the Yanks took off, tying the Sox to force a one-game playoff in which Bucky Dent hit a three-run homer to give the Yanks the AL East title. Amid a host of injuries and a clubhouse so raucous with dissent it became known as the Bronx Zoo, Jackson (.274/.356/.477 with 27 HR and 97 RBI) and Nettles (.276/.343/.460 wiht 27 HR and 93 RBI) led the way. On the mound, Guidry dominated with a 25-3, 1.74 ERA Cy Young-winning season, and Ed Figureoa won 20 games as well. Marquee free-agent signing Rich Gossage claimed Lyle’s fireman role, a matter of no small controversy.

The Series opened in LA on a somber note, as Dodger coach Jim Gilliam died of a brain hemorrhage just two days before it began. With emotions somewhat raw, the Dodgers rolled over the Yanks 11-5, with leadoff hitter Lopes hitting two home runs and driving in five runs. In Game Two, the Dodgers, paced by a three-run homer by Cey, clung to a 4-3 lead in the ninth inning. The Yanks got two men on base with one out when Lasorda summoned rookie pitcher Bob Welch, who retired Munson and then struck out Jackson in dramatic fashion to save the game. The classic confrontation, immortalized in a poetic update of “Casey at the Bat,” became a touchstone of my youth.

Back in the Bronx, the Yanks took an early 2-1 lead in Game Three but the Dodgers kept threatening. As Guidry scuffled, Nettles made four incredible plays, directly leading to seven stranded Dodger runners, and Guidry allowed only one run despite 15 baserunners, with the Yanks winning 5-1. In Game Four, the Dodgers rolled out to a 3-0 lead on the strength of a Smith 3-run homer, bu thte Yanks clawed their way back thanks in part to a controversial throwing error by Russell, who in trying to complete a double play hit baserunner Jackson in the hip; the ball caromed into rightfield as a run scored. The Yanks tied the game in the eighth and won in the 10th on a Lou Piniella singe. Game Five was a 12-2 rout for the Yanks, with Munson driving in five runs and Roy White three, and four Yankees collecting three hits apiece among the Yanks 18 total hits. Back in LA, a three-run second inning paced by timely hits from Brian Doyle (subbing for injured Wille Randolph) and Dent helped the Yanks overcome a leadoff homer from Lopes, and Jackson exacted some vengeance on Welch with a seventh-inning homer. The Yanks were World Champions again. Dent hit .417/.440/.458 with 7 RBI to win the MVP award, with Doyle (.437/.437/.500) and Jackson (.391/.462/.696 with 8 RBI) helping to carry the Yanks as well.

1981: Dodgers 4-2 over Yankees

The 1981 season was like none before, as a seven-week players’ strike cleaved the season in two, creating an extra tier of playoffs. The Dodgers (63-47), on the strength of 20-year-old rookie pitching sensation Fernando Valenzuela, jumped out to a 36-21 start as Valenzuela won his first 8 starts, seven of them complete games, five of them shutouts. Fernandomania took hold, and the Dodgers won the first-half NL West “title” by a mere half-game over the Cincinnati Reds. Guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, the team went on cruise control during the second half. This would be the last hurrah for the longest running infield; as Lopes struggeld, the Dodgers took a long look at rookie Steve Sax. Baker (.320/.363/.445), Rick Monday (.315/.423/.608) and emerging slugger Pedro Guerrero (.300/.365/.464) paced the balanced Dodger attack. Valenzuela ended up winning 13 games to net Cy Young and Rookie of the Year honors, helping to offset the departure of free agent Don Sutton from the top of the rotation. Hooton and Jerry Reuss turned in stellar seasons as well. Second-year reliever Steve Howe led the Dodger bullpen. The team took a harrowing ride through the playoffs, escaping from a 2-0 hole against the Houston Astros in a best-of-five, then beating the Montreal Expos in the NLCS after being down 2-1 in another best-of-five. Monday’s ninth inning homer off of Steve Rogers in the cold, wet weather — “Blue Monday,” in Expos lore, put the Dodgers in the Series.

Like the Dodgers, the Yankees (59-48) won the first-half flag and then sputtered in the second. Despite the guaranteed playoff berth, Steinbrenner was so dissatisfied with the Yanks’ sluggish performance under manager Gene Michael — who had only 82 games in the big chair since Dick Howser’s firing the previous October — that he replaced him with Lemon. Trophy free agent Dave Winfield (.294/.360/.464) picked up the slack for the struggling Jackson, but these were hardly the Bronx Bombers of yore, as only two regulars topped a .244 batting average and nobody slugged anywhere close to .500. Guidry, Tommy John, and rookie Dave Righetti led a deep rotation, and Gossage put up a dominant season out of the bullpen, ably aided by Ron Davis. The Yanks beat the Milwaukee Brewers in the Divisional Series after nearly blowing a 2-0 lead, then swept the upstart Oakland A’s managed by Billy Martin to face the Dodgers for the third time in five years. Lasorda claimed that he had been praying for the rematch since the end of the ’78 Series.

The Yankees got of to a good start in the Bronx, KO’ing Reuss in the opener to win 5-3 behind Guidry. John and Gossage combined on a four hit shutout in Game Two, and things look ominous for the Dodgers as the Series returned to LA. Cey poked a three-run first-inning homer off of Righetti, but the Yanks scored four off of Valenzuela over the next two innings. The Dodgers rallied against reliever George Frazier, and Valenzuela survived to pitch a gutty 140+ pitch complete game, allowing 16 baserunners but winning 5-4. In Game Four, the Yanks chased Bob Welch before he could retire a batter, but Yankee starter Rick Reuschel couldn’t hold a 4-0 lead, and a pinch-hit two-run homer by Jay Johnstone capped a comeback that tied the Series. The next day, a six-hit complete game by Reuss, accompanied by back-to-back seventh-inning homers by Guerrero and Yeager off of Guidry — who allowed only four hits — pulled the Dodgers within reach of their first Series victory since ’63. Perhaps in an attempt to ignite his team, Steinbrenner revealed that he’d had a confrontation with two Dodger fans in an elevator, though his claims went unverified.

The Series returned to New York, and things took a curious turn in Game Six when Lemon elected to pinch-hit for John in the fourth-inning of a 1-1 tie with two on and two out. Bobby Murcer flied out to end the threat, and the Yanks rallied for three runs against Frazier (already twice bombed in the Series) and then four more against Davis the next inning. Guerrero drove in five runs with a triple and a three-run homer, and the Dodgers finally had their World Championship at the Yankees’ expense. The MVP award was split three ways between Yeager (.286/.286/.786 with 2 HR), Guerrero (.333/.391/.762, 2 HR, 7 RBI) and Cey (.350/.435/.500 and 6 RBI, not to mention surviving a Gossage fastball to the helmet). Frazier tied a Series record with three losses, all in relief.