By Jay Kitchen

Staff Writer

What would have been just an Interstate 5 drive away has become a road to nowhere for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels. Yet again two prominent local Major League Baseball teams have fallen short of a World Series.

Instead, the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies will decide who the best team in the league is. It is a welcome back for the Yankees and a boom for the Nielsen ratings and the FOX network, who will be broadcasting the series which began Wednesday night.

While the battles between the Yanks and the Angels, and the Dodgers and the Phillies, baseball teams separated and by thousands of miles and located on opposite coasts. The just concluded National and American League playoff series did not reach the heights of an east coast/west coast feud disappointing fans. The west coast teams failed again to reach the big show. How many west of the Mississippi will watch now? Plenty, probably, but LA vs. NY would have been a TV bonanza.

The Dodgers have not been to the World Series since 1988. The Angels went on to win their only title in 2003. Since then, the Angels have been more successful overall. But yet another east coast team, the Boston Red Sox, have knocked them out on more than one occasion.

For the Dodgers, they got Manny Ramirez for his bat and to put more people in the stadium seats. The plan worked last year as the Dodgers made the National League’s final round, only to see Mannywood and the Blue Crew fall to Philly again. In both the 2008 and 2009 National League finals, Manny had little impact.

Mike Sciocia’s Angels have been more consistent the past decade. They finally got over the Boston hump this year, but key players such as Vladimir Guerrero also did not produce big time. Yankee owner George Steinbrenner opened up his pocketbook as the Yanks played their first season in the brand new Yankee Stadium, rivaling the opening of the new stadium of the Dallas Cowboys, which proves everything in Texas is big, with the facility seating nearly 100,000.

Bringing players such as C.C. Sebastian only boosted a lineup that includes Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriquez. The bright stars of the Yankees may have been too bright for the Angels.

This year was the closest it has ever been for the “Interstate 5” series to take place, with both cities and the teams’ stadiums being located too far from the longest highway in California.

But indeed there has been a “neighborly” World Series in the past on the east coast. More than one actually, but you have to go way back into Dodger history.

First named the Trolley Dodgers due to active traffic in Brooklyn, the Dodgers were quite close to the Yankees and their Bronx stadium decades ago, with both boroughs inside NYC.

Throughout the ’50s the two teams would battle for the World Series five times, with the Dodgers finally winning one in 1955. It was a short drive for fans and quite a battle of the hearts of baseball fans.

But Dodger owner Walter O’Malley moved the team west to LA. With no stadium their first year out west, the Dodgers played at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The Yanks and Dodgers would play memorable World Series in the ’70s, and the Dodgers finally overcame New York again in 1981, behind Fernando Valenzuela and his fan mania. LA picked up one more World Series in 1988, but since then the trophy cabinet has been empty. New York came back in the mid-90s and has had more World Series success since then. They are the favorite to win it this year.

Former Dodger player Sciocia has had a steady hand over the Angels for roughly a decade, but the Angels seem to come up short come playoff time, including this year. He has won a World Series since he has been at the helm.

There was hope the World Series would finally be an exclusive California party this year, but LA was thoroughly outplayed by Philadelphia, and it seems that New York is destined to win it this year, making TV executives and rapper Jay Z happy.

There are two other California teams in the mix in baseball that may bring some hope some day. The San Diego Padres have made the big show once, and were quickly disposed of. The San Francisco Giants, once the New York Giants, have also had little success in even making the World Series. And do not forget the Oakland A’s, who have been a moderate team the past years.

For the present time, hopes of a California home-field advantage lies with the Dodgers and Angels’ future play. It would be history making. Just think, we would not have to worry about all that rain and snow back east. Just the traffic.