A 60 Year Rivalry: Giants vs Dodgers

The Dodgers vs. Giants rivalry is arguably one of the best rivalries in baseball, with both teams having intense fans who strongly support their team.

This 2018 MLB season marks the 60th year of this rivalry against the Dodgers and the Giants.

I recently attended a game that honored this lengthy competition, where they brought out players from both Giants and Dodgers past.

These players stood with each other, showing that without the other team, we would not have the entertaining aspects of a rivalry.

This all stems back to the late 19th century, when the present day San Francisco Giants were known as the New York Giants and today’s Los Angeles Dodgers were referred to as the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Being in the same state already made the teams rivals, striving to be the best in New York.

But it was in 1957 when the rivals moved to California, due to Walter O’Malley, former Dodgers’ manager, deciding that his team should relocate.

Understanding the excitement that comes out of a rivalry, Walter wanted to maintain the one that his team had with the Giants, so he convinced the manager of the New York Giants, at the time, Horace Stoneman, to follow in the move to California.

So it was then that the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants were born. Due to an already installed rivalry between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the rivalry between the two teams flourished even more.

Last years stats have the Dodgers up top with 104 wins, while the Giants had 64.

So far, in this 2018 season, the Giants and Dodgers have played six games against one another.

The Giants took the win for three of those games, while the Dodgers took the other three. Their next meeting will be on April 27th.

A rivalry is not meant to purely give people a team to dislike, it is to add an aspect to baseball that gets people excited. And the Dodgers vs. Giants rivalry is a great example of that.