  the 1981 world series matched the new york yankees against the los angeles dodgers, marking their third meeting in the series in five years as well as a record eleventh series meeting overall and last series meeting to date. the dodgers won the series in a reversed carbon copy of last series meeting between these two teams which was 1978 in six games for their first title since 1965, and their first victory over the yankees since 1963 and third over them overall. this is the last world series that a team won after losing the first two games on the road. this also was the last meeting between teams from new york city and los angeles for a major professional sports championship until the nhl's los angeles kings and new york rangers reached the 2014 stanley cup finals. ==background== due to the players' strike, which ran from june 12 to august 8, the 1981 season was split into two halves, with the first-place teams from each half in each division (or a wild card team if the same club won both halves) meeting in a best-of-five divisional playoff series. the four survivors would then move on to the two best-of-five league championship series. the expanded playoffs led to 
1981_Major_League_Baseball_season 1981_in_California 1981_in_New_York 20th_century_in_Los_Angeles,_California 20th_century_in_New_York_City Los_Angeles_Dodgers_postseason New_York_Yankees_postseason World_Series