NLCS Notes; History Repeats

Last night was the 12th time in a best of 7 series involving the Dodgers that a team came home for game three, trailing two games to none. All 12 times the team trailing the series won game three at home.

Last night was the eighth time the Dodgers, either while playing in Brooklyn or Los Angeles won the game. Four times, their opponent won in such a situation.

Six of the previous 11 teams won the series, eight of the 11 at least squared the series with a game four win.

Only the 1916 Brooklyn Dodgers vs Babe Ruth and the Red Sox, the 1988 Oakland A’s, and 2008 Dodgers (vs the eventual world champion Philadelphia Phillies) lost in five games.

No team had ever come back from a (2-0) deficit in the World Series until 1955 and then it happened two years in a row.

First, the Brooklyn Dodgers came back to win all three at home and eventually game 7 behind John Podres, to finally beat the New York Yankees and win their only Brooklyn title.

However, the next year, the Yankees came home down (2-0) but won all three at Yankee Stadium–the final home game being Don Larsen’s perfect game. The Yankees took the title in 7 games as Yogi Berra hit 2 home runs while Bill “Moose” Skowron hit a grand slam homer, the only such blow in game seven of a World Series.

The Yankees again came back from an (0-2) deficit vs the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1978. They returned home down (0-2) in the World Series and won all three at home. The Yankees  clinched the title with a game six win in LA. They were the first team to lose the first four games of a World Series and win the next four.

However, and please check with George Santayana, who some say “GHOSTwrites” this stuff, “history repeated” and the Dodgers reversed the situation three years later. L.A. won all three at home and clinched the ’81 title at Yankee Stadium in game six.

The other two times among the previous 11, that a team trailing (0-2) and coming home in a best of 7 series involving the Dodgers, won the entity,  occurred 20 years apart in the 1965 World Series and 1985 NLCS.

In the former, LA won all three at home with Claude Osteen, Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax getting the wins. It was the great Koufax, pitching on two days rest, who won game seven in Minnesota vs the Twins. Sandy hurled a three hit shutout that day.

In 1985, the Cardinals did to the Dodgers what the Dodgers hope to reverse, these 28 years later, in 2013. As stated here before, 2013 has the same calendar as 1985.

28 years ago, the Cardinals returned home and won all three games, the last ending on the first ever left handed hitting, home run by legendary Cards’ shortstop, Ozzie Smith. Also as stated here before, “St. Loo” won the series in six with Jack Clark’s, top of the ninth inning three run homer, the deciding blow.

That Clark home run was exactly 28 years ago tomorrow and again the Cardinals will play a day, NLCS game at Dodger Stadium on a Wednesday October 16th. If the Cards win tonight in game 4, they will again have a chance to eliminate the Dodgers in the NLCS at Dodger Stadium on a Wednesday afternoon, October 16th.

For the record, the Dodgers in both 1947 and 1953 returned home to Brooklyn and won both games 3 and 4 vs the Yankees in the World Series. Each time they lost both game 5 at home and the series.

In 1947 the series went seven games games while it ended in six games in 1953. Alfred Emanuel Martin, better known as Billy Martin, capped a great individual series by driving home the title clinching run in 1953.

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