Crazy Dodgers-Giants history stat shows Padres need to shut up about 'rivalry'

The bitter rivalry between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants goes back decades. If you want to go beyond the time when both franchises landed in California, you can all the way back to the late-19th century when both teams were based in New York City.

Both ball clubs left the Empire State during the late-1950s, much to the disappointment of the fans in New York. But while the rivalry itself had a new destination, the two teams still maintained their feud after arriving in California.

While some recency bias has dubbed San Diego Padres as the Dodgers' biggest rival, nothing could be further from the truth. While Dodgers fans don't like to admit it, at least the Giants have eight World Championships to their name. What do the Padres have? Some uniforms that looked like they just left their job at the UPS Store and 57 years of existence without a World Series? Come on, the Giants are the Dodgers biggest rivals.

Crazy Dodgers-Giants history stat shows San Fran is LA's the true rival

If you need further convincing, Sarah Langs revealed an astounding statistic that reveals exactly why the Giants are the Dodgers undisputed rivals. As Langs points out, after LA's win on Saturday night, the Dodgers now lead the Giants head-to-head all-time in the regular season, 1,288 wins to 1,287 wins.

The sheer volume of games played between these two organizations should be enough to convince anyone that few rivalries in sports — much less baseball — come close to the Dodgers and Giants. But Langs took it one step further.

Heading into Sunday's series finale, this is the first time in the history of the rivalry that the Dodgers lead the Giants all-time head-to-head since Aug. 8, 1896. The head-to-head record at the time was a meager 49-48.

So the next time some foolish fan with an SD on their cap wants to debate who the Dodgers biggest rival truly is, you can show them that stat. Or you can point to the fact that more fans show up to Petco Park to post sunset pictures to their Instagram account than actually watch the game. Either way, you'll be correct.

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