There’s nothing routine about the Giants’ upcoming homestand. It’s a quick one — three games against the Yankees beginning Friday night, then three against the Dodgers — but it speaks to tradition, better times and historic moments dating back more than 100 years.

Perhaps nobody will be singing “Willie, Mickey and the Duke,” from “Talkin’ Baseball,” that catchy little number honoring the days when three great center fielders — Mays, Mantle and Snider — shared the spotlight within the confines of New York. But it’s fair to let your imagination come into play.

New Yorkers can only reminisce over the luxury of three major-league teams, each known to be a powerhouse, playing within short distances of each other. For long stretches at a time, it was common to see at least one of them in the World Series, and quite often two. But how about the three teams playing each other on the same day?

Strange as it sounds, that actually happened.

It was wartime New York, June 26, 1944. About three weeks prior, Allied forces landed at Normandy for the D-Day invasion. Fundraising efforts spread far and wide, and a group known as War Bond Sports Committee came up with a novel idea: The Yankees, Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers would gather at the Polo Grounds for an exhibition. Fans were asked to buy War Bonds tickets, ranging from $25 to $1,000 each, and it was a smashing success, the entire project raising some $5.5 million for the cause.

How did it work? The Yankees and Dodgers took the field for the first inning, with the Giants sitting it out. Then it was Giants-Dodgers, with the Yanks on the sidelines, and so on. A great many major leaguers were stationed overseas, but for those attuned to baseball history, the box score illuminates with the likes of Paul Waner, Dixie Walker, Joe Medwick, Eddie Stanky, Mickey Owen, Augie Galan and the managers: Mel Ott (Giants), Leo Durocher (Dodgers) and Joe McCarthy (Yankees).

Each team batted three times against the other, prompting the New York Times’ Arthur Daley to jokingly suggest that “traffic policemen be installed at strategic points in order to avoid snarls of various descriptions.”

Switch now to modern times: June 8, 2002, Yankee Stadium. This was Game 2 of the first-ever regular-season series between the Giants and Yankees. (It was the sixth year of interleague play.) The place was packed to watch Barry Bonds, who had slugged his record-breaking 73 home runs in 2001. “People who had been around Yankee Stadium forever” came out to watch batting practice, Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow said. (This and subsequent quotes are from SI.com’s oral history of the event.) “They were shaking their head at what Bonds was doing.”

That was just a prelude. Yankees starter Ted Lilly had told teammates he was going to challenge Bonds, and he did, on a 1-and-1 fastball with two men on in the first inning. High above the right-field fence, there was a section of the upper deck, hugging the foul pole, and it was rare to see anyone hit a baseball up there. (Many claimed they’d never seen it.) Bonds, well-known for keeping his prodigious dead-pull shots in fair territory, did just that.

Giants’ homestand Friday: Yankees, 7:15 p.m. Channel: 11 Saturday: Yankees, 1:05 p.m. Sunday: Yankees, 1:05 p.m. Monday: Dodgers, 6:45 p.m. Tuesday: Dodgers, 6:45 p.m. Wednesday: Dodgers, 6:45 p.m. All games except Friday’s on NBCSBA.

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“This one is headed for New Jersey!” Jon Miller shouted on the radio broadcast. The shot was inexplicably estimated at 385 feet, to which Giants manager Dusty Baker replied, “No way. Jersey’s farther than 385.”

It was a soaring, towering drive, yet it reached that distant location in a frightful hurry. “It almost looked like it was still going up when it landed up there,” said Miller, in the SI.com piece. “The first thing that came to my mind was New Jersey. I thought, well, it’s really more like Long Island. Headed into the Hamptons would’ve been more apropos.”

The Yankees won two of the three games in that series. Three more series have been played since (2007, 2013 and 2016), each rather nondescript, and the Yankees own a 7-5 edge over the 12 games played. What Bonds accomplished was a feat from some other time — and in that regard, the two teams have quite a history.

Trace it back to 1903 (and if you remember that, please step forward.) When the original Baltimore Orioles moved to New York and became the Highlanders, sharing the city with the Giants and Dodgers. They were first called the Yankees in 1913, when the Giants generously allowed them to share the Polo Grounds. That arrangement was still in place during the 1921 and ’22 World Series, played entirely in one stadium as the Giants, overcoming the presence of a fast-rising Yankees outfielder named Babe Ruth, won both.

By 1923, the Yankees had moved across the Harlem River, just a quarter-mile away, into the new Yankee Stadium. Once again, they met in the World Series, and this time, Ruth hit three homers over the course of a six-game triumph. That was the first of 27 world championships for the franchise, and when the teams met again in the 1936 and ’37 Series, the Yankees won both with a storied cast featuring Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Frank Crosetti, Bill Dickey, Lefty Gomez and Tony Lazzeri.

The last all-New York meeting between the Giants and Yankees took place in 1951, just 24 hours after Bobby Thomson’s epic home run ended a best-of-three playoff series with the Dodgers and announcer Russ Hodges bellowed, “The Giants win the pennant!” Not that the World Series could be anticlimactic, but the Giants were a bit flat — and once again, the Yanks were dominant. Mays was just 20 years old, having been called up from the Minneapolis farm club during the season, and he had a quiet (4-for-22) Series. But it’s remarkable to consider the historical significance of a scene from Game 2.

DiMaggio, 36 and about to retire, was in center field for the Yankees. Mickey Mantle, a 19-year-old rookie, was in right — and at the time, he was believed to be even faster afoot than Mays. Yankees manager Casey Stengel had told Mantle to run down anything that came near him, but when Mays lofted a flyball to right-center in the fifth inning, DiMaggio called him off. Bracing himself to stop, Mantle caught his right foot on the wooden cover of a Yankee Stadium drainage outlet. He was forced out of the Series with a knee injury, the start of multiple surgeries that would plague him for the rest of his career.

You really don’t want to hear about 1962, the last World Series between these two teams, because Willie McCovey’s fateful line drive — straight into the glove of second baseman Bobby Richardson, ending Game 7 at Candlestick Park with two men on — is bitterly etched into the memory of every seasoned Giants fan.

Think back, though, as you consider today’s Giants struggling to find any semblance of power. That afternoon in Game 7, San Francisco’s 3-4-5 hitters were Mays, McCovey and Orlando Cepeda, who would combine for 1,560 career homers. With the Yanks and starter Ralph Terry clinging to a 1-0 lead, Mays was on second base with a two-out double to right, sending Matty Alou to third (where he stopped, honoring the formidable arm of Roger Maris). Cepeda was looming on deck, the main reason the Yanks decided to pitch to McCovey.

It’s doubtful any man could have hit the ball harder. Oh, the regret. And 48 years would pass before the Giants finally got that first title in San Francisco.

The Dodgers will hit town Monday with a power-packed lineup. The Yanks will be limping into town. They had 13 players on the injured list at one point this week, and for those fond of that “Bronx Bombers” reputation, it will be a shame to realize that Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton won’t be in uniform. It still sounds like a pretty nice six days, though. It sounds like vintage ball.

Bruce Jenkins is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: bjenkins@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Bruce_Jenkins1