Yankees Ready To Rumble With Joe Torre & Dodgers

For the last two plus years we have waited for this match-up.

When schedules came out each of the last two Novembers we looked around, hoping to see the L.A. Dodgers making a trip to the Bronx to play the Yankees, if for no other reason than to see Joe Torre return to his old stomping grounds.

Well, the reunion will finally take place, some 3,000 miles away from 161st Street in the Bronx, in L.A.

Joe Torre will finally coach against the New York Yankees.

A lot has been made about Torre's rude departure from the Yankees following a crushing playoff series lose to the Indians in 2007, which was followed by Hal and Hank Stienbrenner refusing to give him the proper extension.

So Torre went off to L.A. From the moment when he donned a Dodgers cap, it looked strange, and the Yankee brass looked foolish in 2008, when Torre led the Dodgers, with arch-rival Manny Ramirez at his side to the NLCS, while the Bronx Bombers missed the playoffs.

Last season, the pain of losing Torre was all forgotten, when the Yankees won the World Series in dominating style over the Phillies. Torre's Dodgers? They lost to the Phillies in the NLCS, the series prior for the second straight year.

Now they finally collide. There will be plenty of emotion from Torre, and his ex-players, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and even current manager Joe Girardi who all played for Torre during their dominant years in the late 1990's. Then of course there is A-Rod, who's lack of admiration for Torre was never lost between them.

Right now the Yankees are in first place in the AL East, while the Dodgers have struggled to fend off San Diego and San Francisco in the western division of the NL.

Dodgers/Yankees has always had a great history, dating back to the days when the Dodgers played in Brooklyn, and fought with the Yankees for World Series titles in the 1950's, then again in the late 1970's, when the Dodgers were Hollywood's team.

Chalk this up as another great chapter in baseballs lost, and, best rivalry.

• Game one: 10:15 ET on YES Network
• Game two: 7:10 ET on FOX
• Game three: 8:00 ET on ESPN