Everything old becomes new again, and baseball is not immune to the nostalgia cycle.
Throwback uniforms, old-school play, Hall of Fame weekend, Old Timer’s Day.
The link to baseball’s past is rich, like a time capsule to an era when the sport was king. Babe Ruth in full hotdog eating, home-run hitting, icon glory for the New York Yankees. Jackie Robinson turning the once unheard of into the norm for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
A championship matchup that has been dormant for 42 years could roar back to life this season with the Yankees and Dodgers each in contention for the best record in their respective leagues.
If it happens in 2024, a Yankees-Dodgers World Series could be an homage to James Earl Jones, the “Field of Dreams” actor who passed away this week at the age of 93.
“… Baseball has marked the time,” Jones said as Terrence Mann in the iconic 1989 film. “This field, this game, is a part of our past. It reminds us of all that was once good and it could be again.”
Ruth’s Yankees and Robinson’s Dodgers used to own the fall. Not at the same time.
Ruth faced the Dodgers’ organization in the World Series once, in 1916, when it was known as the Brooklyn Robbins and he was still with the Boston Red Sox. Robinson dueled the cross-town rival six times in the quest for the ultimate prize.
Robinson’s era came in the heyday of the Yankees-Dodgers World Series rivalry, in a time known for baggy, wool uniforms, dusty slides at second base, and stars who were so legendary, they seem as if they were born from fiction.
All that was once good and it could be again.
From 1947 to 1957, when the teams met for the title six times, the Yankees fielded players like Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. The Dodgers had Robinson, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider and Don Drysdale at times during the stretch.
A return to a Yankees-Dodgers World Series this season would include the Yankees’ Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton and Gerrit Cole. It would have the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw.
Kershaw giving whatever he has left in a World Series appearance against the Yankees, in what could be his final season, would be a documentary in and of itself.
For MLB, the matchup would be a ratings bonanza of mega starts from the nation’s two largest cities. Add in the fact that each team has plenty of detractors; they can tune in just to see which empire falls.
There are no shortages of reasons to watch.
But the duel is far from a forgone conclusion, even if the teams finish atop their leagues. For starters, the top teams from each league haven’t met in the World Series, following a full 162-game season since 2013.
The Dodgers’ recent postseason pitching issues are well documented, and the makeup of the of the starting staff remains in flux amid a number of injuries. That includes Kershaw, whose rehab from a toe injury could run until the playoffs begin.
The Yankees are having their own issues, recently losing three consecutive series against teams who aren’t expected to appear in this season’s playoffs.
The safe bet is that one of both of the mega teams won’t make it to the World Series. They both will enter the playoffs likely with a favorite’s seeding, an internal underdog mentality, plenty of doubters, and an outsider’s perspective as villains.
If they do end up meeting, any and all of those scenarios are reasons to tune in.
“… They’ll watch the game, and it will be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters,” it was said in the movies. “The memories will be so thick, they will have to brush them away from their faces…”
