A few thoughts about the first Dodgers/Yankees World Series in 43 years

The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers did what their owners, management, players and fans expected them to do: Finish with the best regular-season records in their respective leagues, then win the postseason series they had to win to get to the 2024 World Series, where they will meet beginning Friday at Dodger Stadium.

I’ve seen people — some here — say they won’t watch this World Series. I am at a loss to understand why. Sure, it’s the two biggest markets matching up against each other, teams that many fans love to hate — but the more important point is that so many of the game’s biggest stars are going to play in this year’s Fall Classic, from Dodgers Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts to Yankees Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, among others. Beyond the Fox-TV executives likely salivating over perhaps the best TV ratings for the World Series in many years, if you are a baseball fan this is what you should want — big stars competing on the game’s biggest stage. I suppose some Cubs fans might root for the Yankees to see Anthony Rizzo get another ring.

So I’ll be watching, of course. Honestly I don’t really care who wins; what I’d like to see are some compelling games, games that go back and forth with lead changes, games where these stars make a difference. If you love baseball you should want this too, because over the last few decades other sports have taken primacy among American sports fans and having a compelling World Series, one would think, could bring baseball back to the forefront of many people who haven’t given it a second thought in many years.

So that’s all good, right?

Well… not all of it. I am certain that for many Cubs fans here, the message that is sent by these teams winning pennants is: “Spend the most money and you’ll win.”

Which is not really the message being sent, and not the message I’d necessarily want Cubs management to follow. I’ll get to that, but first a little history lesson.

You have likely heard by now that the Yankees and Dodgers have met 11 previous times in the World Series, the most common matchup in Fall Classic history. The Yankees won eight of those 11, and as noted in the headline here, the last one was 43 years ago, in 1981. The Dodgers won that one four games to two.

That was a season where a strike wiped out a third of the games and the playoff system was borked by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Kuhn decreed that the first-place teams at the time of the strike were to be “first-half champions,” even though there was no way for them to know at the time they were playing a “first half.” Then the winners of the games played after the strike were named “second-half champions.” Kuhn got lucky — all eight teams selected by this system were different, so those were the teams that went to the postseason. Unfortunately, what that did was screw over the teams that had the best overall record in both NL divisions — the Cardinals and Reds — because they didn’t win either half. What Kuhn should have done was have the second-half winner play the overall winner and if those teams were the same, then you have the first-half “winner” participate.

This is a long way of saying the Dodgers didn’t really belong in the postseason at all in 1981, as overall they finished second to the Reds in the NL West and the Astros won the second half. The Yankees won the first half in the AL East and the Brewers were both second-half winners and best overall, so the Yankees would have been in via either system.

That’s a long explanation for putting a big asterisk on 1981, and the more important fact I want to point out here is that eight of those 11 Yankees/Dodgers World Series took place between 1941 and 1963. a 23-season span. All but one of those happened while both teams were in New York. Following a 14-year gap, the teams met again in 1977 and 1978, before 1981.

Why is that important? Because in that pre-draft era, those teams dominated to the point where they pretty much outbid all the other teams for amateur talent. Further, the Yankees essentially used the Kansas City A’s as a “farm team” of sorts. Arnold Johnson, who had bought the A’s from the Mack family and moved them to Kansas City, essentially gave his team over to the Yankees and let them raid his talent:

“The 1960 season came along. Roger Maris still with the ball club. We started making some deals with the New York Yankees. Hector Lopez, Bob Cerv anybody that had any great ability. Vic Power. We moved them up to the New York Yankees” says famed Kansas City sportscaster Bill Grigsby who was part of the A’s broadcast team from 1959 to 1963 when he left to join the Chiefs. Turns out that trade for Roger Maris, a little sleazier than most knew at the time.

“I didn’t know at the time, but Arnold Johnson owed Del Webb some favors and some money from some construction deals they were in together. So he was sort of a hostage to Del Webb and whenever Del Webb needed a ball player who looked good, he’d pick up the phone, call the Athletic office and get a ballplayer. We became a farm club for the New York Yankees. Well, the Yankees wanted Roger Maris. Roger was in Cleveland so Arnold Johnson made a deal with Cleveland to get Roger Maris in Kansas City. Well, what they didn’t know when they traded him to the Kansas City Athletics was that Arnold Johnson (would send) Roger Maris to the New York Yankees.”

Clete Boyer, the Yankees third baseman in the 1960s, not mentioned there, was another player shipped from the A’s to the Yankees essentially for nothing, a bunch of guys who never did much in KC; look at Boyer’s transaction log to see the deal. This happened, by one estimate, possibly 30 times until Johnson finally sold the A’s to Charlie Finley.

Remember the old Onion headline “Yankees Ensure 2003 Pennant By Signing Every Player In Baseball”? It was almost literally true from the late 1940s through the mid 1960s. Beyond the eight Yankees/Dodgers World Series matchups in that era, the Yankees won nine other pennants from 1942-64 and the Dodgers were in World Series in 1959, 1965 and 1966 against teams other than the Yankees.

It was utter dominance — perhaps, you might think, similar to the ways that the Yankees and Dodgers are piling up huge payrolls today.

All of that dominance was one of the reasons — not the only one, to be sure — that the draft was instituted in 1965. This was supposed to spread talent more evenly around the major leagues. And in that, it succeeded. The A’s, who had last won a pennant in 1931, won five straight AL West titles from 1971-75 and three straight World Series, largely from talent they selected in early drafts. The Phillies had won only one pennant since 1915, but put together powerhouse teams in the 1970s and early 1980s, winning four NL East titles (1976-77-78-80) and their first World Series in 1980. The draft has, in general, been a great equalizer. That plus the randomness of an expanded postseason has created a system where we have had 21 different teams in the World Series in the last 23 years, and 16 different champions, including the Cubs.

Oh, right. The Cubs. This is, after all, a Cubs website. Before I move back to discussing the Cubs, this has become a big wall of text so I’m going to break it up with video of a “compelling moment” from the Cubs 2024 season, the walkoff home run by Mike Tauchman against the White Sox June 5 [VIDEO].

So here’s the thing. I have seen argument after argument after argument here that the Cubs should spend more money on player payroll, something they have in the last couple of years appeared to not want to do. In 2023, the Yankees were reported to have revenue of $679 million and the Dodgers $579 million.

Who was next? Uh, the Cubs at $506 million. (Source for revenue figures: Here.)

The conclusion one could draw is that the Cubs could, actually, spend more money on players instead of simply maximizing profit. (Note: That’s a conclusion that could be drawn from the numbers given.)

It’s not going to make any difference if I sit here and write that over and over and over. Cubs ownership is going to spend what it wants to on player payroll and not a penny more. There are players who are going to be available who could help them jump that hoop from 83 wins to 90. This article by Patrick Mooney in The Athletic goes into detail about the type of players the Cubs might seek in free agency. (Hint: Not Juan Soto.)

I found this passage particularly enlightening, after Mooney writes that the Cubs have a pitching “type” embodied by Shōta Imanaga and Jameson Taillon:

“The one thing that stands out right away with both of those guys is just their pitch-ability,” Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said at Wrigley Field on the last day of the season. “Both of them throw a ton of strikes. Both of them limit walks. Both of them (have) shown the ability to navigate a lineup, throw multiple pitches for strikes, all the little things you want your starter to do. On top of that, they’re very similar in terms of personality, too. They’re natural leaders.

“If I’m analyzing and evaluating in-season routines, those two guys would be No. 1 and 2 on the list. They both take care of themselves. They’re both very diligent about what they do and how they go about doing it. They’re not afraid to talk to people about how they go about their business. There’s common themes there and common threads. The last piece of that, though, is just two guys who want to continue to get better.

“Any time you’re adding somebody new to your group, the big question is: We know what you can do, but what are you willing to continue to work on?”

Max Fried would fit that description as a consistent, high-level performer throughout his time with the Atlanta Braves.

I’d be good with signing Max Fried, and I think you would be too. Corbin Burnes, a pitcher with whom manager Craig Counsell is quite familiar, might be another of this type. Earlier this month I wrote about Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer and called his management style “timid.” I’ll stand by that. When Hoyer talked about “intelligent spending” he got widely mocked, but wouldn’t you call the signing of Imanaga “inteiigent”? Don’t the Cubs need more like that.

Will the Cubs break through the luxury tax limit to sign guys like Fried or Burnes? That would be a good sign, I think. Oh, and “intelligent,” too. And not “timid.” As always, we await developments.

One of the reasons I brought up that Yankees/Dodgers dominance of decades past is that what they are doing now might be seen as an attempt to do similar things under whatever current limitations exist. Does MLB want that? Sure, a Dodgers/Yankees World Series is compelling baseball this October, especially since it hasn’t happened in 43 years. But would it be good for baseball if it happened seven times in 16 years, as it did from 1941-56? In an 11-season span from 1947-57, of the 22 teams in the World Series, only five were not from New York and only one matchup (Indians/Braves, 1948) had no New York teams.

Does baseball want that? I’d think in the end that would not be good for the game. Having multiple teams able to contend and win titles, as has been the case for the last couple of decades, has to be good for the game.

But you also need stars on those teams. The Cubs could use one, sure, although I’d argue that Imanaga has created that kind of star value on the North Side.

Sorry for rambling on for almost 2,000 words. I had a bunch of thoughts I wanted to get out and they didn’t all match up. Hopefully I’ve given you some places to branch out for discussion. Lastly, it should be noted that with all the high-priced players the Dodgers went out and got, who was the NLCS MVP? Tommy Edman, who the Dodgers got in trade at the deadline after he’d missed the entire season to that date with injuries. You just never know.

So, seriously, enjoy the World Series, even if you hate the teams. It’s baseball, and maybe we’ll get a Fall Classic to remember.