On April 15, 1969, the expansion San Diego Padres played the Los Angeles Dodgers for the first time. Claude Osteen pitched a three-hit shutout, Andy Kosco hit a grand slam off Johnny Podres, and the Dodgers won 14-0. They won the next night as well, 9-1 -- another complete game, another Kosco home run. The Dodgers won the first four times they played and nine of the first 11.
The Padres have never led the all-time series, which the Dodgers currently lead 485 to 404. The last time the Padres won the season series was in 2010. Since joining the National League, the Padres have made the playoffs six times. The Dodgers are going for their ninth straight division title.
So is this a rivalry, given the lopsided history?
As Steve Garvey, who played for both clubs, recently told Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times, "When I was with the Dodgers, we'd go down there and for us it was almost like a three-day vacation." A friend of mine recently texted me that Padres fans believe Dodgers fans still view San Diego like that little beach town to the south.
Yet, rivalries always feel more like a moment in time than a history lesson. Yes, decades of competitive playoff races or heated feuds add to the intensity, especially among the fans, but as the Padres and Dodgers battle for the second time in 2021, it seems clear this has a chance to be the best rivalry in baseball. Of course, the Padres need to start winning and turn this into a race; it won't be much fun if the Dodgers are leading the division by a dozen games at the end of May.
While we rarely see the all-out brawls like we did 20 and 30 years ago, a little bad blood goes a long way in a rivalry. We saw some of that last weekend in the first series when Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw and Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar had a heated exchange over a catcher's interference call, when Profar swung late and hit the back of Austin Barnes' glove. Teammates rushed out on the field to separate the two. "I'm not saying it was intentional, but that was not a big league swing there," Kershaw said later.
The elements are thus lining up for a strong rivalry:
1. Two good, maybe great, teams
2. Some bad blood
3. The fan bases don't like each other
4. A less successful franchise trying to topple a more successful one
Really, it's just the history element that's missing, and even that ignores the chip that the Padres' fans and organization carries toward their deep-pocketed friends up north.
If Padres-Dodgers is the new No. 1 rivalry, what are the other best in baseball right now? Let's rank the other top five for 2021 (sorry, fans of Dodgers-Giants and Cubs-Cardinals, but we're talking about right now, and right now those just don't bring the heat they once did):
2. Cubs-Brewers
If you're picking a game most likely to feature an old-school brouhaha with real punches, it has to be a Cubs-Brewers game. This stems from Brewers pitchers who keep hitting Cubs catcher Willson Contreras with pitches -- three times already in 2021, four times in 2020. Contreras has faced Brandon Woodruff 15 times in his career, and Woodruff has hit him four times. Contreras got his revenge on April 13 when his two-run home run off Brent Suter in the eighth inning gave the Cubs a 3-2 victory. Earlier in the game, Cubs reliever Ryan Tepera threw a pitch behind Woodruff, drawing a suspension as a result.
"It feels good to shut them up," Contreras said after the game, apparently referring to Brewers fans. "When they boo me, I don't really care. But don't get sensitive when I do something like that. Tonight, we sent a message. I think they picked the wrong guy to throw at. That was a message sent."
Cubs fans (and players) will argue that Brewers pitchers' inability to pitch safely up and in is putting Cubs players in harm's way. Brewers fans will rightly point out that Contreras crowds the plate and dives in, and that everybody hits him -- he led the league with 14 HBPs. They'll point out that while Brewers pitchers have hit Cubs batters six times in six games so far, Cubs pitchers have hit Brewers batters six times as well.
Anyway, on top of these ongoing issues, the two clubs have been fighting it out for division titles going on five seasons now. The Cubs won in 2017, beating out the Brewers by six games (Chicago led by 3.5 games with 10 to go when the Cubs went into Milwaukee and won three of four). The Brewers bested the Cubs in a tiebreaker game in 2018. In 2019, the Brewers finished second to the Cardinals and won a wild-card spot, while the Cubs missed the postseason. The Cubs were back on top in 2020.
The two cities are just 90 miles apart, so both ballparks get infiltrated with the other's fans during games, especially in Milwaukee (the Brewers have tried to limit the number of Cubs fans going to games by limiting presales to Wisconsin residents only). The Cubs, of course, are regarded as one of the sport's crown jewel franchises, while Milwaukee is MLB's second-smallest media market. The Brewers are at Wrigley Field this weekend, so watch out for some potential fireworks -- especially if Contreras gets hit again.
3. Red Sox-Yankees
Is it as heated as the early 2000s, when the two teams engaged in two epic ALCS battles, with various fights, brawls and other incidents along the way? No, but there is still something special when these two franchises meet up, especially in October, like in the 2018 division series. No rivalry can match the history of this one. Even when the Yankees were always winning, the Red Sox were still competitive, reaching the World Series in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986, with famous playoff races in 1949 and 1978, before finally winning in 2004 and three other times since. The fan bases still dislike each other with a fevered intensity, and as recently as 2018 the two teams engaged in actual fisticuffs.
What has mostly been missing over the past decade is the lack of division dogfights between the two teams:
2020: Rays ran away with the division.
2019: Red Sox finished 19 games behind the Yankees.
2018: Both won 100 games, but Red Sox finished eight games ahead.
2017: The last tight race, as Boston won the division by two games (but led the division every day in September).
2016: Red Sox won, Yankees missed the playoffs, nine games back.
2015: Red Sox finished last.
2014: Red Sox finished last, both teams missed the playoffs.
2013: Red Sox won division, Yankees 12 games back.
2012: Red Sox finished last, 26 games behind.
2011: Yankees won division, Red Sox seven back.
In other words: We're due for a Red Sox-Yankees pennant race, perhaps with a little Rays and Blue Jays competition thrown in for good measure.
4. A's-Astros
This can be viewed as "Astros versus the world," but the A's are a good proxy here for the animosity still felt toward the Astros in wake of their cheating scandal. First off, these teams have played a lot of great baseball since 2018. The Astros won 103 games that season, but the A's fought them hard all season and made the playoffs with 97 wins. Both teams made the playoffs again in 2019. The A's finally won the division in 2020, but the Astros knocked them out in the playoffs.
The two teams had a pretty good tussle last season when Astros reliever Humberto Castellanos hit A's outfielder Ramon Laureano. After eventually taking first base after a lot of pointing at the Houston pitcher, Laureano sprinted to the Houston dugout and went after Astros coach Alex Cintron. "I regret charging him because he's a loser," Laureano said.
The teams began the season in Oakland, and A's fans certainly gave it to the Astros -- only to see Houston sweep the four-game series. The standings have flipped since then, however, with the A's riding an 11-game winning streak and the Astros now in last place. Amid signs that the mini Houston dynasty might be crumbling, the A's -- and their fans -- would love nothing more than to grind the Astros down even further.
5. Mets-Phillies
Hey, you know it's a serious rivalry when it gets its own Wikipedia page. For much of its history, there wasn't much to it. Both teams were mostly bad in the 1960s, until the Mets broke through in 1969. When the Phillies were good in the 1970s and early '80s, the Mets were bad. When the Mets got good, the Phillies were bad. The rivalry intensified starting in the mid-2000s with some good division races between the two clubs and players exchanging verbal shots -- Cole Hamels once called the Mets "choke artists," in reference to the September collapse in 2007.
It's the fans who take this one to the next level, though. To put it bluntly, New Yorkers hate Philadelphians and vice versa, and, no matter the sport, they aren't shy about letting their opponents know it. Heck, neither fan base is shy about booing their own players (Phillies fans booed the team in the first inning of spring training this year when it allowed six runs). Back in 2017, when he was still with the Nationals, Bryce Harper said Mets fans were the rudest in the league.
In 2019, the teams had a couple of incidents. In an April game, with the Mets leading 9-0 in the ninth inning, Mets reliever Jacob Rhame nearly hit Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins with two pitches -- one behind his back and the next near his head. The Phillies were not happy. The next night, Hoskins homered off Rhame ... and took 34 seconds to round the bases. Later in the season, Phillies starter Jake Arrieta hit the Mets' Todd Frazier, who took exception. After the game, Arrieta said, "Frazier's not happy about it, he can come see me. I'll put a dent in his skull."
Now, only Hoskins is still around from those four players, but that doesn't mean a little bad blood isn't lingering below the surface. Then you include a tight division race, boisterous fans and media in both cities to stoke any strife, and Mets-Phillies becomes must-watch TV.
One to watch: Reds-Cardinals
There are certainly several rivalries worth considering for best-in-the-game status -- Twins-White Sox, Rays-Yankees, Dodgers-Giants, Cubs-Cardinals -- but Reds-Cardinals has a chance to be interesting in 2021 based on the Nick Castellanos-Yadier Molina incident from earlier this season. The Reds and Cardinals used to get into all the time back when Tony La Russa and Dusty Baker were managing, although it feels a little more subdued in recent years (mostly because the Reds haven't been good).
That seems par for the course for these NL Central rivalries. The Cubs and Pirates was a thing a few years ago but aren't so much anymore. The Reds and Pirates had a series of incidents in 2019, finally culminating when Amir Garret ran from the pitcher's mound, threw a big haymaker and took on the entire Pirates team. It got ugly enough that Reds manager David Bell wanted a piece of Pirates manager Clint Hurdle.
The point: You never know when a heated rivalry will pop. Maybe cooler heads will prevail and nothing more will come off the Castellanos incident. But history suggests it might linger. And guess what? The Reds play in St. Louis this weekend.