How is Yankees - Dodgers a rivalry?

While watching the Yanks-Dodgers Friday night , Michael Kay said something that left me scratching my head (seems like i say that alot with him). Kay mentioned how the Yanks and Dodgers are rivals. I understand with Joe Torre and Don Mattigly both being Yankee royalty once and now wear the Dodgers blue that some may feel this is a rivalry. There are two sides to every story and there are two sides to every rivalry, so lets break it down on why it should and should not be considered a rivalry.







Reasons why it is a rivalry

• 
  The pair of teams have faced off in 66 games in the World Series. The Yankees hold the lead 37-29.






• The rivalry began in Brooklyn before the Mets were around, this was the real subway series.






• In 1955 the Dodgers finally beat the Yankees in seven games. One of the more famous plays from that series is Jackie Robinson stealing home. Yogi Berra to this day claims that Robinson was out.






• The Yanks and Dodgers were two of the best teams during the late 70's. They faced off against each other in the World Series in 1977 and 1978. The Yankees would win both meeting.






• The Dodgers got there revenge on the Yanks in the 1981 World Series winning the series 4-2.






• The final reason and the most recent is Joe Torre agreed to become the Dodgers manager ,signing a three year deal. Once Torre left the Yankees he brought coaches Don Mattingly and Larry Bowa with him.

Reasons why it is not a rivalry

• The Dodgers are no longer in Brooklyn, what was once the original subway series now does not matter since the Mets are the Yankees city rivals.






• They only play each other once every few seasons during interleague play. At one point the teams did not face each other from the 1981 World Series till 2004.






• The last time they played each other in the post season was 1981.






• The younger Yankees and Dodgers fans have not seen them play against each other and have never experienced the rivalry.

With all that being said I feel that this was at one time a great rivalry. But that's if you lived to see them play each other when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn. During that time it was a match up between borough and even during the late 70's many of the fans could still remember the Dodgers,Brooklyn roots. But when the teams don't face each other in the post season in 29 years and have only faced each other in two regular season series since then it can't be called a rivalry anymore.