A Subway Series in Major League Baseball (MLB) is one played between teams based in New York City, currently the New York Yankees and New York Mets, and historically the Yankees versus the New York Giants or Brooklyn Dodgers. The venues for games have been accessible via the New York City Subway, hence the name of the series.
The term historically refers to World Series games played between the city's teams. The Yankees have appeared in all Subway Series games as they have been the only American League (AL) team based in the city. The National League (NL) representative in those series has seven times been the Dodgers, six times the Giants, and the Mets once, in 2000. Since 1997, the term has also been applied to interleague play during the regular season between the Yankees and Mets.
19th century Subway Series
Although organized games between all-stars from New York teams against all-stars from Brooklyn teams date back to the 1850s, the first actual New York–Brooklyn "World Championship Series" occurred in 1889, a full nine years before Brooklyn was incorporated into the City of New York by the Greater New York Act of 1898. At the time, the series would not have been called a "Subway Series", since New York's subway did not open until 1904, but it was the first recorded series involving the teams who would later earn the phrase.
The New York Giants squared off against (and defeated) the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, also called the "Trolley Dodgers", of the American Association. The following season, Brooklyn withdrew from the Association and joined the League, setting the stage for many future intra-city competitions.
Early and mid-20th century Subway Series By the 1920s, the subway had become an important form of public transport in the city and provided a convenient form of travel between the three city ballparks: the Polo Grounds, in upper Manhattan; Yankee Stadium, in the Bronx; and Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. The 155th Street elevated and subway stations, the 161st Street station, and the Prospect Park station respectively, served the ballparks. (New York's subway and elevated systems—the IRT, BRT/BMT, and IND—were in competition with each other until 1940.)
In the case of the World Series contests listed, the entire Series could be attended by using the subway. The date of the first usage of the term "Subway Series" is uncertain. The term "Nickel Series" (a nickel was the old subway fare) appeared in newspapers by 1927, and "Subway Series" appeared by 1928. "Subway Series" was clearly already a familiar concept by 1934, as discussed in this article about that year's All-Star Game to be held in New York, discussing the "subway series" possibility for the Giants and Yankees. (Ultimately, no New York team made it to the 1934 post-season.)
Yankees–Giants
The 1921 and 1922 match-ups were played in a single ballpark, as both the Giants and Yankees then played at the Polo Grounds. The Giants won both of these World Series against the Yankees, the first two Subway Series played. Despite cordial relations just a few years before when the Yankees allowed the Giants to share their home at Hilltop Park for a year in 1911 and the Giants more than returning the favor in kind by sharing Polo Grounds with the Yankees since 1913, the Yankees were issued an eviction notice in mid-1920, ending their lease after the 1922 season. The Yankees opened their new ballpark in 1923. Fortunes changed immediately for the Yankees as they defeated the Giants this time in the third straight year of World Series competition between the two teams. Their new home would host the Yankees' first of 11 Subway World Series victories that year and first of an unprecedented 37 World Series until the stadium closed in 2008.
The venues for the 1923, 1936, 1937, and 1951 World Series—the Polo Grounds and the old Yankee Stadium—were a short walk apart across the Macombs Dam Bridge over the Harlem River.
Yankees–Dodgers
The term was used again in 1941 when the Dodgers made their first World Series appearance since . Multiple Hall of Famers took part in these contests between the "Bronx Bombers" and "Dem Bums from Brooklyn" and the games involved numerous achievements including Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier as the first African-American baseball player in the World Series and Don Larsen's performance in pitching the only perfect game in post-season history. The seven matchups between the Yankees and the Dodgers between 1941 and 1956 cemented the term as being mostly associated with the New York vs. Brooklyn contests, during the time when New York City was retroactively dubbed by historians as "The Capital of Baseball". Despite Brooklyn's repeated success at winning the National League pennant, it was only able to win one World Series (1955) against the Yankees, the only time the Dodgers won a championship when in Brooklyn.
World Series matchups All-New York match-ups in World Series play:
YearWinning teamManagerGamesLosing teamManager Ref.New York Giants 53New York Yankees New York Giants 40(1)New York Yankees New York Yankees 42New York Giants New York Yankees 42New York Giants New York Yankees 41New York Giants New York Yankees 41 Brooklyn Dodgers New York Yankees 43Brooklyn Dodgers New York Yankees 41Brooklyn Dodgers New York Yankees 42New York Giants New York Yankees 43Brooklyn Dodgers New York Yankees 42Brooklyn Dodgers Brooklyn Dodgers 43New York Yankees New York Yankees 43Brooklyn Dodgers New York Yankees 41New York Mets
Exhibition series In addition to the five World Series played between the Yankees and Giants before 1940, the two teams also played exhibition series against each other from time to time. The match-ups were known as the "City Series" and were sometimes played in October while other teams played in the World Series. However, after 1940, this became difficult because the Yankees would routinely appear in the World Series. In the 17 years from 1941 to 1957 (after which the Giants and Dodgers left New York City for California), the Yankees appeared in the World Series 12 times, failing to reach the Series only in 1944, 1945, 1946, 1948, and 1954.
The first and only game that featured the Dodgers, Giants, and Yankees was the 1944 Tri-Cornered Baseball Game. The game was a World War II fundraiser, which saw the three teams play in a round-robin format in which each team batted and fielded during six innings and rested for the other three.
Before New York's two National League teams left the city, the Yankees and Giants (from 19461950, 1955) and Yankees and Dodgers (19511954, 1957) played an annual midseason exhibition game called the Mayor's Trophy Game to benefit sandlot baseball in New York City. The proceeds raised by the Yankees were given to leagues in Manhattan and the Bronx, while proceeds raised by the Dodgers went to leagues on Long Island and Staten Island. The annual charity event was discontinued following the 1957 season, when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and the Giants moved to San Francisco, leaving the Yankees as the only major league team in the city.
The game was revived in 1963, after the National League returned to New York with the expansion New York Mets in 1962. These games were played primarily to benefit sandlot baseball in the city, with proceeds going to the city's Amateur Baseball Federation. After dwindling interest and public bickering between the owners of both teams, the Mayor's Trophy Game was discontinued following the 1983 season. It was revived again as a pre-Opening Day series titled the "Mayor's Challenge" and held in 1989. Mayor's Trophy Game (Giants vs. Yankees) Season Date Location Visiting team Runs Home team Attendance Series CumulativerecordJuly 1Polo GroundsYankees30Giants27,486Yankees 100Yankees 10August 5Yankee StadiumGiants23Yankees25,067Yankees 20June 12Polo GroundsYankees70Giants39,970Yankees 101Yankees 30August 18Yankee StadiumGiants41Yankees22,184Yankees 31August 16Polo GroundsYankees42 Giants17,091Yankees 201Yankees 41June 27Yankee StadiumGiants35Yankees37,547Yankees 301Yankees 51June 26Polo GroundsYankees94Giants12,864Yankees 401Yankees 61June 27Yankee StadiumGiants14Yankees19,193Yankees 501Yankees 71Mayor's Trophy Game (Dodgers vs. Yankees) Season Date Location Visiting team Runs Home team AttendanceRecordJune 25Yankee StadiumDodgers34 Yankees71,289Yankees 10July 21Yankee StadiumDodgers35Yankees48,263Yankees 20June 29Yankee StadiumDodgers90Yankees56,136Yankees 21June 14Yankee StadiumDodgers21Yankees28,084Tied 22May 23Ebbets FieldYankees107Dodgers30,000Yankees 32Mayor's Trophy Game (Mets vs. Yankees) Season Date Location Visiting team Runs Home team AttendanceRecordJune 20Yankee StadiumMets62Yankees50,742Mets 100August 24Shea StadiumYankees64Mets55,396Tied 110May 3Yankee StadiumMets21 Yankees22,881Mets 210June 27Shea StadiumYankees52Mets56,367Tied 220July 12Yankee StadiumMets40Yankees31,852Mets 320May 27Shea StadiumYankees34Mets35,198Mets 420September 29Shea StadiumYankees67Mets32,720Mets 520August 17Yankee StadiumMets49Yankees43,987Mets 530September 8Shea StadiumYankees21Mets48,872Mets 540August 24Yankee StadiumMets12Yankees52,308Tied 550May 10Shea StadiumYankees48Mets—Mets 650May 30Shea StadiumYankees94Mets35,894Tied 660May 15Shea StadiumYankees94Mets—Yankees 760June 14Yankee StadiumMets48Yankees36,361Yankees 860June 23Shea StadiumYankees46Mets15,510Yankees 870April 27Yankee StadiumMets34 Yankees9,792Yankees 970April 16Shea StadiumYankees11 Mets13,719Yankees 971May 27Yankee StadiumMets41Yankees41,614Yankees 981April 21Shea StadiumYankees41Mets20,471Yankees 1081
Modern usage
In modern usage, the term "Subway Series" generally refers to a series played between the two current New York baseball teams, the New York Yankees and the New York Mets. Their stadiums remain directly accessible by subway: Yankee Stadium via the 161st Street–Yankee Stadium station, and Citi Field via the Mets–Willets Point station.
With the departure of the Dodgers and Giants in the 1950s, New York was left without a crosstown rivalry. Even with the Mets joining MLB they were placed in the National League opposite of the Yankees. When interleague play was introduced in 1997 the teams finally got to play one another in a competitive fashion. The rivalry has included heated moments such as the Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza feud. Currently the Yankees lead the "Subway Series" with the Mets 84–65 all time, as of June 26, 2024.
Mets–Yankees The Mets and Yankees first met in a regular season game on June 16, 1997, with the introduction of interleague play. The Mets won the game 6–0. The Yankees took the next two games to win the series, all three being played at Yankee Stadium. 1999 marked the first year of this rendition of the Subway Series to be two three-game series, three hosted by the Mets and three hosted by the Yankees. The Mets won the series for the first time in 2004, four games to two. The Yankees lead the series all time with 11 series wins to the Mets 3 series wins with there being 10 ties. The Yankees lead in head-to-head wins 75-52, counting postseason.
The first two series in the rivalry were only one three-game series hosted by one team, alternating each year. From 1999 to 2012 the series was changed to two three-game series, with each team hosting three games. This format changed in 2013 to two series of two games hosted by each team, except in years that the AL East and NL east play each year when it goes back to a three-game series.