You’ll never forget this season. You never forget any season. But this season will stay with you. The anguish, the disappointment, and the humiliation are inside of you now and it will be a very long time before they are digested, or excreted. Contrary to what Mets management may tell you, in jest, a season like this does not build character. What it builds isn’t noble or special. But it is what you are.
The season began as beloved Shea was ground to dust and rubble. In its place, they built something that could not see us, and had no arms to embrace us. We felt the disappointment of a child whose parents have replaced a dear pet with a fancy toy, and have convinced themselves that the kid is happier now than ever before.
The Mets were impotent in the new stadium. It looked smaller, but miraculously, the walls were further away. Muscles separated from bones, tendons snapped, scars grew. The Mets were replaced by scrubs who were then replaced by others. At the end of the season, there were strangers on the strange field, and there was no one in the stands.
And then, long after you stopped caring, the Phillies won the National League pennant. And the Yankees, plodding, bland, and inevitable, won the World Series in six games. All of the worst things that could happen had happened. With all the imagination, poetry, and class of Donald Trump, the Yankee colossus claimed the prize it knew it deserved, and New York was promised the biggest ticker-tape parade in history.
This is why you’re a Mets fan. You are not celebrating. They say New York is celebrating, but you know it isn’t. You are a New Yorker because you are not what they say you are and you don’t do what they say you’re doing.
It’s not as if you choose misery. And it is not as if you have chosen anything that is particularly worthy. We are no better. But we are different. We’ve chosen a fate that looks like fate, and not an outrageous distortion of it. And some November, late and cold, we will know a happiness they will never know.
Dana:
Well, you and I have had enough point-counterpoint on this topic that I recognize that’s it’s futile to try and convince you to reorient your viewpoint on this. (Don’t get me wrong though – you present your perspective eloquently, and its great fun arguing the point. (At least it is for me — beats the hell out of editing a draft of “Plaintiffs’ Third Set of Document Requests and Requests for Admission” for the 9th time this week).
I must, however, note my surprise at your characterizing this years Yankee team as “plodding, bland, and inevitable.” This year’s team was objectively excellent, but far from a juggernaut. It struggled a good deal at the outset, endured long injury from A-Rod, had huge question marks in the starting rotation and the bullpen (and those question marks remained right through the conclusion of the World Series, evinced by 3 Yankee pitchers having to start on three days rest). It often won many of its games in the late innings by small run differentials.
In addition, although I don’t care for either of the teams that made the 2009 World Series, it was one of the best WS I’ve watched as a fan of the game in years. The fact that it went 6 games is alone proof of that. One prime example – though I am not much of a Johnny Damon fan, when he stole second and third, that was one that will remain a great moment. On the flip side, so was Cliff Lee’s first start for the Phillies. To the extent baseball is entertainment, I got my money’s worth. Do you disagree? Did you find it a lackluster WS as far as the games themselves were concerned.
You write “It’s not as if you choose misery. And its not as if you have chosen anything that is particularly worthy. We are no better. But we are differnt. We’ve chosen a fate that looks like fate, and not an outrageous distorion of it.”
That’s interesting – - a few Buddhist precepts (which I neither adhere to nor really understand) would suggest alternative obseravtions. First Noble Truth – Life is dukha (dissatisfaction). What causes dissatisfaction? Second Noble Truth – it is caused by attachment – attachment to desires. Attachment to dualism (here. believing that a Yankees loss is a Mets game – with karmic law often ironically generating more Yankees wins, and more terrible contracts being extended by the Mets to the likes of Ollie P.) The way out? The Third Noble Truth – Losing the attachment to desire (or at least being indifferent to whether the Phillies or Spankees take home a trophy).
And how does one lose such attachment? The Fourth Noble Truth says one follows “The Eightfold Path” –
(1) Right view (grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldy objects (or Mets outfielders);
(2) Right intention (commitment to ethical and mental self improvement (which would start for me by ceasing to falsely claim that Jeter sleeps with farm animals just cuz I’m still pissed about Game 4 of the 2000 WS when Jeter hit B Jones’ first pitch right out of the park)
(3) Right speech (summed up as “no longer suggesting that Wright and Reyes are every bit the equivalent of Jeter and A-Rod, even though I still am mad at Jeter for Game 4 of the 2000 WS when Jeter hit B Jones first pitch right out of the park…..)
(4) Right Action (deeds that involve bodily action – aka – tip my cap to Mike Francessa rather than flip him the bird and tell him that Mickey Mantle couldn’t hold Willie Mays’ jock strap)
(5) Right living (earn one’s living in a righteous way – in Mets terms this means not launching a website called “FireJerryManuel.com” or selling “Yankee Hater” caps on Roosevelt Blvd.
(6) Right effort (maintaining an even keel. (However, the Buddha might have carved out exceptions for this one if he ever watched Scott Schoenweiss stink up the park)
(7) Right consciousness (see things as they are with clear consciousness. From a NY baseball perspective, that means accepting the facts that the Yankees were a far more interesting team (objectively) this year from the Mets, and recognizing that the Mets have to make some serious decisions in order not to return to the depressing state of irrelvancy they occupied in , inter alia, the Art Howe era. In other words – good for the Yankees – enjoy the parade – wait until next year.
(8) Right Concentration (directing all mental faculties in a unified directed manner at one object. Which here means directing them at the Mets’ successes, not the losses of another team in town that has little relevance to the Mets fortunes or failures.
Naturally, I flunk this test with rollerskates, and I take the Fifth on whether I laughed uncontrollably as Joba (who was hyped too early) watched Utley smack it out of the park. But other than Buddha and possibly Cal Ripken Jr, no one actually succeeds in walking the Eight Fold Path. If they did, the Mets never would have signed Mo Vaughn.)
JD
JD – you’re somethin’ else. Well, first of all, my piece, as you obviously understand, is a poem and not an argument. Of course the Yankees were a more interesting team this year than the Mets (who wasn’t?) and they played some excellent baseball once they got their bearings. My characterization of the Yankees as “plodding, bland, and inevitable” was a reference to the Yankee juggernaut, the whole idea of this one team that has won 27 championships while all other teams have to settle for at most three or four in a lifetime, that has maintained this hegemony for a century by taking advantage of the natural profitability of a team in the nation’s largest and wealthiest city, a city that I love deeply and only feel bad about when it throws its wealth and size around to take more than it should from others, a team that has a strong, winning season in 2008 and then invests half a billion dollars to make itself better in its belief that winning a championship is something it deserves, and deserves to have a better chance of than any other team. Fundamentally, JD, there is something about the Yankees, and about a sport that allows the Yankees to be the Yankees that makes me sick to my stomach. And to this day, when I listen to their announcers, when I look at their history of winning so much more than their share because they can get away with it, I do not understand how anyone can actually enjoy being a Yankees fan. The Mets make me sick, too. But I am stuck with them. My attachment is not rational. And I do and I don’t want them to be more like the Yankees.
I don’t think Buddhism is going to lead us into the essence of baseball, because so much of the essence of Buddhism is learning to be detached, from the things of this world, and from our desires. Baseball is not about detachment. It is about attachment. It is about becoming attached to and invested in things that don’t even really deserve our attention, although they claim it. Baseball is the anti-Buddhism.
I’m glad you noted, Dana, that a season like this does not build, or in any way contribute in a positive way to, character. I think the seasons of 2006-2008 built character. They hardened us in very intense ways – not entirely positive ways, but in meaningful ways. This season, to me anyway, was just a hammer to the face and nothing more. In fact, I think it was detrimental to character, if anything. I feel emptiness with the Mets right now, if I feel anything at all.
Hmm…
“…winning so much more than their share because they can get away with it…”
Not because they have a commitment to winning or spend their money more effectively? No, that can’t be. Right? I say, let’s hate the rich guy ’cause he can afford the expensive car AND expects it to run smoothly and not break down after the kind of money he spent on it.
I think it was current Reds–and former Red Sox–pitcher Bronson Arroyo who said the following:
“If you ask any owner whether they would rather make $20 million and come in last place or lose $20 million and win a World Series, there’s only one guy who honestly would take that championship: George Steinbrenner. Nobody else.”
Bah! Let’s hear it for the owners who get $30m in revenue sharing and then field a $26m team–and that’s before the TV money comes in; before they sell a seat or even a hot dog–to ensure they make a profit. Who cares if they sell false hope to their team’s fans? Losing seasons? So what? At least their books aren’t in the red.
That’s what baseball needs. Not owners willing to spend to give their fans a championship. It’s not like money buys championships, otherwise the Yankees wouldn’t have had a 9-year WS drought, and the other top 5 spenders–which include the Mets–would alternate championships every year. Suckers. Why waste money on trying to win, when selling false hope and suffering is way cheaper?
Front office making blunder after blunder? Hey, that’s just how it is. You’ve got 20 odd-players injured/on the DL–including core players–during the course of a season? No big deal. No one needs to step up and take responsibility. Why make anyone accountable? After all, the fans will just ascribe it to futility, the sad lot in life of the underdog, etc. They’ll come back next year, even if you disrespect ‘em. Hell, continually getting whipped across the back is fine with ‘em as long as you give ‘em a candy treat once in a while.
I’m reminded of a Pink Floyd lyric: “Not now, John / we gotta get on with the film show / Hollywood waits at the end of the rainbow / Who cares what it’s all about / as long as the kids go?” That’s the spirit. Rake in the cash and make it look like you want to win; keep ‘em fooled. They’ll be resigned to losing, anyway. And if by chance you do win, they’ll be happy then, too.
All good, I tell ya.
Dana:
Sadly, the fact that I only took a few English literature classes in college (thanks to the fact that at my university, if you weren’t an English major, you usually got closed out of the class. I had to settle for Greek mythology and a few comparative literature seminars that no one else wanted to take), means I tend (unfortunately) to see things more as appellate briefs than sonnets. (And needless to say my creative writing teacher from high school would chide me for that).
I like to read a few quick-and-dirty summaries of Buddhist precepts (on wikipedia or the back of the box of my special edition DVD of “GROUNDHOG DAY”) , be enthralled with their wisdom, then mangle them (usually around the Yom Kippur holiday).
So with that ample academic background, I’d (of course) quarrel with your suggestion that baseball is anti-Buddhist. Particularly when one is a Mets fan. Arguably Buddhism (at least the Zen school) urges one to “be in the moment” – to experience things as they truly are (and appreciate them as they truly are) without attachment to impermanent emotions or passions that interfere with true joy of the experience. Baseball (particularly Mets fandom) lends itself to that very well (if one allows it to).
I have supported this team through some grim years, and have parted with (to quote a popular foreign policy phrase today) no small amount of blood-and-treasure to attend games in person. This has been questioned by persons far saner than I, who wondered why on earth I would haul out to Queens to watch a lackluster team play out the string. My response is (hopefully) driven by a desire to be in the moment. This might be the game when, against all odds and sense, some shlep pitcher from the Mets finally throws a no-hitter. Or that I see a player hit for the cycle. Or something else I’ve simply never seen before. That’s never to be taken for granted, regardless of what happens tomorrow, or what’s preceded the particular game.
Though, to be clear, I don’t believe this is your perspective, for many Mets fans (too many in my view) it strikes me that their ability to be in the moment and truly experience a Mets game gets distorted by pegging it to the Yankees. Perhaps a fair response is that its impossible to separate – that being a Mets fan requires one to have passion for the Yankees. I use the phrase “passion” deliberately which as you recognize connotes powerful overwhelming emotion.
In my twisted view, this ironically (yet fittingly) results in Mets fans winding up being de facto Yankee fans, “fans” being short for fanatic. They care IMMENSELY about what happens in a given Yankee season. The Red Sox beating the Yankees carrries joy for them that is only exceeded by a Mets playoff win. They make a point to be intimately, and deeply familiar with the players, statistics, history. If the Yankees were to suddenly fold up shop, it would leave a gaping hole in their identity as Mets fans that would leave them uncertain how to replace it – the Phillies, Braves, or any other team are wan substitutes.
You write:
“My characterization of the Yankees as “plodding, bland, and inevitable” was a reference to the Yankee juggernaut, the whole idea of this one team that has won 27 championships while all other teams have to settle for at most three or four in a lifetime, that has maintained this hegemony for a century by taking advantage of the natural profitability of a team in the nation’s largest and wealthiest city, a city that I love deeply and only feel bad about when it throws its wealth and size around to take more than it should from others, a team that has a strong, winning season in 2008 and then invests half a billion dollars to make itself better in its belief that winning a championship is something it deserves, and deserves to have a better chance of than any other team.”
My response to your observation is “so what do you propose?” A salary cap? A salary floor? Changing the playoff format so that its round robin?
You describe New York as a city that “throws its wealth and size around to take more than it should from others.” But is that the case? Certainly portions of NYC are wealthy and powerful, but demographically the city had been losing wealth and jobs for years. To the contrary I’d argue that NYC (like many cities) gets short-shrifted for a variety of unsavory political and economic reasons which are for a different discussion. A point I made in an earlier thread is that others have the PERCEPTION that NYC throws its wealth and size around to obtain unfair advantage, and based on that perception, slander and otherwise try to put the screws to NYC. Perception however, is far from reality.
I would respectfully suggest that you’re incorrect in concluding that the Yankees, be it players, or front office, or even most of their fans believe that they “deserve” a championship. That suggests that they believe that the trophy should be handed to them simply because A-Rod, Jeter, Rivera, and Texeria play for the team. Instead, they believe that their goal each and every season should be to win the world series, and that not accomplishing that goal means the season did not end the way they want. That’s a different animal entirely. One can argue whether or not in the long view its a good strategy (as opposed to taking a few seasons to rebuild, or managing the budget so that it’s good enough to get into the playoffs and then roll the dice from there), but from an organizational perspective its a sensible one, and one that fans are entitled to from their owners (who you and I agree bear hallmarks of public trustees).
But I am at a loss to understand what Steinbrenner (or any owner) is supposed to do. Are they supposed to turn to the Cubs in 2010 and say “you know what, its really unfair that you haven’t won a championship in a zillion years, so we won’t pursue Matt Holiday or John Lackey so that you have a better shot?” Are they supposed to turn to the Red Sox and say “we’re confident that Joba Chamberlain will do the job in the 8th inning – JJ Putz is all yours (OK maybe bad example). Are they supposes to say “yes, Carl Pavano hasn’t worked out that well for us, but its just not fair to fans in Kansas City that we can eat that loss, so we won’t eat the contract and go after CC Sabathia.”
On the flip side of it, if the Mets win the WS in 2010, does that mean that they should make a bunch of bad trades and signings so that they cannot repeat the feat in 2011 or 2012? If revenues from the team were to escalate, what would you prefer the Wilpons do with the profits – should they reinvest it in the team, or make cash distributions to limited partners of Sterling Equities?
The people to really direct ire at are folks that own the Pittsburgh Pirates. Given some of the idiotic contracts they’ve handed out (Jason Kendall being a good example), I’m confident that if the Bucs had a $200 million payroll, they would still suck – but their fans would pay more for tix and beer to embrace the despair.
The simple fact is that the Steinbrenners plowed a ton of operating profits into the team because they believed that their top priority was to win the World Series, and to do what was neccessary to achieve that. If one was a a limited partner investor of the Yankees I suppose one can get irritated, but from a fans perspective (and by that I mean any baseball fan) why criticize them? The alternative was distributing cash to retired steel and shipping executives and other suits who are limited partner investors of the team. Whether or not the profits should be invested in MLB level talent (as is now the case) versus signing future prospects (which is what they did in the 1950s) is simply an issue of professional judgment of what the best path to balancing long and short term success is.
Greed certainly plays a major role in some of the disparity observed in baseball (though as of late baseball is far less dynastic than other sports). But the greed and selfishness and piggishness isn’t the Steinbrenners, oher than a greed for success above personal profit (and in their case, because they routinely field excellent teams, karma breaks their way – they treat their fans to repeated victories, and also make lots of money in the process).
The greed instead is in owners like the Twins, Pirates, Royals, etc, who don’t even invest the revenue sharing they receive in their teams, but just use it to cover operating costs. They simply aren’t interested in investing their own funds (or even profits) in the product they put on the field.
Its not about a sport that lets “the Yankees be the Yankees” that’s the problem. Its about a sport that lets the Tampa Bay Rays be the Rays. That team found a window of success by screwing over its fans and investing next to nothing, trading away talent, and ultimately collecting enough compensation draft picks so that the stars aligned right so that in 2008 they played to larger crowds….for once. (And even then attendance sucked because after treating fans like shit for over a decade, one winning season did not mean all was forgiven). No one forced the Rays or other teams to trade their talent to the Yankees. It simply reflected those teams’ owners greed and contempt for their fans.
To be certain a salary cap might mitigate the issue a little bit, but, setting aside that the MLBPA will never never agree to it, any cap that was negotiated would be meaningless unless you require owners to have a base floor for what they pay, and any cap would most likely be a soft cap akin to what’s in place with the NBA, which unquestionably would continue to favor larger markets.
I think its easy to see why anyone would be a fan of the Yankees. They have excellent players, and thus one who enjoys the game often gets to see the game played at its zenith. They have a large, passionate, vocal, and pleasantly diverse (racially, ethnically, economically) fan base (and I don’t mean people who can afford the tickets). They are one of the oldest teams in baseball and thus if one is a history buff, you get to hook into something larger than a given season, or player, or game – its feeling a link to something much larger and complex.
NONE of this somehow means that being a Mets fan is any less worthwhile, appropriate, or valid. I am not one of those folks who craps on the Wilpons because they didn’t go out and sign every marquee free agent out there. It would be a silly thing to do – they play in the NL, and need to build their team to be strong enough to dominate the NL East and league generally. And, as of late, I believe, contrary to others, that they’ve tried to do it in good faith. I don’t agree with all of the decisions that they’ve made, and I am disappointed that they didn’t try to fix things more than they did this season, and am very concerned about long term issues, but even with Madoff losses and a lousy economy, I doubt they’ll remain complacent, and hopefully my cockeyed optimism is not misplaced.
But at the end of the day, I don’t see the Yankees as some sort of symbol of what’s wrong with baseball (or what is sometimes wrong with New York). I can’t get excited about them winning simply because I’m not entitled to do it – I root against them because I love the Orioles in the AL, I am a Mets fan uber alles and enjoy seeing my teams beati a team of outstanding players and talent. I expect and hope my teams will do what they can to acquire or develop similar talent, and expect that any team I root for makes winning a trophy their mission statement annually. Because, given that I am not an investor in the team, but merely the owner of a seat license, that is what I’m entitled to.
That….and the fact that hoping the Jets will not punch me in the groin…again…which they will…..
JD
Dana,
You and I corresponded a few weeks back. I was thanking you for your latest book. I have been a Met fan since 1965. Your blog has helped me and so many others through this nightmare called 2009 baseball. This has been the worst season ever. Period. Worse than the collapses of 2007 and 2008. It could not have been worse. In a general sense the utter devastation of the injuries is hard to comprehend. On a specific basis the Castillo drop, the unassisted triple play, and Jon Niese looking like he was shot while taking that “practice” pitch were our season in micrcosm. Then the unbelievable pain of seeing our two most hated rivals (one eternal, the other contemporary) square off in the Fall Classic…………….
In any event you have the psychology of the Met fan analazyed perfectly. “This” is in our blood. We can’t change “it”. Deep down inside (or maybe not so deep down inside) we don’t change “it”. The “it” is the irrational loyalty of being a Met fan that you refer to in your books.
We will get through this. In some ways we are through this. Hope does spring eternal. With a “normal” health/injury year and and 3-4 personnel moves we will be back competing for the division. The Phils pitching is not very strong. The Braves and Marlins will be tough but I expect us to be up there battling. Any honest Yankee fan (is there such a thing?) and Phillie fan has to acknowledge that their teams would not have won with the # of days we had on the DL to our starting/all star players.
Just a note to Yankee fans. One title since 2000 does not equate to a dynasty.
April can’t come soon enough. Lets Go Mets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JD, that was the most on-point description of what goes on in The Bronx, and baseball in general, I’ve read in a long time. While it’s obvious you are a die-hard Mets fan–and of baseball itself–you balance that devotion with a keen observer’s eye for the big picture. Cheers to you, and best of luck to your team in 2010.
Dear Dana–
I am so pleased to have discovered your blog, which I did thanks to the NY Review of Books article on your book. This morning I posted a small reaction to the article, and I look forward to reading the book.
All best–
Dawn
JD and Kiko, I am not ignoring your thoughtful and extremely well-argued comments. I am mulling them over and will respond to them in a blog piece that I hope to have up this weekend.
It’s great to hear from you, Jerry and Dawn.
Jerry, yes this is what makes it hard for me to justify my position of continued antipathy to the Yankees. My love of the Mets is a powerful, irrational mystery, and I always refer to it as such. So how can I defend it to people who are making rational arguments?
Dawn,
I did discover your wonderful blog piece this morning while engaging in the narcissisitic authorial activity of googling myself. Baseball is indeed a sport designed for contemplation. It leaves us room. On your blog, I’ve posted, as a comment, the essay from Mets Fan that Kimmelman refers to in the NYRB, about baseball and the life of the mind.
And I wrote back to you, Dana, and then went downstairs and told my 12-year-old son, “I got a comment from the Proust of Mets bloggers!” He went appropriately goggle-eyed . . . though I’m pretty sure he has no idea who Proust is. The word “Mets” was recommendation enough. He told me last week that he would only root for the Yankees if they were playing invasive aliens from another solar system.
I’d root for the aliens. Hey, I rooted for the Phillies!
Dana,
I simply cannot wait to hear more about the conference that you are going to have at Hofstra for the 50th anniversary of the Mets!!!!!!!!
You are very right to say that CitiField did not embrace us. We need all Met fans to keep on letting management know what we would like to see next year at CF. They do listen. I loved Shea with all my heart. I would like nothing more than for it to be back. However, we cannot change what is so let’s make CitiField our home. The one thing that will surely embrace us will be winning. Winning like we used to. Good sound baseball. Come from behind victories. Power and small ball and cheering, happy, and proud fans. And for heaven’s sake a normal year with health.
You don’t need to justify your antipathy to the Yankees nor do you need to defend your irrational mystery/love of the Mets. We are all kindred spirits. Heck, it’s easy to be a Yankee fan. If you are a “young person” you know nothing other than playoffs at a minimum every year but one. We yearn for it. We want it so badly. We feel betrayed and let down. We swear the Mets off and apologize to our kids for “making them Met fans”. Those emotions generally last a day or two at most and then the inevitable hope, love and pride comes back. It is uncontrollable. I am very proud to wear my Met stuff around even after this season and WS.
I have read some of Bart Giamatti’s work and he was absolutely just brilliant. What a great combination. Brilliance and a passion for the greatest game ever invented.
Keep the faith fellow fans. Remember that we (our players) were injured beyond belief last year.
The hot stove league will keep us going. Better days are surely coming.
Dana,
As always, I look forward to your response. And, for what its worth, I never consider our repartee on this subject to be anything other than what it is – a fun and interesting exchange of ideas and perspectives – no more no less, and always enjoyable, thought provoking, and enlightening.
PS – Kiko, I greatly appreciate your kind words. Professor Brand is one of the finest baseball writers I’ve ever encountered, and the fact that he is willing to tolerate my stream of prolix gibberish on the blog ought to win him a major humanitarian award. The players, managers, uniforms and teams change, the GAME is forever. (Or at least hopefully forever ….2011 presents a serious risk of labor strife).
)
Good luck to your team as well (and I trust you take no offense that notwithstanding my great respect for the Yankees and their players, and my admiration for their accomplishment this season, I nevertheless hope and pray that in the future the Mets and Orioles club and bloody the Yankees like a tender fuzzy baby seal.
JD
JD,
I have recently discovered this blog and I am quite grateful for doing so. Dana Brand hosts one of the few of its kind, where thoughtful and respectful analysis–regardless of where one’s sympathies lie–are the norm and not the exception. It reinforces my (non-widely shared) notion, as a NYer and Yankee fan, that there is no reason for me to despise the crosstown team and its fans. Yeah, occasionally we can all get hot under the collar, but it’s our love for the game and devotion to our respective teams that not only fuels it, but helps us feel alive sometimes. And that, is a good thing.
As for your predictions, I do believe the Orioles will climb out of the cellar next year and cede the spot to the Jays. I also see them becoming a force to be reckoned with in a few seasons time, but not in the immediate future.
The Metropolitans…Well, if they can make the right moves in this upcoming trade/free agent market, they will definitely be a contender next year. I’d really like to see them shake up the NL East and have a great season. (I’m a very big fan of the great Johan Santana, no matter what uniform he wears. Always root for him unless he’s facing my Bombers. Also, much respect to David Wright; really like that cat. I sure hope his 10 HRs this year were just a bad fluke.)
“I nevertheless hope and pray that in the future the Mets…club and bloody the Yankees like a tender fuzzy baby seal.”
No offense taken. Just bring it on, baby!
Cheers.
After spending close to two billion dollars this decade, the Yankees finally won a championship. Baseball obviously isn’t fair at all.
I love the Mets and hate the Yankees as much as you or anybody, but the bottom-line is that the Yankees usually go the extra mile to win (or in this decade get to the playoffs) and the Mets do not.
The Mets need better leadership at the top of the organization, so they can combine having great young talent and then be able to take a very good team and make them great by grabbing a top pitcher or free agent.
You are unfair and so am I when we look at the Yankees. I actually went to Yankee games in the late sixties and early seventies when Horace Clarke, Jerry Kenney and Danny Cater were fixtures on an anemic team and there were not more than 10,000 in the ball park for a Sunday double header.
At the Giants/Chargers game last Sunday, they announced that Yankee manager Joe Girardi was there and congratulated the Yankees and about 60% of the fans stood up and cheered and the other 40%..sat in silence.
Fans want a team is and underdog and not expected to win and that’s what the Mets have to offer.