With the Mets walk off walk win last night, once again they move into first place while the Atlanta Braves drop one half games behind. The Braves lost to the Nationals who have now won 4 in a row. Joel Sherman made a comment in his New York Post blog the other day that went something like this. “If the Mets were to win 100 games this year and no one noticed, would it make a sound?”
It appears that the Mets and Braves barring major injuries are off to one hell of a race for the Eastern Division title this season. And the way things are shaping up in the other divisions it’s a good bet that both clubs will be vying for the division title and the wild card. Perhaps the Mets and Braves may even meet in the NLCS this year. But much of what is going on in
Apparently the bigger story this season is how bad the Yankees are vs. how good are the Mets. And perhaps it’s warranted considering that since 1996 through last year the Yankees have won 10 division titles. The Mets won once last season. During this stretch the Yankees made 6 trips to the World Series winning four of them. The Mets have been in one World Series during this period which they lost to the Yankees. So let me get this out of the way so I am not accused of being a disgruntled Mets fan. I freely admit that over the past decade the Yankees have been a superior team to the Mets. How could anyone who seriously follows baseball disagree with that? The record speaks for itself. The Mets made the playoffs three times during the Yankee reign, 1999, 2000, and last season. For most of those other seasons the Mets weren’t really close.
But that does not mean it has to be this way for ever. Clearly things are changing on the
It’s understandable that the media is devoting so much time to the Bombers. It’s rather shocking to see a team with such a huge payroll floundering so poorly. After all, this is a franchise whose mission statement, as misguided as it might be, says that if you don’t win the World Series the season is a colossal failure.
Regardless of how much money the Yankees spend, eventually they have to have a bad year. Remember the early 90’s Mets? They spent money like a drunken sailor and won nothing. The Yankees on the other hand built a team in the early and mid 90’s through home grown talent, keen trades, and role fitting free agents. It’s much the same model as the Mets are currently following. It’s only lately that the Yankees feel they can solve all their woes by throwing more money at the problem. Otherwise how do you explain giving 4.5 million per month to a 45 year old pitcher? Sure it’s Roger Clemons, but it’s not the Roger of 10 years ago.
As a Mets fan it really doesn’t matter to me what happens to the Yankees. As far as I’m concerned the Yankees could lose 100 in a row then go into a slump. What irks me is the attitude from some of the media people in this town, specifically Mike Francesa. Mike cannot separate his love of the Yankees from his job, which is to be an objective sports journalist. While he admits the Yankees do not look good right now, he speaks as if everything will simply turn around, it must. I can’t say that won’t happen, the Yankees have turned bad starts around in recent years. But one of these years, it won’t turn around. Why can’t that point be made? Why is the entire baseball world turned upside down because the Yankees might not make the playoffs? Mike says that the Red Sox have to go into a prolonged slump at some point, all teams do. That’s not true; the Mets didn’t have a long slump last season. Why can’t
Francesa made the point yesterday that no matter what the Yankees do this year, the Mets will not take the town back (to being a Mets town). He stated this based on what the Yankees have done over the past decade. I don’t necessarily disagree but who judges that? If the masses in
It all comes down to entitlement and now denial. Yankee fans feel that their team must always be the best. Now that they see their team struggling, the Yankee fan goes into denial. They say when all is said and done the Yankees will make the playoffs. Even I admit I’ll believe it when I see it, the Yankees not making the playoffs that is. But as a baseball fan first you have to see that the Yankees are not what they use to be. Where would they be if it wasn’t for A-Rod’s torrid month of April? He single handedly kept the Yanks afloat. The Yankees bullpen is a mess and even Rivera is showing some age. Their pitching is old and brittle and they have no bench. And given all that just remember, Clemons salary pushed the Yankees team salary over 200 million dollars.
It’s okay if the Yankees have a bad year. It’s not the end of the world. But to a lot of Yankee fans it is and it’s made doubly worse by the fact that the Mets are so good. Depending on what happens this week with the Yankees in
