The LTJ Editorial: “Mets/Yankees Brings More Hype Than History”

“The LTJ Editorial”
Author: Luis Tirado Jr.
Date: 5-31-13
Twitter: @LTJ81
Website: http://www.thenyexpress.com 

“Mets/Yankees brings more hype than history”

It all started in the 1920’s. Way back in the day where the only way to get to any kind of professional baseball game played in New York was to take the good old fashioned subway train. You’d go with your pals from work, your children, or your closest friends from the neighborhood. It was mainly for bragging rights, basically who claimed the term to be New York’s better baseball team. Many will argue New York is largely dominated by Yankees fans, others will say they are mostly bandwagon fans who couldn’t tell you anything about their team, let alone know any real heartache when it comes to following the Bronx Bombers for years. Some though, will say, it’s nice when the Mets beat the Yankees. To show that sometimes all the money in the world doesn’t always bring you victories.

These two teams have met exactly 99 times, the Yankees clearly dominating the Mets 54-40 when it comes to wins. However, that wasn’t the case in 2013. Could you believe it? The very same Mets who couldn’t hit, made too many defensive errors, had a horrible bullpen going into this series and they actually beat the first place Yankees in a four-game sweep! It wasn’t pure luck either, we outplayed the Yankees and we even made history against Mariano Rivera in his last ever appearance at Citi Field. It was the first time he blew a save and didn’t record a single out. Talk about icing on the blue and orange cake.

For a very long time though, lots of people always talk a whole bunch of nonsense to me about my allegiance to the Mets. It’s the same old comments I’ve been hearing for years. Things like “The Mets suck, we have more Championship rings than you’ll ever dream of” or “The big brother team gave the little brother team a sweep because we wanted to throw you guys a bone”, or one of my personal favs, “The Yankees will be playing baseball in October while David Wright will be playing golf!”. You know what my retaliation is when I hear all this nonsense?

You can truly tell a whole lot about a baseball fan, someone who really loves his team and the beloved sport of baseball, when they say these kind of ignorant remarks. Whenever these “Yankee Fans” throw this in your face, ask them to name you their entire starting rotation. If they have that face you make when you drink expired milk, they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. These are the same people who probably don’t know SS Derek Jeter hasn’t played a single game this Season. These are also probably the same people who are bandwagon fans who just root for them when they win and when they lose, will send them straight to hell and wish they never existed.

This whole Mets/Yankees rivalry I think is blown way out of proportion. Yeah, it’s cute publicity for the city that never sleeps, but to say such hateful things for teams that usually play each other six times a year (This year just four due to interleague games) is pretty lame. All I care about is that not only did we win four games straight in a series, it’s nice to sweep a team in a series, regardless who it is. Well, in a way. If it was against the hated Phillies, Marlins, Braves, or Nationals I would have loved it so much more. But against the Yankees? Just another team in my book, no different than if we swept the Boston Red Sox or the Detroit Tigers. I just think Yankee fans love to talk tons of smack to Mets fans for no reason really. I’m glad you guys won so many Championship rings but honestly, worry about the teams in your division, not about the Mets. We’re the least of your worries in the grand scheme of things. I hope most of my readers use my “Starting Rotation” trick to see who really are Yankee Fans and who are the bandwagon ones. One great thing is, real baseball fans that are also Yankee Fans know the respect they should give to the Mets. Find them, they do exist. And 90% of the time, they are older. Heck, they’ll probably share some great memories about the Subway Series. Regardless of your allegiance, we are New Yorkers at heart, whether you root for one team or the other, aren’t you glad you’re a Metrocard swipe away from your Stadium Home?