We probably can agree that none of the six intramural rivalries we have in New York City in 2015 can come close to the boiling, broiling resentments that festered from 1903 through 1957, when the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants shared the city and divided loyalties so fiercely fans were occasionally moved to violence and players to fury.
No exaggerations there, either. On the evening of July 12, 1938, a Giants fan named Frank Krug strolled into a tavern at the corner of Ninth Street and Seventh Avenue in Brooklyn called Pat Diamond’s Bar & Grill. There he encountered a Dodgers fan named Robert Joyce.
The Dodgers had beaten the Giants that day, 13-5, and soon the men engaged in a little Depression-era trash talk. It escalated. Joyce left the bar, agitated. He returned carrying two guns with him. With one, he shot the bartender in the stomach. With the other, he shot Krug in the head. When cops corralled him not long after, he screamed, by way of explanation: “Posedel is a damn fine pitcher!”
Bill Posedel had been the winning pitcher for the Dodgers that day.
By the mid-’50s, Sal Maglie had become a living, breathing symbol of New York’s intricate baseball loyalties. He played for all three New York teams — and whichever two he wasn’t playing for loathed him. Of course, as a teammate, you loved him. As an opponent, you grew weary of his propensity to shave your chin with his heater (his nickname was “The Barber,” after all).
In 1955, the Dodgers acquired Maglie from the Indians. Someone mentioned this to Carl Furillo, who’d gone round after round with Maglie when Maglie had been a Giant, and Furillo responded by smashing his bat against a locker. Magically, however, a day later, with Maglie wearing the proper uniform, Furillo softened, extended a hand.
“Hey, paisan,” he said.
There may be no more Maglies in New York, and most would agree that none of the rivalries of 2015 are necessarily worth dying for. Still, in a week when half of them will be renewed (Rangers-Islanders on Wednesday night, Knicks-Nets on Friday, Giants-Jets on Sunday) it’s a good time to see which may approach the old-school baseball skirmishes of yesteryear.
And we rank them the only way that seems right: on a scale of 1 to 5 Maglies.
1. Rangers vs. Islanders: 5 Maglies
All-time record: Rangers, 117-111-19-6
Playoff record: Islanders, 20-19
Playoff series: Islanders, 5-3
It may be hard for hockey fans under 40 to believe this, but there was a time when this was not only one of the great rivalries of New York, but in all of sports. John Davidson never had to buy a drink in town after the Rangers dumped the Islanders out of the ’79 playoffs, and Denis Potvin STILL hears it from the Garden faithful for an ancient hit he put on Ulf Nilsson; Potvin has been retired for 27 years. TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS.
Islanders fans had their share of fun, starting with J.P. Parise’s OT goal 11 seconds into overtime that eliminated the Rangers in 1975, capped by Ken Morrow’s OT goal that knocked them out of the playoffs nine years later. And fans who are old enough … well, they still feel the same way they did in those glorious years. Even if the Coliseum is a rockpile right now.
2. Yankees vs. Mets: 4 ½ Maglies
All-time record: Yankees, 60-44
Playoff record: Yankees, 4-1
Playoff series: Yankees, 1-0
If most of the games between these two have been the product of interleague play — something a lot of people still derisively think of as a gimmick — they are also the only two New York teams who have ever competed directly for a championship. And if that 2000 World Series was one-sided in games, there was still plenty of emotions stirred, mostly by the barrel of a bat that Roger Clemens shot-putted toward Mike Piazza.
Baseball tried to add to the buzz last year by scheduling three of the games in September, but even those games couldn’t summon what, for New York anyway, was as enjoyable an October as had ever been in the 44 years connecting 2000 with 1956, the last time a Subway Series had visited the boroughs.
3. Rangers vs. Devils: 4 Maglies
All-time record: Rangers, 89-78-21-8
Playoff record: Rangers, 18-16
Playoff series: Rangers, 4-2
There isn’t the history here that Rangers-Islanders has. But there are still moments that loiter in the memory (Sean Avery tormenting Martin Brodeur; Scott Stevens torturing just about every Rangers in skates for the better part of a decade) and, of course, there will always be that forever 1994 Eastern Conference Finals that catapulted the Rangers to a Cup and the Devils to a mini-dynasty.
4. Giants vs. Jets: 3 Maglies
All-time record: Giants, 8-4
Playoff record: 0-0
Playoff games: 0-0
Thankfully, the last time these teams played they gave us the Victor Cruz game, which ignited the Giants on a Super Bowl run and caused an extended Jets free fall, so we can now point to that as the most meaningful of the dozen games the teams have played.
Before that, the only legitimate candidate was a game that didn’t even count — the 1969 exhibition at Yale Bowl, played on Woodstock Weekend, when the Super Bowl champion Jets annihilated the wandering-in-the-wilderness Giants 37-14 and hastened the end of the Allie Sherman era. This Sunday’s game promises much, although it’s more certain the loser will be in big trouble than the winner might achieve great glory.
5. Knicks vs. Nets: 2 Maglies
All-time record: Knicks, 90-89
Playoff record: Tied, 5-5
Playoff series: Knicks, 2-1
Chances are, you had no idea that this series was as close as it is, that the Knicks hold a one-game lead after 189 games, that the Nets can even things up Friday night. And that tells you all you need to know about how little buzz this rivalry has ever generated, despite the city’s basketball pedigree and the fact that in the early-’90s there was genuine enmity between these clubs (remember John Starks breaking Kenny Anderson’s wrist?).
6. Islanders vs. Devils: 1 Maglie
All-time record: Islanders, 98-65-14-8
Playoff record: Devils, 4-2
Playoff series: Devils, 1-0
Perhaps if the 1988 Jim Schoenfeld-Don Koharski “HAVE ANOTHER DOUGHNUT!” encounter had happened just one round earlier — when the Devils stunned the Isles in their only playoff encounter — this could have a little bit of traction as a rivalry. But it didn’t. So it doesn’t. The boxscores always say New York-New Jersey but this could easily be Wyoming-Idaho for as much passion as it generates.