When the Dodgers and Yankees played in the World Series routinely, that is known as the heyday of MLB.
When they are playing like clockwork every 43 years, that is known as what’s wrong with the sport.
I understand that what sells in the media landscape now is running a tired take into the ground. I know what makes the current world go round is not letting go of even the most disproven grievance. Because let’s stop acting like Yankees-Dodgers in the World Series corroborates what’s wrong with the game and why a salary cap is needed. You can deposit that on Trite Street.
If you want to argue for a salary cap because there needs to be a fairer way to pay good players and young ones — or just because for some reason you want owners to know their fixed costs — that is far better than some illusion of competitive balance. Because what creates competitive balance is competence and its wicked stepbrother incompetence.
Here are some realities that will be ignored in favor of gut-level stupidity:
• The Yankees have not been to a World Series since 2009, and their win that year is their only title since 2000.
• The Dodgers have won one World Series since 1988 — in 2020, the 60-game pandemic season.
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The Mets have not won a World Series since 1986. The Phillies have won two World Series since their 1883 debut.
The two Chicago teams have combined for two titles since 1917. The Cubs won it all in 2016, hadn’t been to a World Series before that since 1945 and last won before 2016 in 1908. The White Sox won their first World Series since 1917 in 2005 and have made the playoffs three times since without winning a round. The Angels added Los Angeles to their name in 2005, but still have just one World Series appearance/win (in 2002) since their 1962 inception and currently hold the longest playoff drought in the majors (since 2014).
Really, give the White Sox and Angels all the payroll in the world and, really, they will find their way to fourth place anyway. No dollar sign erases mismanagement.
Aaron Boone mentioned that since he became manager in 2018, annually “There is that Yankees-Dodgers thing” where they are both in contention, both circling each other, both opening the possibility of the coastal superpowers meeting. But: “It is hard to get to this point. You think about the success of these two franchises and what’s it been, 43 years is remarkable.”
Yet, the tired, agenda-driven narrative will hold, as if this were 1941-56, when the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees played in seven of 16 World Series. What we think of as the greatest era for the sport, a black-and-white dreamscape.
Follow The Post’s coverage of the Yankees in the postseason:
- Yankees make Game 1 pitching decision
- Are Yankees or Dodgers favored in battle of No. 1 seeds?
- Yankees-Dodgers is star-studded World Series we’ve waited for
- Joe Torre’s advice to Aaron Boone before his first World Series
But we are not in hell now, even if it is LA vs. NYC and Hollywood vs. Broadway. Because even just having the Yankees back in the Fall Classic is novel.
Since the Yankees last won in 2009, 16 different teams have played in the World Series and 10 different clubs have won, including the Giants three times and the Red Sox and Astros twice each. In the same time frame — in the salary-capped NFL — there have been 15 different teams in the Super Bowl and 10 different champs. In the salary-capped NBA, there have been 12 different finalists and 10 champions.
No one seemed to complain about the four straight seasons when Steph Curry and LeBron James played against each other in the NBA finals. Are we really going to be so anti-big city that we are going to not all revel in the first World Series matchup of the two biggest stars in baseball — Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge?
“I think some baseball purists probably love it,” Carlos Rodon said. “I know Fox definitely loves it. There’s definitely some glamor to it. But for us in this room, it’s baseball.”
Yes, Fox loves having the two largest TV markets. MLB loves that its main television partner gets what it wants. But it is actually OK for everyone to love it rather than act like this was a preordained meeting. Yes, the megateam that signed Ohtani and the megateam that traded for Juan Soto reached the World Series with their $300 million-plus payrolls. If it happens again next year, get back to me.
Because, again, if this must be done: since the last time the Yankees won the World Series, the Giants won their first three titles since moving to San Francisco in 1958; the Royals their first since 1985; the Cubs their first since 1908; the Braves their first since 1995; and the Astros, Nationals and Rangers their first ever.
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The Yankees go after their record 28th title and, yes, their playoff road was lined with inferior AL Central teams. No doubt. But when the Celtics won their record 18th NBA title last year, these players missed some or all of the series against them on the way there — Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier, Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen and Tyrese Haliburton — and just about every Knicks star crumbled to keep them from getting in Boston’s way.
Yet, you know when the Celtics sent their banner skyward Tuesday night — with the Knicks in attendance to open the season — there were no asterisks. We call them champions.
It is fine for the first time in a long time in a 162-game season that we get to call either the Dodgers or Yankees the same — even if they are playing each other.
