Brooklyn Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson safely steals home plate under the tag of New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra as pinch-hitter Frank Kellert looks on in the eighth inning of the World Series opener at New York’s Yankee Stadium, Sept. 28, 1955. AP Photo/John Rooney, File
In the beginning, the World Series matchup of the Dodgers against the Yankees was a kind of charming intra-city showdown of two New York City boroughs, blue collar Brooklyn, equipped with a neighborhood called Gravesend, against the pretentious Bronx, with the fancy Grand Concourse.
It was an intriguing matchup that carried bragging rights in the city as well as baseball’s world championship, and it caught the attention of brilliant sports cartoonist Williard Mullin, who gave it the catchy nickname of “The Subway Series.’’ That was because, after all, New York City’s rapid transit system could get you from one ballpark to the other for just 5 cents.
The trip will cost considerably more when it resumes on Friday for the 12th time in a Broadway-meets-Sunset Boulevard version of baseball’s most frequent World Series rivalry. This one brings together this season’s winningest teams in a coast-to-coast collision featuring some of the game’s biggest stars in the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, and the Dodgers’ Shohei Otani and Mookie Betts.
Their October showdowns have produced some of the game’s most memorable moments, from Don Larsen’s perfect game and Reggie Jackson’s three straight home runs to the one-handed circus catches of Al Gionfriddo and Sandy Amoros.
Yankees vs Dodgers had a modest World Series beginning
The Dodgers won their first National League pennant in 21 years in 1941 and found the Yankees, already constructing a dynasty, waiting for them in the World Series. It was the first of their 12 Fall Classic meetings.
Mullin also gave them cartoon images — a down-and-out but very proud Brooklyn Bum shuffling along with a ragtag wardrobe and a…
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