The Major League Baseball rivalry between the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers is known as the Dodgers-Giants rivalry.
Some commentators believe it to be the greatest sports rivalry of all time. It is one of the fiercest and oldest rivalries in American baseball.
Why do the Giants and Dodgers hate each other?
The Giants and Dodgers’ rivalry dates back to the late 19th century when both teams had their bases in New York City. Both the Giants and the Dodgers played their games in the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, respectively, at the Polo Grounds.
Owner of the Dodgers Walter O’Malley made the decision to relocate the team to Los Angeles after the 1957 campaign for both financial and other factors.
Along the way, he persuaded Giants owner Horace Stoneham to keep the rivalry alive by relocating his team to California as well (Stoneham was considering transferring his franchise to Minnesota).
Baseball fans in New York were shocked and devastated by the decision, which left the city with just the Yankees as its lone baseball franchise.
The Mets, who took on the rivalry’s colors of orange from the Giants and blue from the Dodgers, were given to New York to fill in for the absence of the Giants.
The rivalry was easily transplanted to the teams’ new homes in California because Los Angeles and San Francisco have long been rivals in the economic, cultural, and political spheres.
The rivalry is regarded as one of the greatest in sports history due to each team’s ability to endure for more than a century while migrating across the country and the rivalry’s expansion from a cross-city to a cross-state engagement.
More National League championships than any other team have been won by the Dodgers and Giants, who each have 24 and 23 respectively.
Since the start of the Divisional Era in 1969, the Dodgers have won the National League West 19 times compared to the Giants’ nine, but the Giants have more overall victories, head-to-head victories, and World Series championships (8-7) in franchise history.
The Dodgers have won more pennants (12-6) and World Series (6-3) after relocating to California.
2014 marked the Giants’ most recent World Series appearance and victory. The Dodgers’ most recent World Series appearance was in 2020, which they won in six games.
The Giants defeated the Dodgers in the series while they were on the East Coast 721-670-17. But as of the end of their 2021 regular season series, the Dodgers have a 577-548 advantage since the two clubs relocated to the West Coast.
Despite playing in the 1889 World Series, the two teams didn’t meet until the 2021 National League Division Series.
Following a tie for first place at the completion of the regular season, they have played two tie-breaker series.
The National League Pennant was decided by two best-of-three series, both of which were won by the Giants 2-1 in 1951 and 1962. They are included in the regular season’s calculations.