But can it keep going?
When I was a kid, my mom brought me home a small, black and white coffee table book about the greatest rivalries in American sports (though the actual title eschewed the “American” qualifier and just called them the greatest rivalries in all of sports, because back in the 90s we didn’t know about other countries yet). This was something that my mom did a lot: plucked a random book off the shelf at Building #19 assuming I would devour anything with a baseball on the cover. And I did. There was no streaming back then. Cable existed but we didn’t have it. The internet kind of existed, but it was expensive and slow and the only thing you did on it was log into chat rooms and tell strangers that you were slightly older than you actually were, because for some reason that was thrilling. So with limited entertainment options, these little informational books were a major part of my life. I picked them up every few weeks, whenever I was bored and looking for something to do around the house. Soon enough I had damn near every page memorized.
This particular book listed three rivalries from the world of baseball, and you already know exactly which rivalries those were: Red Sox–Yankees, Cubs-Cardinals, and Dodgers-Giants. You already knew this because, sadly, baseball rivalries have almost completely calcified over the last 50 years. If that book had been published in 1972 instead of 1992, it would have listed those same three rivalries. And if someone published the book again today, it still wouldn’t need an update.
There have been a few mini-feuds over the past few decades. Mets–Phillies games were must-see TV from 2006-2008 when they traded NL East crowns. The Twins and Yankees have developed some completely one-sided postseason hatred. The Brewers and Cubs have jockeyed for central time zone supremacy. And the Astros and Dodgers certainly hate each other, thanks to the fallout from the 2017 World Series and the subsequent cheating scandal. But none of these mini-feuds have stuck around long enough, with enough intensity, to turn into genuine rivalries.
And that sucks! Rivalries are amazing! There is no more intense experience as a sports fan than watching a close game with high stakes against a team you genuinely hate, a team whose failures you celebrate with as much juice as you celebrate your own team’s success. Hatred is a bad thing in almost every facet of real life that actually matters. But in sports it’s not just a good thing — it’s a great thing. And that’s why I cannot wait to watch Game Five of the NLDS between the Dodgers and Padres tomorrow night.
Dodgers-Padres represents our best chance at a new, genuine baseball rivalry. Remove the historical element and the parallels to the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry circa 1999-2004 are striking: one sad-sack little brother of a team desperately trying to overtake it’s richer, stronger, more successful big brother three hours down the highway. The games overflow with star power, passion, and controversy. As a neutral, I’m more jazzed up for Friday’s game than I have been for every other game combined.
But the tricky thing is that, for this to turn into a lasting rivalry, it’s going to have to continue beyond the life of this series. Just take a look at the American League, where the Royals and Yankees are currently facing off. Those two teams once went through a stretch of similarly intense competition, meeting each other in the ALCS four times in a five-year span from 1976-1980. (In fact, those battles with the Yankees were so important to the Royals that the club turned down the opportunity to move to the National League in the 1998 realignment because they thought that being an AL team was an important part of their identity.) But no one would suggest that the Royals and Yankees have any kind of rivalry today. Whatever spark that matchup had in the Brett-Munson days has long since burned out.
Will Dodgers-Padres survive long enough to reach coffee table book status? We know that the Dodgers, as the only team in baseball that refuses to bait its fans with the cynical idea of resetting “competitive windows,” will remain postseason contenders for the foreseeable future. But it’s harder to predict the near-term path of the Padres. They have Fernando Tatis signed through the next couple of presidential administrations and a handful of other young talents, like Jackson Merrill and New England National Team ace Michael King. But to stick with the Dodgers they’ll have to commit to remaining competitive in a way that the 28 other teams have been reluctant to do.
But, God, I hope the Padres keep going for it for the next decade. Baseball needs this. I need this. I still get bored around the house, but that book ended up in a Salvation Army bin years ago. Let’s have a taste of the real thing.