Los Angeles Dodgers: The biggest enemies of the 1980s
By Jamaal Artis
1. New York Mets
This entry may be more personal to me but my earliest memories of watching baseball was watching the Mets beat the Dodgers constantly. The Mets were everything the Dodgers weren’t brash, arrogant, and more talented. Led by LA. native slugger Darryl Strawberry and fireballing hurler Dwight “Doc” Gooden the Mets were the best team in the East through out most of the eighties.
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Between 1983 to 1989 the Mets were the only team the Dodgers had a losing record against with .386 win percentage. Between 1986 to 1988 when the Mets won two division titles and the 1986 World Series the Dodgers were especially putrid against the Mets going 10-25.
In 1988 the Dodgers and Mets met in the National League Championship Series. The Dodgers we huge underdogs as they had lost to the Mets in 10 of 11 games that year. The Dodgers were led by pitcher Orel Hershiser who had set a record of 59 scoreless innings that year in route to the CY Young award.
The series took the full seven games but the Dodgers prevailed, Mike Scioscia provided the key hit bringing the Dodgers back from a 4-2 deficit in Game 4 in the top of the ninth on a two run home-run to tie the game. The Dodgers would prevail in extra innings thanks to a save by Hershiser. In Game 7 Hershiser pitched a complete game shutout 6-0 clinching the series.
Next: The Dodgers biggest enemies of the 1970s
Overall, the 1980s was a pretty eventful decade for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now, don’t we all just wish we can break that 29-year World Series drought that has alluded us since 1988?