Spoiling Dodger Dreams

This weekend the Giants and Dodgers tangled up for the millionth time. The Gyros took two of three in spectacular fashion from the pennant contenders, with a walkoff homer on Friday and a pinch-hit, three run homer in the 8th on Sunday. It's September, and that's what baseball is made of. The Giants and Dodgers beating each other up to kill the other's dream. It's because of playing spoiler that I think it's a greater rivalry than the Yankees/Red Sox.

These two sets of teams have finished first/second more times than any other sets of teams ever. They're the two greatest rivalries. But the Yankees usually beat the second place Sox by 15 games, and they have relatively fewer pennant races against each other. Each set has had monster playoffs against each other; major history. But where the rivalries really tilt toward Giants/Dodgers is in the area of spoiler. Every several years, one of the teams knocks the other out in the last series of the season. This is almost non-existent with the Yanks/Sox. In the last 20 years alone, the Giants and Dodgers have had either pennant races with each other decided in the last weekend of the season, or have directly knocked the other out of the race on the last weekend of the season six times ('91, '93, '97, '01, '02, '04) compared to the Yanks/Sox whopping zero. They play the last series of the year again this year and the Dodgers are still in the race. Time to add '07 to the list.