With two of the three highest winning percentages in MLB history, the Yankees and Dodgers are two of baseball’s model franchises.
As they prepare to face off in this year’s World Series, The Post assembles an all-time team for each franchise and decides who has the edge at every position:
First base
Dodgers: Gil Hodges
Yankees: Lou Gehrig
Hodges finally received his due and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2022 after a career in which he hit 370 homers and was selected to eight All-Star teams. Seven times he drove in at least 100 runs for the Dodgers in the 1940s and ’50s. One of the “Boys of Summer.”
Gehrig is the standard-bearer at the position — he hit 493 homers and his lifetime batting average was .340. Along the way he appeared in 2,130 consecutive games. Gehrig, who won two MVP awards, might have had his best season in 1934, when he hit .363 with 49 homers and 166 RBIs.
Edge: Yankees
Second base
Dodgers: Jackie Robinson
Yankees: Robinson Cano
Robinson broke MLB’s color barrier in 1947 and became the first Rookie of the Year recipient. A daring base runner, his steal of home against the Yankees in the 1955 World Series is immortalized. Robinson won an MVP award and was selected to six All-Star teams. He finished with a career .887 OPS.
Cano (who was named after Jackie Robinson) hit at least 25 homers in five different seasons with the Yankees. He also won a Gold Glove and finished second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting in 2005. PED questions taint Cano’s numbers — after leaving the Yankees he was twice suspended for testing positive for banned performance enhancers.
Edge: Dodgers
Shortstop
Dodgers: Pee Wee Reese
Yankees: Derek Jeter
The prototypical shortstop of his era, Reese was a terrific defensive player without a loud bat. Reese produced a lifetime .743 OPS — roughly average for the span of his career. A 10-time All-Star who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984, he was the heart of Brooklyn’s perennial pennant winners in the 1940s and ’50s.
Few players in the game’s history are as associated with winning as much as the former Yankees captain. Jeter, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame with 99.7 percent of the vote, was a central figure on five World Series winning teams with the Yankees and finished his career with 3,465 hits and a lifetime .310 batting average. Jeter won five Gold Glove awards.
Edge: Yankees
Third base
Dodgers: Justin Turner
Yankees: Alex Rodriguez
Non-tendered by the Mets following the 2013 season, the infielder reinvented his swing by focusing on launch angle. Four times with the Dodgers, he hit at least 20 homers and he produced an .865 OPS during his nine seasons with the team. Turner got a World Series ring as part of the 2020 team that beat the Rays. He was twice an All-Star with the team.
Rodriguez won two of his three MVP awards while playing for the Yankees and played an integral part in the team’s last World Series title in 2009. Rodriguez’s two PED-related suspensions have kept him from election into the Hall of Fame following a career in which he hit 696 homers and was selected to 14 All-Star teams.
Edge: Yankees
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Yankees in the postseason:
- Sherman: Yankees can turn this advantage into World Series-winning formula
- How slumping Yankee can help win World Series despite cold streak
- Heyman: The ‘short’ reason underdog Yankees will conquer Dodgers in World Series
- For Brian Cashman’s ‘consigliere,’ this World Series is a full-circle moment
Left field
Dodgers: Matt Kemp
Yankees: Mickey Mantle
In his 10 seasons with the Dodgers (mostly on teams that failed to reach the postseason), Kemp hit 203 homers and produced an .842 OPS. He finished second in the 2011 MVP voting after leading the National League with 39 homers and major leagues with 126 RBIs. He also won two Gold Glove awards with the Dodgers.
One of the iconic players in major league history, Mantle, a three-time MVP winner, is regarded as the game’s best all-time switch-hitter. Mantle hit 536 career homers and starred for seven World Series-winning teams. He was selected to 20 All-Star teams and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974.
Edge: Yankees
Center field
Dodgers: Duke Snider
Yankees: Joe DiMaggio
Willie Mays, Mantle and Snider — better known as Willie, Mickey and the Duke — gave New York a special trifecta of center fielders in the 1950s. Snider wasn’t Mays or Mantle, but hit 407 homers in his career and starred for six pennant winners with Brooklyn/Los Angeles. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980.
The Yankee Clipper was a superb player in his first five seasons and then became a legend with his 56-game hitting streak in 1941. DiMaggio won three MVP awards and was part of nine World Series winning teams. The Hall of Famer hit 361 career homers and struck out only 369 times. That ratio for a power hitter is almost unheard of in any era.
Edge: Yankees
Right field
Dodgers: Mookie Betts
Yankees: Babe Ruth
A former MVP with the Red Sox, the versatile Betts has maintained his star over five seasons in Hollywood. Betts has won two silver sluggers with the Dodgers and been selected to four All-Star teams. He owns a .902 OPS in 587 games for the Dodgers, and reached his second World Series with the club this year.
Another former Red Sox star who succeeded elsewhere, the Bambino transcended the sport in the 1920s and ’30s. Who can forget his 60-homer performance in 1927? (OK, almost nobody alive saw it.) Ruth appeared in seven World Series with the Yankees and won four.
Edge: Yankees
Catcher
Dodgers: Roy Campanella
Yankees: Yogi Berra
A three-time MVP winner before an automobile accident that left him in a wheelchair claimed his career, Campanella had four seasons of 30-plus homers. He was a key component to the Brooklyn teams that reached the World Series five times in an eight-year stretch beginning in 1949. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1969.
Berra had a championship ring for each of his 10 fingers. A three-time MVP, he hit 358 career homers and was selected to the All-Star game in 15 straight seasons. Berra, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972, had a lifetime .811 OPS in 75 career World Series games.
Edge: Yankees
Designated hitter
Dodgers: Shohei Ohtani
Yankees: Aaron Judge
The first 50/50 player (homers and stolen bases) in MLB history, Ohtani and the Dodgers appear made for each other. There isn’t a larger star in baseball and the Showtime Dodgers are just the right setting for him.
Judge’s at-bats are can’t-miss events. The star outfielder established an AL record with 62 home runs in 2022 and crushed another 58 this season.
Edge: Dodgers
Starting pitcher
Dodgers: Sandy Koufax
Yankees: Whitey Ford
Koufax was pure wizardry for five seasons beginning in 1962, when he pitched his first of four career no-hitters. The left-hander won three Cy Young awards over four seasons to close his career. Even before he became Sandy Koufax, he was part of Dodgers teams that won the World Series in 1955 and ’59. Then he dominated for World Series-winning teams in 1963 and ’65 and went to Cooperstown.
The Chairman of the Board was methodical and won 236 games over 16 seasons with the Yankees, pitching to a 2.75 ERA. Twice he led the major leagues with the lowest ERA. The left-hander was at his best in the World Series, going 10-8 with a 2.71 ERA in 22 starts. Yet another Yankees player in the Hall of Fame.
Edge: Dodgers
Closer
Dodgers: Kenley Jansen
Yankees: Mariano Rivera
Jansen saved 350 games for the Dodgers over his 12 seasons with the club and pitched to a 2.37 ERA. A three-time All-Star for the club, he began his professional career as a catcher.
The first Hall of Famer to receive 100 percent of the vote, Rivera is baseball’s gold standard for closers. Nobody was more trusted in a big spot and his 652 saves are the most all time. Rivera pitched to an 0.70 ERA with 42 saves in 96 career postseason appearances. He won five World Series with the Yankees.
Edge: Yankees
