When the 2009 Major League Baseball playoffs begin next week, one particular market will be especially getting ready.
Los Angeles has not one, but two major league teams in this year’s playoffs.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, 40 miles south of downtown LA, have clinched the American League West. The Angels, who won the World Series in 2002, will take on the wild-card Boston Red Sox in the best-of-five first round.
In downtown LA, at a place called Chavez Ravine, the Los Angeles Dodgers have been in first place in the National League West all season.
They have already clinched a playoff spot, but still need to clinch the West title with a two-game lead over the Colorado Rockies, who most likely will be the wild-card team.
West Coast fans would love to see an all Los Angeles World Series, or Freeway series.
The two teams have never met in the Fall Classic. The possibility has Hollywood types and network executives swooning.
Other Cities Have had Two Teams in World Series
In recent times, only the city of New York has had an all city World Series, in 2000 with the Yankees and the Mets.
In 1989, there was an all San Francisco Bay World Series with the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A’s.
Back in the 1950’s and before, New York had plenty off all city World Series, between the Yankees, the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers.
There was all St. Louis World Series in 1944 between the Cardinals and Browns, and an all Chicago World Series between the White Sox and Cubs in the early 1900s.
But the Dodgers and Angels have only met in preseason and inter-league play, which began in 1997.
Los Angeles Has had Two Teams Since 1961
The rivalry between the Dodgers and Angels is not as intense as the New York and Chicago situations.
The Dodgers, which moved from Brooklyn in 1958, have won six World Series titles since moving out West, the first being in 1959 and the last one in 1988.
The Angels were formed as an expansion team in 1961 to give the American League a West Coast presence.
They played in Dodger stadium for the first five years of their existence before owner, cowboy actor Gene Autry, moved the team to a new stadium in Anaheim near Disneyland in 1966
They were renamed the California Angels.
The Angels did not win an American League West title until 1979 and also lost in several ALCS appearance in the 1980s.
They were renamed the Anaheim Angels around 2000 when their stadium was remodeled with modern amenities, and won their first World Series in 2002 in a seven-game tilt with the San Francisco Giants.
Soon after, the team was renamed the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. That brought ridicule from Dodger fans.
Its clear that Dodger fans have no respect for the Angels, but that would change with a Freeway World Series.
