Congratulations to the L.A. Dodgers and their fans! Pretty exciting stuff considering the Dodgers hold the record for the team who has lost the most World Series. Obviously this means they are good enough to get to the World series, but it's always frustrating to place second... not winning the championship means you lose your last game, which is rarely ever fun.
Baseball in North America has a long history, dating back at least to the 1850s, when it was already referred to as the national game or national pastime. In the late 1800s, the National Association of Base Ball Players, the sport's first governing body, was formed in the New York area. Today, Major League Baseball (MLB) is the governing body of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, uniting two leagues — the American League (AL) and the National League (AL), each with 15 teams and three divisions. Every October, the winners of each league championship series meet in order to play the MLB World Series, the most important event of the baseball season.
The Dodgers earned their 7th World Series title this year (the first win since 1988). They rank fourth overall for World Series wins behind the third ranked Boston Red Sox (9), second place St. Louis Cardinals (11) and the most World Series wins goes to the New York Yankees (27).
The Yankees, who play in the American League East, were established in 1901 under the name The Orioles in Baltimore and were rebranded in 1913 in New York. The New York Yankees are the most valuable franchise in Major League Baseball. As of 2019, the team’s brand value is estimated at some 4.6 billion U.S. dollars, far ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers in second place with a value of 3.3 billion U.S. dollars.
Founded in 1883, the Dodgers were originally based in Brooklyn, New York, and were known as the Atlantics. The team joined the American Association in 1884 and won the league pennant in 1889. Brooklyn was one of four American Association teams to join the NL the following year, and they won their first NL pennant in their inaugural season in the league. Brooklyn developed a natural rivalry with Manhattan’s New York Giants following their move to the NL, which became one of the game’s most renowned and enduring feuds, even after each team’s relocation to California in 1958. In 1913 the team moved into Ebbets Field, an intimate ballpark that served as the home of the Dodgers until 1957. The team was known as the Grays, the Bridegrooms, the Superbas, and the Robins before they settled on the name Dodgers in 1932.
The Dodgers won NL pennants in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953 but lost the World Series to the crosstown New York Yankees each time, earning the Dodgers the affectionate nickname “Dem Bums” and precipitating their fans’ famous annual lament, “Wait ’til next year.” In the midst of this run, the Dodgers made history in April 1947 by calling up African American third baseman Jackie Robinson (who had been signed to a minor league contract by the pioneering Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey two years earlier), shattering Major League Baseball’s long-standing color barrier.
In 1955 the Dodgers finally bested the Yankees and won the franchise’s first World Series title behind a lineup led by future Hall of Famers Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, and Duke Snider. Despite the team’s enduring popularity in Brooklyn—they finished first or second in NL attendance in seven of the nine seasons between 1949 and 1957—team owner Walter O’Malley moved the franchise to Los Angeles in 1958 in order to capitalize on the financial windfall that was likely to come from Major League Baseball’s expansion to West Coast markets.
The team went on to win their next World Series the year after their move to Los Angeles in 1959 against the Chicago White Sox, their third Series title came in 1963 against the Yankees again, their fourth Series title was captured in 1965 against the Minnesota Twins. They had over a decade before their next World Series win in 1981 against the Yankees again and their 6th World Series title was won in 1988 against the Oakland Athletics. Their fans stuck with the team through some World Series disappointments and breaking their more than three decade World Series title drought, they won their 7th Series in game six against Tampa Bay Rays on October 27, 2020.
