No one saw this one coming. By every indication it appeared as though the 2017 World Series would feature teams from Cleveland or Houston or Chicago or Washington or Los Angeles, at least on paper anyway. But as we all know, the game of baseball isn’t played on paper.

On Wednesday night, the 91-win New York Yankees – owners of more World Series titles that any other team in the history of the game (27) – eliminated the Cleveland Indians – who had won an American League-best 102 games during the regular season. The Indians, or the Houston Astros with their 101 regular season wins, appeared to be the odds-on favorites to represent the junior league in the 2017 Fall Classic.

Lo and behold, on Tuesday night the Yankees knocked the mighty Cleveland Indians out of the postseason, causing sportswriters across the country to tuck their tails and run, with their ‘Best Team Ever’ articles shoved up their respective noses.

By winning their portion of the American League Division Series and with the Dodgers having swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in theirs, the possibility of a potential Dodgers-Yankees World Series is beginning to come into focus and, quite frankly, it couldn’t get any better than this.

The last time the Dodgers faced the Yankees in the World Series was 1981. It was also and remains the only World Series in history to have three MVPs – Pedro Guerrero, Steve Yeager and Ron Cey.
(AP photo)

Granted, there is still the small matter of the Dodgers having to get past the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series and the Yankees past the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series, but thus far, the stars are beginning to line-up for the first potential Dodgers-Yankees World Series in 36 years.

In the 148-year history of Major League Baseball and the 134-year history of the Dodgers, baseball’s two most storied franchises have squared off against one another a total of 11 times in the World Series, more than any other two baseball franchises past or present. Seven of those 11 meetings occurred while the Dodgers were still in Brooklyn. Of those seven, the Yankees won all but one of them. That lone Brooklyn Dodgers world championship occurred in 1955 when a Dodgers team led by the great Jackie Robinson, 1955 NL MVP Duke Snider, and left-hander and eventual World Series MVP Johnny Podres beat the Yankees in seven games.

Sports Illustrated writer Cliff Corcoran wrote this about the Brooklyn Dodgers’ one and only World Series championship over their crosstown rivals in a June 18, 2013 article:

Coming into the 1955 World Series, the Dodgers had never won a Fall Classic, a fact that was particularly difficult for their loyal fans to accept given the quality of their teams over the previous six seasons. Brooklyn lost the World Series to the Yankees in 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953, twice losing a Game 7. In 1950, the Bums were eliminated on the final day of the regular season by the pennant-winning Phillies, and in 1951 they were two outs away from the pennant when they blew a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth to the rival Giants on Bobby Thompson‘s Shot Heard ‘Round the World. In 1954, they lost the pennant by five games to the Giants, and some believed that the Boys of Summer were over the hill by the time they got back to the World Series in 1955. Robinson and Pee Wee Reese were 36. Campanella and Furillo were 33. Hodges was 31. However, NL MVP Duke Snider, who hit .320 with four home runs in the series, was in his prime, and 22-year-old lefty Johnny Podres was just coming into his own.

The most famous play in the 1955 World Series was Jackie Robinson’s steal of home in Game 1. That steal, which came with two outs in the eighth inning, brought the Dodgers within one run, but New York held on to win 6-5 and took a two-games-to-none lead in Game 2 behind a complete game by veteran lefty Tommy Byrne. Again, the Dodgers stormed back when the Series moved to Brooklyn, but this time they didn’t just tie the Series, they swept the three games at Ebbets Field to take a 3-games-to-2 lead. The Yankees tied things up back in the Bronx behind a complete game from Whitey Ford in Game 6, sending the Yankees and Dodgers to Game 7 for the third time in their last five meetings.

That’s when Podres, who had a complete game win in Game 3, took over. While Podres shut down the Yankees through the first five innings, Brooklyn scraped out a run in the fourth and another in the sixth. New York got the first two men on base in the bottom of the sixth for Yogi Berra, that year’s AL MVP, who laced a would-be double toward the left field corner. Dodgers left fielder Sandy Amoros, who had just been inserted as a defensive replacement by second-year manager Walter Alston, made a great running catch toward the foul line and got the ball to Reese, who fired to first base to double off Gil McDougald. Podres continued to bend but not break, ultimately scattering eight hits and a pair of walks in the process of shutting out the Yankees and delivering Brooklyn its first and only world championship.

After moving to Los Angeles in 1958, it took the Dodgers only two seasons to win their first National League pennant as the LA Dodgers. They then went on to beat they highly-favored ‘Go-Go White Sox’ in the 1959 World Series in six games, with games three, four and five being played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum while their new home in Chavez Ravine was still being built. Dodger Stadium opened in 1962 and it again took only two seasons in their new home for the Dodgers to win the NL pennant, while a very powerful Yankees team did the same in the American League; and here we were, the first-ever World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees World Series in 1963. To the surprise of (nearly) everyone, the Dodgers swept the mighty Yankees in four games behind the absolutely brilliant pitching of Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

Dodger great Sandy Koufax celebrates with catcher John Roseboro after recording the final out of game-4 of the 1963 World Series at Dodger Stadium to complete a four-game sweep over the highly favored Yankees. Koufax won games one and four of the Series, pitching complete games in both.
(Photo credit – Neil Leifer)

The Dodgers dominant win over the Yankees in the 1963 World Series would be their last for the next 18 years, with the Dodgers losing to their (still) hated rivals in 1977 and again in 1978, when Hall of Fame slugger Reggie Jackson became known as ‘Mr. October.’ But in 1981, the last time that the two powerhouse teams faced each other in the Fall Classic, it would be the Dodgers who would prevail in six games behind the stellar pitching of veteran left-hander Jerry Reuss and rookie phenom left-hander Fernando Valenzuela, and the power bats of Pedro Guerrero, Steve Yeager and Ron Cey. Of the 1981 World Series Corcoran wrote:

The most recent World Series meeting between these teams was a bittersweet one, coming as it did in a season bifurcated by a strike in which neither team had the best aggregate record in its respective division but made the playoffs on the strength of a strong first-half showing. Both clubs had to fight through an extra round of playoffs to reunite in the World Series, where the Yankees won the first two games at home with ex-Dodger Tommy John and relief ace Goose Gossage combining to shutout L.A. in Game 2.

As was so often the case when these two teams met in the World Series, the momentum shifted with the change in venue for Game 3 as the Dodgers pulled out a pair of a trio of one-run wins in Los Angeles. They won Game 3 behind a less-than-sparkling complete game by rookie sensation Fernando Valenzuela, who walked seven in a 5-4 win. Game 4 was a messy 8-7 affair in which Lasorda pulled starter Bob Welch after just four batters. Game 5, however, was a compelling duel between Ron Guidry and veteran Jerry Reuss in which an early 1-0 Yankee lead held up until Guidry surrendered consecutive solo home runs to Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager in the seventh, after which Reuss finished out the 2-1 win.

That sent the Series back to New York, at which point Yankee owner George Steinbrenner’s megalomania came to the forefront. Prior to Game 6, Steinbrenner, bearing wounds on his head and hands, claimed he had gotten into a fight with a pair of Dodgers fans in his hotel elevator in L.A. He then supposedly called manager Bob Lemon in the dugout during Game 6 to demand he pinch-hit for starter Tommy John in the fourth inning of a 1-1 game despite John’s solid work to that point in the game and scoreless start in Game 2. Lemon complied, and the Yankee bullpen immediately imploded with righty George Frazier suffering his third loss of the Series in a 9-2 final that clinched the championship for Los Angeles. Steinbrenner then issued an apology to the city of New York for his team’s performance, making no mention, of course, of his role in its downfall.

Left-hander Jerry Reuss led all Dodger pitchers with his 11.2 innings pitched during the 1981 World Series, which included a complete game 2-1 win over the Yankees in game-5. (AP photo)

Should the Dodgers and Yankees both prevail in their respective league championship series, it would be the 12th time that baseball’s two most storied franchises will have faced each other in the World Series, with the Yankees holding a significant 9-2 series edge over the Dodgers. However, if interleague play is any indication, especially since Dave Roberts took over as the Dodgers manager in 2016, the Dodgers hold a slight 7-6 edge over the Yankees in interleague play, including taking two of three at Yankee Stadium in 2016.

Simply put, it just doesn’t get any better than a Dodgers – Yankees World Series match-up – period.