Above: Dean Martin, Sandy Koufax, Frank Sinatra. No one cool ever hung out with the Giants.
With the Giants coming to town for the last time this season, the Times has a nice article recapping the greatest rivalry in professional sports (it's East Coast bias that rams the entertaining, yet not nearly as historic, important or contentious, Red Sox/Yankees rivalry down our throats). From the article:
Whether it was the dueling bats of Willie and the Duke, the knee-shaking brushback pitches of Sal Maglie and Don Drysdale or the high-kicking style of Sandy Koufax and Juan Marichal, this has been a rivalry played by some of the most skilled performers and colorful characters to ever put on a baseball uniform.
The rivalry continues this weekend, with a three-game series beginning Friday night at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers trying to hold onto their lead in the National League West, the Giants trying to knock them from the perch.
Sometimes they played with a pennant on the line, sometimes not. But that didn't matter. The mere sight of each other stirred the emotions.
Snider said he couldn't even enjoy Halloween because it reminded him of the Giants' colors, black and orange.
"It was a season within a season whenever we played them," said former Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills, now a part-time Dodgers coach. "You didn't need a Knute Rockne speech before a Giants game. If a player couldn't get up for the Giants, he didn't have any fire in him. It was war. It was life or death."
The Wikipedia article on the rivalry has more great facts and information.
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