New book details baseball’s greatest rivalry: Dodgers-Giants

Enjoy the Dodgers-Giants rivalry? Think you’re well versed on its history?

When the Dodgers end their final trip of the season Thursday in San Francisco, they’ll dust themselves off, head back to Los Angeles for their last three games of the regular season and then move into the playoffs. The Giants can go polish their 2012 World Series trophy.

But if you really want to talk some smack on those followers of Halloween colors, then it’s best to come equipped with full knowledge. And now comes a great aid in that department from Joe Konte’s new book:

“The Rivalry Heard ’Round The World; The Dodgers-Giants feud from coast to coast.”

Good sign that Konte had the proper sense to list the Dodgers first.

Now full disclosure, pick up this book and you will find two forwards, written by a writer from each city, giving something of a regional perspective to the rivalry. And it’s just possible if you read the absolutely hilarious forward from the Dodgers perspective, you might recognize the writer.

Konte’s book is almost an encyclopedia on the rivalry. Though it begins in New York to trace the origins of the enmity, most of the book focuses on its development once the teams moved West.

The Giants in 1958 opened against the Dodgers in tiny Seal Stadium and won 8-0, the San Francisco Chronicle’s headline the next day proclaiming, “WE MURDER THE BUMS.” Guess “dem” bums just wasn’t grammatically proper enough for them. The next day the Dodgers won, 13-1, and in journalistic fairness the Chronicle headline read: “BUMS MURDER US.”

It goes on from there, through all the brawls and big victories (some he claims the Giants won) all through the years. He ends it with a rivalry notebook, in one part of which he attempts to name a dream team for each franchise, based not on greatness but their impact on the rivalry. Alas, there was no writers’ selections.