The Dodgers just finished playing the Yankees and lost 2 of the 3 games. This doesn't bother me much because regular-season meetings seem to mean less and less every year when it comes to the postseason.
But you know the hype machine. Just about every media outlet, after mentioning the Dodgers and Yankees were playing, would follow with "a possible World Series preview" in the next sentence.
Of course it's a POSSIBLE World Series preview. So was the Indians-Braves a few weeks ago. I don't remember anyone mentioning that matchup as a potential World Series preview.
Personally, I don't think anyone is getting past the Astros this year. And if the Yankees somehow manage to beat the Astros, then I don't think I want to follow the rest of the postseason. But all the mentions -- Yankees-Dodgers World Series! Yankees-Dodgers World Series! -- you can't help but think about it a little bit.
The first World Series that I saw most of was the Yankees-Dodgers, in 1977. I saw snippets of the World Series in '75 and '76 but it wasn't until '77 that I knew exactly what I was viewing and how important it was.
That series also marks my first memory of a Sports Illustrated World Series cover. It's the one you see above. It's downright iconic in my view.
I recently received the actual issue of the magazine from Mark Hoyle. Sports Illustrated has always meant a lot to me and has been a big part of my life during childhood and then through early adulthood. I've mentioned I've been a subscriber three separate times.
But that '77 World Series issue eluded me (I was gifted a subscription to SI in 1976 but when the year-long subscription ran out no one renewed it for me), and I've always been interested in what was inside.
This gives you an idea of the perspective at that time in the game. The Dodgers were indeed the good guys and the Yankees the bad guys. It's still that way for me and that's the way it will always be and should be.
The image gets my blood boiling right away. It shows the extra-inning play at the plate in Game 1 in which Steve Garvey was ruled out on a tag by Thurman Munson. The call was blown and little did I know at the time that there should have been instant replay on the first controversial play at the plate that I can recall.
I didn't scan the account of the Series, I want to read it and didn't want to start reading while I was scanning. I did note that it stops short of Reggie's heroics in Game 6 as the issue went to print after Game 5.
Meanwhile, I took note of what else was in the magazine.
The advertisements, of course.
This is a '70s magazine so it's filled with advertisements for cars, televisions and cigarettes. Cigarette advertising was just a fact of life when I was a kid but I didn't realize how pervasive it was in a magazine like SI until I went through this one.
I counted 11 advertisements for smoking and nine specifically for cigarettes. That was even more than the car ads (10).
The rest of the magazine reminds me of why I became bored with SI when I had that subscription as a kid. SI was a bit more "high-brow" back then and a kid didn't stand a chance with Sports Illustrated offering big spreads on rugby, marathon running and horse racing. The one story on pro football is stashed toward the back of the magazine. In October! Can you imagine that happening today?
Mark also sent a Volpe print with the magazine:
This is my second one as I was sent one of Ron Cey a few years ago. These are well-known among Dodgers collectors as artist Nicholas Volpe painted them exclusively for the Dodgers.
I appreciate the trip back in time to my childhood with this mailing.
That doesn't mean I want a Yankees-Dodgers World Series this year. It would cause way too much angst and hardly be an enjoyable experience.
But if it does happen, I can take consolation in one thing:
They'll be wearing their regular uniforms.
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