For many years, the rivalry between the Boston Pink Sox and New York Yankees was thought to be one of the best and most intense in baseball, if not in all of sports activities. In 2007, former MLB commissioner Bud Selig described it as an unparalleled rivalry:
“It is the best rivalry in sports activities. You may speak concerning the Dodgers and Giants, the Cardinals and Cubs, the Packers and Bears, Ohio State-Michigan, however there’s nothing just like the Pink Sox and Yankees. It has historical past, depth, proximity and goes all the way in which again to Babe Ruth. There are all of the brawls over time.”
Britannica catalogs the 10 biggest rivalries in sports activities historical past and consists of Pink Sox vs. Yankees, rating it above Lakers vs. Celtics and Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali.
Lately, nonetheless, the prominence and depth of the Pink Sox-Yankees rivalry have receded. Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes commented in 2023 on the decline of the rivalry.
Since nature abhors a vacuum, it ought to come as no shock that the Pink Sox-Yankees rivalry has been supplanted. The rivalry between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres has changed it as probably the most fascinating and compelling in baseball.
Sometimes called the “I-5 rivalry,” as a result of the house stadiums of the 2 groups are separated by only a 120-mile drive alongside Interstate 5 in southern California, the competitiveness and attract of Dodgers-Padres video games have exceeded that of all different baseball rivalry video games lately.
As famous above, Selig commented on the relevance of proximity to the importance of the Pink Sox-Yankees rivalry. Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium are separated by greater than 200 miles. Therefore, the house parks of the Dodgers and Padres are considerably nearer to at least one one other and will not be separated by state borders.
Many different components undergird the ascendance of this west coast rivalry.
The Dodgers not too long ago secured a playoff spot this season, marking the twelfth consecutive 12 months they’ll seem within the postseason. Solely two groups in historical past have longer streaks of postseason appearances — the Atlanta Braves with 14 and the New York Yankees with 13.
The Padres have additionally locked down a playoff berth this season, and so they did so in dramatic trend, defeating the Dodgers on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, ending the sport with a triple play when Shohei Ohtani was on deck. The following evening, Ohtani drove in two runs, main Los Angeles to a hard-fought, 4-3, win over the Padres, decreasing the Dodgers’ magic quantity for clinching the NL West to 2.
The Padres and Dodgers have met seven instances within the postseason, with the Dodgers holding a slim 4-3 edge in these playoff matchups. In 2022, when the Dodgers received 111 video games, defeating the Padres in 14 out of 19 video games, they appeared destined for the World Collection. Nonetheless, San Diego knocked Los Angeles out of the playoffs in 4 video games.
In latest competitors, the Friars and the Boys in Blue have had greater than their fair proportion of bench-clearing incidents, most not too long ago on April 13, when Dodgers pitcher Gavin Stone, who carried an ideal recreation bid into the fifth inning, threw an inside pitch that almost hit Jurickson Profar.
Lengthy thought to be the Dodgers’ little brother, the Padres have confirmed their mettle lately, offering gas to baseball’s new greatest rivalry.
