MLB Showdown Obsession

 The Dodgers are quite an accomplished franchise, especially lately, but in the first 50 years of the World Series era they were anything but. With no championships, they were more of the bridesmaid instead of the bride. Not for the lack of trying, with 7 NL pennants in those 50 years, they were always bested when it counted, most of the time failing against the Yankees. Then, a switch seemed to flip and they won 9 titles in 16 pennants, and it didn't start with their move from Brooklyn to LA, but just a bit before in 1955. After back-to-back pennants, the Dodgers took a step back in 1954 when they were bested by the New York Giants for the NL crown. The pressure was on and the Dodgers stepped up out of the gates in '55 with 10 straight wins to start the season. Brooklyn didn't release their hold of 1st place and ran away with the pennant, with Walter Alston's boys going 98-55, 13.5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Braves, but more importantly 18.5 games better than the Gia...

  In the first couple decades of the World Series era, the baseball landscape in New York was dominated not by the Yankees, but by the Giants. By the 1920's, the Giants had accumulated 8 pennants and the 1905 title. The apex of their domination came when they won back-to-back titles in 1921 and '22 over their AL counterpart Yankees. Then, the Yankees began winning and while the Giants won an additional title in 1933, it wasn't too long before the Yankees became not just the #1 team in New York but in all of baseball. By the 1950's the Giants were setting up to head out west to San Francisco, but not before they managed one more climb to the top while on the east coast. Leo Durocher managed his squad to a 97-57 record, holding off the cross town rivals in Brooklyn by 5 games to claim the NL pennant for the 17th time. Over in the AL, the Yankees had finally been bested when the Cleveland Indians won an AL record 111 games, but the Giants would keep the city's WS strea...