Games between the Dodgers and Giants are never just another day at the ballpark. Dating back to the late nineteenth century--when the teams embodied the competitive spirit of rival metropolises of New York and Brooklyn--the Giants-Dodgers rivalry gained intensity throughout the early twentieth century. The cheering and jeering continued unabated until 1957, when the clubs backed the moving vans up to the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field, and took their rivalry to new venues in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Only six games into the first West Coast season, the clubs had their first beanball...