Mets or Yankees...do you even care?
acombs commented the other day and left me with some baseball questions concerning the Mets and the Yankees. Because I'm such a nice guy who likes to give everyone a chance to submit their two cents, I asked my upstairs neighbor, buddy and lifelong Mets fan (bless his heart), Bryan, to answer acombs's questions:
acombs writes: "Can you answer a couple of new york baseball questions? Since the mets and the yanks are doing so well, is there an obvious rivalry around town? When they are playing teams from other cities would a mets fan root for a yankee win if the yankees were playing say the cubs? Mind you I don't know a ton about baseball and leagues and stuff...for all I know it's not possible for the cubs to play the yankees. I tend to just root for teams that my husband likes, or avid followers that I know. So, you have made me a yankee fan and listening to Regis talk of notre dame and the yankees makes me want them to do well. I guess I'm easily swayed."
Bryan - my Mets lovin', upstairs neighbor - replies: "As a Mets fan, it is definitely not okay to root for the Yankees, no matter who the opponent. I don't care if they are playing a team from Mars - rooting for the Yankees is treason. An offense so horrid that one should be punished by being forced to watch countless hours of the The View (with Starr Jones) or (YIKES!) For News. (My apologies to any Fox News viewers out there.)
The difference between Mets fans and Yankees fans is as different as night and day. Mets fans are a bit more "working-class." We generally reside or grew up in Brooklyn, Queens or Long Island. We've tasted World Series victory just twice in our 44 year history, but those were some of the most memorable World Series on record. The Mets are 2nd-class citizens here in New York, constantly fighting for back-page space with our cross-town rivals. Mets fans fight for respect and thankfully, are finally getting it (We're in first place!) Which brings me to the Yankees, who are not in 1st place might I add.
Yankees fans are generally from North and West of New York City (i.e. the Bronx, Westchester, New Jersey). Rooting for the Yankees is easy. They are the team with all of the money (their payroll is over $200MM, the next closest payroll is around $110MM) and all of the history (26 World Series titles). They are "America's Team" with celebrity fans, fans from all over the country and the world (many of them just recently became fans in the last 10 years might I add as the Yankees have enjoyed great success. Mets fans call these people "bandwagon fans"). They are however, as the owner of the Red Sox called them, the "evil empire." They are all about winning, which although I agree with, requires the sacrifice of "fun." You rarely see Yankees players smiling. There is no music allowed in the clubhouse (locker room) and facial hair (even long hair) is forbidden. It's all business with the Yankees.
So, I ask you novice baseball fans out there, who would you rather support- the rich and overpaid, serious squad with years of history or that feisty bunch of upstarts that plays with heart and passion? Would you rather see the rich get richer or would you rather see that other team from New York bring home a championship for the first time in 20 years? In other words do you support good or evil? To sum up...LET'S GO METS!"
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acombs writes: "Can you answer a couple of new york baseball questions? Since the mets and the yanks are doing so well, is there an obvious rivalry around town? When they are playing teams from other cities would a mets fan root for a yankee win if the yankees were playing say the cubs? Mind you I don't know a ton about baseball and leagues and stuff...for all I know it's not possible for the cubs to play the yankees. I tend to just root for teams that my husband likes, or avid followers that I know. So, you have made me a yankee fan and listening to Regis talk of notre dame and the yankees makes me want them to do well. I guess I'm easily swayed."
Bryan - my Mets lovin', upstairs neighbor - replies: "As a Mets fan, it is definitely not okay to root for the Yankees, no matter who the opponent. I don't care if they are playing a team from Mars - rooting for the Yankees is treason. An offense so horrid that one should be punished by being forced to watch countless hours of the The View (with Starr Jones) or (YIKES!) For News. (My apologies to any Fox News viewers out there.)
The difference between Mets fans and Yankees fans is as different as night and day. Mets fans are a bit more "working-class." We generally reside or grew up in Brooklyn, Queens or Long Island. We've tasted World Series victory just twice in our 44 year history, but those were some of the most memorable World Series on record. The Mets are 2nd-class citizens here in New York, constantly fighting for back-page space with our cross-town rivals. Mets fans fight for respect and thankfully, are finally getting it (We're in first place!) Which brings me to the Yankees, who are not in 1st place might I add.
Yankees fans are generally from North and West of New York City (i.e. the Bronx, Westchester, New Jersey). Rooting for the Yankees is easy. They are the team with all of the money (their payroll is over $200MM, the next closest payroll is around $110MM) and all of the history (26 World Series titles). They are "America's Team" with celebrity fans, fans from all over the country and the world (many of them just recently became fans in the last 10 years might I add as the Yankees have enjoyed great success. Mets fans call these people "bandwagon fans"). They are however, as the owner of the Red Sox called them, the "evil empire." They are all about winning, which although I agree with, requires the sacrifice of "fun." You rarely see Yankees players smiling. There is no music allowed in the clubhouse (locker room) and facial hair (even long hair) is forbidden. It's all business with the Yankees.
So, I ask you novice baseball fans out there, who would you rather support- the rich and overpaid, serious squad with years of history or that feisty bunch of upstarts that plays with heart and passion? Would you rather see the rich get richer or would you rather see that other team from New York bring home a championship for the first time in 20 years? In other words do you support good or evil? To sum up...LET'S GO METS!"
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posted by jch at
11:57 AM
5 Comments:
So I let Bryan have top billing with the questions acombs submitted. But I can't not comment on what Bryan has to say.
First of all, acombs, Yankees fans are not near as concerned about the other city team (they aren't even worth calling "rivals") as Mets fans are about the Yankees. Whereas my friend, Bryan, knows everything about the Mets and Yankees, I know everything about the Yankees and nothing about the Mets. That's the general feel here in the city. It boils down to one word: envy.
And frankly, I'm tired of saying that the Yankees are no fun. Go to batting practice before the game and watch Jeter and A-Rod play around as if they were on their first Little League team. When one of them hits a walk-off homer as Posada did when I attended a month or so ago, watch how these high-paid players jump up and down as if their mom just gave them a bowl of ice cream before dinner. They absolutely love this game and it's written all over their faces! If anything, there is an incredible amount of stress put on these guys to perform near perfection night in and night out. But they're still having fun. Go witness it for yourself.
Finally, until the MLB changes the rules about team salaries, I'll continue to want the owner of the Yankees to do his/her best to put the best squad on the field as possible. (Don't let Bryan fool you about the Mets being a bunch of upstarts either. They are in the top five re team salaries.)
To answer your question "do you even care?"...
No, I don't.
I'm a 30 year old Yankees Fan. I grew up in Northern New Jersey and now live NW of the city in Orange County, New York. As far as Bryan's musings on each team's demographics, that much is true. However...
I became a Yankees fan when my grandfather took me to my first game in the Bronx. I was seven years old. He bought me a Yankee hat in the stadium that day and I still treasure that hat - though have since retired it with a new Yankee hat. My grandfather is now 91 years old and never misses a televised baseball game. He also has never been anywhere close to being white-collar or business class. I also know a high-level executive at a Fortune 500 company who has season tickets to the Mets. So this debunks the Mets Fans = Working Class and Yankees Fans = Upper Class theory.
As for salaries? The reason that the Yankees organization spends so much money on their team is because the Yankees owner, Mr. George Steinbrenner, is actually a baseball fan and not just a business man - unlike SO MANY other team owners who could care less about the game and it's lush history and just want a moneymaker. Hate him or love him, Steinbrenner is a baseball fan who loves the game and his team so much that he pours as much money as he can to make the best team that he can. What self-respecting fan of the game can blame him?
Did I cheer the Mets in '86 when they won the World Series? Sure... but they beat the Red Sox at the same time (Thanks Bill Buckner!).
Evil Empire. The name always makes me chuckle. I would agree with Joe and chalk this up to Envy.
To sum it up (and my apologies for making this so long), any true fan of baseball should be a Yankees fan... even if they root for another team.
Addendum:
My grandfather will not choose allegiance to the Yankees or Mets (unlike me). He claims they are both hometown teams and he roots for the hometown. Mind you, this is from a man who lived in New York when there were FOUR hometown teams. The Dodgers and Giants have since migrated to the left coast. This attitude led me to the realization that baseball is so much more about the history and prestige of the game, not of any one team. The Yankees, for me, embody this history and prestige. To my memory, have always played the game with respect… for the game. What more can you want out of a team?
Folks,
Let's not forget that the rules regarding salaries have changed in recent years. With his luxury tax payments, Mr. Steinbrenner pays through the nose to help keep other teams afloat, such as the Marlins and the Nationals/Expos. Mr. Steinbrenner's beef is that those proceeds from the luxury taxes are not spent by the recipients in order to boost their own payrolls.
The Mets' payroll is a high one, indeed, and the ones signing huge contracts over the years are often big disappointments. Remember Bobby "I'll show 'em the Bronx" Bonilla? Or Rickey "Oh, He's Just Being Rickey" Henderson? And how many rings does Mike Piazza have?
I have no problem rooting for two teams in different leagues, as I've done with the Dodgers and Angels. It's just that when I have to decide whether to see a game at Yankee Stadium vs. Shea Stadium, I'll take Monument Park over LaGuardia Airport any day.
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