Familiarity breeds contempt, as that old saying goes, and so it goes that in this year's suite of division series matchups, we have been gifted some of baseball's best rivalries.
For three of the matchups, the feud is seeded in geographic proximity: Dodgers-Padres, Phillies-Mets and Guardians-Tigers are all interdivision rivals. With Yankees-Royals, it's actually the renewal of a feud in hibernation for 40 years: If you watched baseball in the late 1970s, you remember well that it was once the fiercest rivalry in the game.
As the suddenly resuscitated duel between New York and Kansas City shows, this is the way of rivalries: They ebb and flow when a matchup becomes one-sided for too long or both teams are out of the running for a few years or the teams don't cross paths in a competition for a high-stakes reward.
But rarely does the discord between fan bases completely subside, as new rivals arise and old ones come back and tepid ones heat up. We've got four intriguing rivalries playing out right now, and they have different qualities that mark them as bona fide conflicts. Let's run through them, placing them subjectively in order by heat.
1. San Diego Padres vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Why it's heated: Where do you start? These teams really don't like each other, and after decades of twisting in the shadow of the mighty Dodgers, the Padres and their faithful are no longer having any of it.
This is one rivalry that simmered for decades because the Padres seldom were real competition for the Dodgers, whose fans would regularly overtake San Diego's Jack Murphy Stadium and Petco Park. When the Padres did contend, it was usually during a down season for L.A. They didn't finish 1-2 in the National League West in any season until 1996. It has still only happened five times during the 56 seasons in which they've shared a division.
However, three of those five times have come since 2020, and that's why you can see this thing starting to boil over. In all three of those seasons, including this year, the Dodgers and Padres have clashed in the playoffs, with L.A. winning before empty seats in 2020 and the Padres winning in 2022. Over the past decade, there have been numerous incidents of on-field confrontations, shout downs, through-the-media insults, social media trolling and general displays of good old-fashioned dislike.
On top of all of that is the relationship between the cities. For San Diego, this goes beyond baseball, which is all it has left in the sports realm. Forty years ago, San Diego's NBA team, the Clippers, departed for L.A., and the Chargers followed suit in the NFL in 2017. In other words, Los Angeles keeps stealing San Diego's teams.
But what really raises this to the top spot is a player: Manny Machado. There have been a lot of prominent players who have played for both teams, from Steve Garvey and Kevin Brown to Matt Kemp and Adrian Gonzalez. The list even includes Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who produced more as a player in San Diego than he did for L.A. and also managed the Padres as a one-game interim stopgap in 2015.
On the current rosters, there's San Diego's Yu Darvish -- and Machado. Darvish was the Dodgers' splashiest deadline pickup in 2017; a year later, it was Machado. Both seasons ended with World Series losses, and a lot of fingers were pointed at these players. Darvish was the loser of Game 7 against the Houston Astros in 2017 after getting bombed early under circumstances that had him and many others scratching their heads for a long time afterward.
Meanwhile, Machado hit .182 against the Boston Red Sox in the 2018 Fall Classic, managing just four singles, before departing via free agency for the Padres. Ever since, he has not been well received in Chavez Ravine (and arguably wasn't even before he departed). Machado helped set the stage for the current showdown by starting a game-ending triple play at Dodger Stadium a couple of weeks ago in the game that clinched San Diego's playoff slot -- then loudly celebrated with his teammates on the Dodgers' infield.
The ultimate connector between the franchises was late Padres owner Peter Seidler, who is being honored this season with the yellow "PS" patch you see the players wearing on the front of their uniforms, over their hearts. Seidler was of course the grandson of Walter O'Malley, the guy who wrenched the Dodgers out of Brooklyn and installed them in Chavez Ravine.
During a "Sunday Night Baseball" interview a few years ago, Seidler famously told ESPN, "They're the dragon up the freeway that we're trying to slay." That speaks to the shadow that the Dodgers cast over the Padres for more than a half-century. The Padres of recent years and right now are trying to prove that San Diego lives in no one's shadow any longer.
The most heated it has ever been: Well, right now. There have been bubblings before, sporadically. It was a big deal when Garvey, an institution with the Dodgers, bolted for San Diego in 1983. He then hit the biggest homer in Padres history, a ninth-inning Game 4 clout off the Chicago Cubs' Lee Smith in the 1984 NLCS that capped Garvey's five-RBI outburst. One game later, San Diego was in the World Series for the first time. In 1996, under Bruce Bochy, the Padres pulled off a season-ending three-game sweep at Dodger Stadium to overtake L.A. for the NL West title.
But the height of this rivalry is the present. These teams have clashed repeatedly in the playoffs. They have players with genuine gripes against the other side. And both squads are really good.
The biggest beef this postseason: Game 1 was intense from a competitive standpoint, with the Dodgers rallying behind Shohei Ohtani's electric jolt of a three-run homer, but there wasn't a lot of friction on display.
Then we had Game 2, when the rawness of the matchup was on full display. We saw Jack Flaherty exchanging unpleasantries with Machado after striking him out. (It was nice to see Flaherty, a newcomer to the rivalry, get into the spirit of things.) We saw someone in the stands chuck a baseball at Jurickson Profar, who had robbed Mookie Betts of a homer earlier in the game and played it up theatrically. That incident shut down proceedings for several minutes as debris continued to be thrown onto the field. Padres manager Mike Shildt looked for a moment like he wanted a piece of somebody.
On top of it all and through it all, Darvish -- of all people -- dominated L.A. for seven innings. All of this, and it's only Game 2.
2. New York Mets vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Why it's heated: The Mets and Phillies have jockeyed for supremacy in the NL East numerous times over the years. The rivalry between them in this century has been muddied by the ongoing success of the Atlanta Braves, who have so often been the rabbit that the Mets and Phillies are both chasing.
Well, the Braves are out this season, and we're left with our first-ever Mets-Phillies postseason matchup. Historically, the rivalry has been marked by some notable cross relationships, beginning with Richie Ashburn's presence on the 1962 Mets. Tug McGraw was an avatar for the "Ya gotta believe" Mets in 1973 and just as prominent a character seven years later when he helped the Phillies to their first championship in 1980.
There have been some notable dustups, too. The most famous was the Gregg Jefferies-Roger McDowell melee in 1989, perhaps most distinctive because McDowell -- who was the Phillie in this dysfunctional relationship -- was a recent former Met with many close friends in the other dugout. Phillies star Chase Utley famously did not like the Mets. In 2019, Rhys Hoskins, who took exception to being pitched inside the night before, took 34.2 seconds to round the bases after a homer against the Mets in 2019.
All of this is prologue in the Mets-Phillies rivalry. They've finished first and second in the NL East just five times and in the first two of those instances -- 1986 and 2006 -- the races weren't close. This season marks not just the first time the franchises have clashed in the postseason, but just the second time they've made the postseason in the same campaign. The first was just two years ago.
There is plenty of juicy acrimony in the history of this rivalry. But the series right now features the highest-stakes encounters the Mets and Phillies have ever had. This is the chance to take this feud to a higher level.
The most heated it has ever been: This season could easily displace it but for now, it's that 1989 brawl that marks the high point of the conflict. And, as The Athletic's Tyler Kepner reminds us, it was after a (not real) Phillies-Mets game that the "second spitter" legend was born.
For now, the Phillies-Mets conflict slots below the Dodgers-Padres for two reasons. First is the lack of previous playoff encounters, but there is also a more ephemeral element: While the Padres are trying to finally kill the under-the-Dodgers' thumb narrative, there is no similar dynamic between the Mets and Phillies.
The biggest beef this postseason: Zack Wheeler could have a beef with his old team. He debuted with the Mets in 2013 and missed two entire seasons with injury while with the franchise. He left as a free agent after the 2019 season and when that happened, former Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen told reporters, "Our health and performance department, our coaches, all contributed and helped him parlay two good half-seasons over the last five years into $118 million. So I am proud of what our group was able to help him accomplish."
Van Wagenen was responding to some comments Wheeler made that noted the Mets didn't exactly bend over backwards trying to keep him. Before the current series, Wheeler said, "It's fun playing against those guys always. But at the same time, I've been over here for a while now and there's no hard feelings, everything has kind of changed over there, personnel-wise."
Wheeler may not have a grudge against the Mets, but he sure pitched like it in Game 1, holding New York to one hit over seven scoreless innings only to see his bullpen falter behind him.
However, the Phillies bounced right back in a classic Game 2 that featured back-and-forth haymakers, chirping between Brandon Nimmo and J.T. Realmuto and a storybook ninth inning. This brand-new postseason rivalry is heating up in a hurry.
3. Kansas City Royals vs. New York Yankees
Why it's heated: The dynamic in this long-dormant rivalry is completely one-sided, though the Royals would very much like to change that over the next few days. In other words, Kansas City would very much like those in the Bronx to see the Royals as a major thorn in their side.
During the Royals' decades-long slump, Kauffman Stadium would be host to a larger-than-is-healthy influx of Yankee fans every time New York came to visit. For a time, there was a similar dynamic when the St. Louis Cardinals played in Kansas City, but with St. Louis, at least you acknowledged the proximity factor. With the Yankees, what was most galling was that many of those hats belonged not to New Yorkers -- but local baseball fans who had lost faith in the local nine.
Now is the time for the Royals to exact revenge on the turncoats, even if that old dynamic became much less prevalent when Kansas City had its run of success the last decade.
The most heated it has ever been: It's clearly the 1976-80 period when the Royals and Yankees squared off four times in the ALCS. During that time, it was arguably the fiercest rivalry in professional sports. It's also the kind of rivalry that is all but impossible in baseball now.
There was the Chris Chambliss pennant-winning homer in 1976 that amped up the discord. There was the George Brett-Graig Nettles brawl a year later. (The most amazing aspect of this from our contemporary perspective: No one was ejected.) There was Hal McRae turning Willie Randolph into a pinwheel on a slide at second base. There was Freddie Patek grounding into a series-ending double play in 1977, ending the season of the best team in Royals history, a moment followed by shots of Patek alone in the dugout, crying.
And then there was the great catharsis: Brett taking Goose Gossage into the upper deck at Yankee Stadium in 1980, propelling the Royals to the 1980 World Series. If we can get to even half the temperature of the Royals-Yankees rivalry as it was then, we will be in for a show.
The biggest beef this postseason: "We didn't come this far to come this far." Those are words that Bobby Witt Jr. has used again and again, and the mantra has been picked up by his teammates. If the Royals do the unthinkable and carry this season's miracle turn around all the way to perhaps the most shocking championship run in baseball history, it will rank up there with "Ya gotta believe" on the team motto leaderboard.
Witt has become an afterthought in the American League MVP conversation -- the Yankees' Aaron Judge has a hammerlock on the honor and deserves it. The thing is, this was true -- per media rhetoric and the betting markets alike -- way sooner than it should have been. Well into the second half of August, Witt could have flipped that race. Even as things stand now, Witt will have an argument for the best-ever non-MVP season. He's not exactly ignored, but if Witt wants to put that chip on his shoulder as motivation for a vintage Brett-like October, that would be a very good thing for Royals fans.
It comes down to this: There is a David vs.Goliath aspect to the current matchup that wasn't nearly as prevalent in that old version of the rivalry. In sports, that is always fun.
4. Detroit Tigers vs. Cleveland Guardians
Why it's heated: This is one of the flagship rivalries of the American League. Detroit and Cleveland have competed for the same junior circuit flags for 120 of the last 124 years, with a four-year break before Detroit was moved to the AL Central in 1998. (During the first four seasons after the split from two divisions to three in each league, they were in different divisions.)
There is a natural and heated rivalry in all sports between Michigan and Ohio teams, most famously between the University of Michigan and Ohio State University college football teams. The rivalries between the states in professional sports have always played off that, but they've never approached the same stature.
That's despite the length of the history and the remarkable closeness of their history: Entering the AL Division Series, the Tigers led the all-time series 1,159-1,155 with 12 ties. But surprisingly, this is these teams' first-ever playoff meeting.
According to ESPN Research, the only rivalries with more history preceding an initial playoff encounter (the count doesn't include tiebreakers) were the Giants-Dodgers, Cubs-Pirates and Cardinals-Cubs. The only other time the Tigers and Cleveland made the postseason in the same season was 2013, but Cleveland fell in the wild-card game, preventing an October showdown.
Obviously, most of the fuel for the Guardians-Tigers rivalry is of the historical bent, but there is one juicy aspect that might or might not be in play -- depending on your acceptance of mysticism. "The Curse of Rocky Colavito," identified by Cleveland sportswriter and author Terry Pluto, is an accounting of all the bad things that have happened in Cleveland baseball since trade-happy Frank Lane dealt AL homer champ Colavito to the Tigers in 1960 for AL batting champ Harvey Kuenn.
Another curse? Well, you can't prove it's not real. And really, if there's a curse involved, it's a rivalry.
The most heated it has ever been: Maybe something will break loose in the next few years, beginning with the current series. Both teams are young, talented and well positioned for sustained success. But to call it heated would be to project something that isn't there.
There are a lot of historical connectors between the franchises, beginning with Colavito. Travis Fryman, Victor Martinez, Ray Boone, Jhonny Peralta and George Uhle are among those to make multi-season contributions for both teams. None of them exactly sparked a rivalry.
But we'll say the max-heat moment in time was 1908, when the Cleveland Naps made a spirited late run at the Ty Cobb-era Tigers that included a perfect game by Hall of Famer Addie Joss. Cleveland (90-64) ended up finishing a half-game behind the Tigers (90-63), and the rules at the time did not require teams to make up a rainout -- meaning Detroit won by that razor's edge. You have that "Half-Game Pennant" label, and you have the mano a mano rivalry between Cobb and the much-loved Nap Lajoie. And it was the dead ball era, when the game was a wee bit more scrappy.
The biggest beef this postseason: The weather? For now, there's no inciting event (maybe one of the teams could trade for Jesse Winker). Anyway, referring to the 4 p.m. Eastern start time on Monday for Game 2, A.J. Hinch said, "They told me at the beginning of this series there were no weather problems in Cleveland. I'll believe it when I see it at the end of this game tomorrow."
Take that, Cleveland! It's on!