Why the Mets Sweeping the Yankees Means Nothing and Everything at the Same Time

The Mets swept the Subway Series from the Yankees this week. It's never happened before and who knows if it will happen again. The fact that the Mets were able to win every game in the series isn't as surprising as who they won it with. To call the Mets lineup fearsome is as laughable as calling Tom Green an actor.

In the grand scheme of things this series win means nothing in 2013. The Mets will most likely still finish the season under .500. They won't be going to the playoffs and there isn't an expectation of them winning any division titles. It was just a nice winning streak in the second month of the season that will just be a blip on the radar come the off season.

But then this series also means quite a bit.

The Mets were on the precipice of losing their entire fan base for the rest of the 2013 season. No one wanted to watch the product on the field, let alone go to the ballpark. This mini winning streak and the fact that it came against the cockiest fan base of them all, Yankees fans, makes it all that much more sweet.

The even bigger reason this sweep meant so much is because it switched the discussion from the litany of problems with the Mets to the positives. From Valdespin to Ike to Terry Collins, there have been enough of negative headlines and minutia discussed online and radio about the circus that is the 2013 Mets. Winning solves most problems and this was a huge one. While Ike Davis still deserves to be demoted to the minors, for one week Terry Collins hasn't had to deal with the same questions over and over and over.

You have to also give credit to what The 7 Line is doing for Mets fans. Sure it's a business, but honestly The 7 Line has done more to energize the fan base than the Mets organization has done in the last decade. The idea of bringing a contingency of Mets fans to Chicago and then to the Bronx to occupy the home team's ballpark is just genius. I wasn't able to go in person to either of those venues, but not only was I aware of it but was excited by it as well.

I guess The 7 Line is capitalism and free enterprise at its best and it's probably the best thing to happen to the Mets fan base in a long time. Darren Meenan deserves a lot of credit and our thanks even if you've never bought one of his t-shirts (but you probably should because they're pretty great).

So where do the Mets go from here? Who knows. Maybe they'll continue to win and surprise us. Maybe they'll quickly return to their irrelevant status, but whether you want to mock it or not this series has meant a lot for the Mets and especially for their fans.

Wining makes baseball so much more fun...especially at the expense of the Yankees.

Why It Is Okay to Cheer Against the Yankees

I grew up a Mets fan and for most of my life I have not been an anti-Yankee Mets fan, although I'm not quite ready to jump on Boomer & Carton's Mets Fan for Yankees train either. I used to pull for the Yankees when they were in the playoffs back in the late 70's more as a New York sports fan than anything else. But that attitude has changed. In fact this postseason has cemented in my mind that it's okay to cheer against the Yankees.And it probably should be encouraged.

The sad thing it pretty much has nothing to do with the product they put on the field. Look at Jeter, Canoe, Texeira, Rivera, Hughes, CC and Posada and you'll see that these are all quality players who command respect in baseball circles because they are guys anyone would want on their teams. A-Rod is obviously the lightning rod for baseball drama, but save for him the Yankees are not a group of arrogant or obnoxious players.

Unfortunately their fan base is.

It wasn't always this way, but I guarantee you know at least 2 or 3 "Yankees fans" who were fans of another team at some point in their life. I can name 5 off the top of my head. The Yankees have the largest bandwagon of any team in any sport. Not even the Cowboys or the Chicago Bulls of the 90's had as many as the Yankees currently do.

But it's not just the bandwagoners that are making this team hard to like. The lifelong die hards have become jaded too. Just yesterday I was talking with a guy who grew up a Yankees fan and has been a loyal supporter of the Yanks since he was a kid. We were talking about the baseball playoffs and pending World Series matchup when he made this comment:


"Yeah, I was upset about the Yankees losing, but 5 minutes later I was over it because I knew they'd be back next year."


That is hubris. And sadly this statement was heard more than once amongst the many Yankees fans I happen to be acquaintances with. Can you think of another sports team where their fan base would utter this type of statement after a devastating playoff defeat? Think about it. Not even Lakers fans or Patriots fans or USC fans would say something like this. It's unprecedented except for amongst the Yankee fan base.

I know for a fact that Phillies' fans don't think this way as many of them were as angry as Mets fans were when Beltran buckled under that Wainwright hanging curve.

You can cheer against the Yankees for your own reasons whether it be for spite or a deep rooted envy. But until the Yankees fan base is put in their place and this attitude of championship entitlement is squelched, you won't find this Mets fan showing any love for the crosstown rivals.

The Big Picture

Sure the Mets lost 2 of 3 to the Yankees. Sure they ended their magical 8 game win streak. Sure the Mets offense was absent for most of the weekend. But you have to look at the big picture.

The Mets just went 7-2 on a 9 game road trip. That's rare. In fact I can't remember the last time the Mets played that well on the road. We would all like the Mets to win every game they play, but that's just not a realistic outcome.

I'm pretty satisfied with the way this team is playing right now. And now they get to come home for a 6 game home stand and with an off day have a chance to rest.

Santana might not be what he used to be. Bay may be struggling. And KRod is Pray Rod. But if you've followed this team for the last few years (or the last 20) you have to like what the 2010 Mets are doing.

I never thought I'd have that kind of outlook after dropping 2 out of 3 to the Yanks, but I do.

Switching Horses in the Middle of the World Series

I've already detailed how tough a World Series this is for me as a Mets fan, and in a post last week I wrote about how I was going to pull for the Yankees instead of seeing the Phillies win back-to-back titles.

But a funny thing has happened while watching the first three games of this series, I found myself secretly pulling for the Phils.

I had no intention of doing this, but when A-Rod struck out three times the other night and Jeter hit into a double play I noticed a peculiar smile appearing on my face. In my mind I know I don't want Philly Nation to have the satisfaction of yet another title, but in my heart of hearts I just can't pull for the Yankees.

During the first three games of the series I secretly wanted Mariano Rivera to blow a save in front of the entire nation. I grinned as Utley sent a ball to Utley's Porch of the Bronx. I even went against everything I believe in by cheering for Victorino to throw out Swisher at home plate during last night's rain drenched game.

Why? Call it being a lifelong National Leaguer. Call it rooting for the "underdog." Call it being against evil. Whatever you call it, it's uncomfortable. But with the Phils down two games to one this Mets Lifer is switching horses.

Go National League. (I can't say it)

Most Conflicting World Series for a Mets Fan Ever

In a year when pain, injuries and exceptionally long stretches of disappointment are the norm, why should it be any surprise to Mets fans that the two teams that we loathe find themselves in the World Series.

The scrappy, nagging, pain in the neck, little brother complex Phillies have shown exceptional clutch and gotten great pitching to make their way to a second straight World Series. The bloated payroll, band box playing, A-Rod renaissance Yankees are finally back in the championship round after what seems like a long drought for the perennial contender.

And now as a Mets Lifer you must choose. Who do you root for?

It's like choosing between the Dallas Cowboys or the Philadelphia Eagles, watching The View or Glee, rooting for Lex Luthor or Charles Manson, eating brussel sprouts or lima beans; there is no good choice. Just pure evil.

Since death is not an option, a Mets fan must choose who will have their rooting interest. Never before have I been asked so many times who I'm rooting for in a World Series than this one. Even before the teams became official everybody and their mother wanted to know which team I'd be cheering for.

And so here's my decision. I'm pulling for the Yankees.

It hurts to even type that, but let me explain why. I'm traditionally a National League guy when it comes to the World Series, but the thought of the Phillies winning back to back titles is just too much to bear. If the Phils had lost last year, they'd have my backing 100%, but I can't take another 365 days of Phils as world champs.

Besides, if the Yankees win, so what? With a payroll the size of a NATO country they're expected to win. They have 5 potential hall of famers, the best hitter in the game, the best starting pitcher in the game (after Santana), the best closer in the game, and an All Star at pretty much every position. So what's there to really brag about if you win?

Some Yankee fans like to think that this is a scrappy, pull up by your bootstraps type of team, which just makes me chuckle inside. Their three free agent signings this offseason was larger than the entire payroll of the Florida Marlins. Not winning the World Series with this Yankees pitching staff and lineup would be a colossal failure in the hearts and minds of Yankee fans.

Even though I have to face Yankee fans more often than Phillies' fans, it won't bother me that they'll have "bragging rights" for another year. Pretty much everybody has bragging rights over the Mets.

And so the boys in pinstripes will have my rooting interest (as if they care), but part of me will also smile if they do end up losing.

The Honeymoon is Over

The good feelings about this scrappy Mets team are starting to fade. Reality is setting in and these young bats look totally overmatched by the top two Yankee pitchers.

Errros have been rampant. Absolutely no rallies have been started. Meanwhile, the Mets starting pitching has had one bad inning in the last two games that ultimately decided the fate of the game.

Fortunate for us the rest of the NL East doesn't care for interleague play either. The Mets still find themselves within 1.5 games of first place, and even with a loss tonight coupled with a Phillies win at worst will be 2.5 games out.

The Mets need to show some backbone tonight and come out swinging. Too many first pitch strikes are being let through and quickly finds Mets batters in an 0-2 hole.

This is the first time the Mets have lost a season series to the Yankees since 2003. They need to at least save face and win the final game in their own ballpark on national TV. Wang is on the mound so there's no excuse not to put some runs on the board.

Once the Yanks are through is when the real test begin against the Brewers and Phils. Please, let's get one tonight.

Sometimes I Hate It When I'm Right

As predicted the Mets fell apart in the evening game against the Yankees. I've had a long standing theory that the Mets "run out of runs" whenever they score in double digits. I've even posted about it in the past.

I'd love to see what the Mets record is in games after they've scored 10 or more runs. I'd be willing to bet it's well under .500.

And so we went from sweeping the Yanks at their stadium and the dream of sweeping the season series to hopefully winning the next two to stay above .500 by the time we hit the road.

Agghhhhhhhhhh...Aghhhhhhhhhh!!!

"Aghhhh……aghhhhhhhh!!!"

Why are we so pissed off? Why are we so angry? I'm dropping this one Kinison style!

We're so angry because:

• The Mets traded one of the greatest right handed pitchers in the history of the game in Tom Seaver - "agghhhhhh"
  
• There wasn’t a Wild Card in the 80’s - "agghhhhhhhh"
  
• of Terry Pendleton - "aghhhhhhhh"
  
• Lasorda brought Hershiser in from the pen to close out Game 4 in ’88 - "aghhhhhhhh"
• We had to watch John Franco blow saves for 14 years! - "aghhhhhhhh"
• We had to watch his successor Armando Benitez for 4 even worse years. - "aghhhhhhhh"
• Kenny Rogers walked in the season-ending run while Rickey and Bobby Bo played cards in the clubhouse - "aghhhhhhhh"
• Timo Perez failed to run hard in Game 1 of the 2000 World Series - "aghhhhhhhh"
• The 2000 World Series Champs seemingly shared the anabolic needle like it was a “j” at Woodstock - "aghhhhhhhh"
• "Who Brought the Dogs Out" was a theme song in 2000 - "aghhhhhhhh"
• Robby Alomar was a bust
  
• Kazmir was traded for the wrong Zambrano - "aghhhhhhhh"
• The Marlins have won two championships in 10 years - "aghhhhhhhh"
• Generation K turned into Generation KO - "aghhhhhhhh"
• Beltran failed to swing - "aghhhhhhhh"
• We could really use Brian Bannister right now - "aghhhhhhhh"
• We have to watch those Giseppe Franco commercials in between every inning - "aghhhhhhhh"
• The organization held a sing a long contest and… - "aghhhhhhhh"
• they played that rick astley song - "aghhhhhhhh" talk about adding salt to the wound and this was our own organization humiliating us - "aghhhhhhhh"
• Tom Glavine puked all over September last season - "aghhhhhhhh"
• Delgdo forgets to cover the bag - "aghhhhhhhh"
• Delgado is hitting under .200 - "aghhhhhhhh"
• Delgado didn't come out for a curtain call - "aghhhhhhhh"
• The team can't hit with men on base - "aghhhhhhhh"
• They lost 13-1 to the lowly Pirates - "aghhhhhhhh"
• They are so freaking inconsistent - "aghhhhhhhh"
• We will forever be humiliated by the ’07 collapse unless a championship is won - "aghhhhhhhh"

That's why we're so angry!

Feel free to add any other reason I may have missed. I know there's plenty more.

Karma

This post is dedicated to all of those Mets fans who have endured relentless abuse from Yankees fans over the years.

The Yankees are the most over rated team in sports and it’s about time everyone starts to acknowledge that fact. Many will argue they’ve been the model for consistency citing their 14 year playoff run. But the only thing they’ve been consistent at is blowing cheese in the playoffs. Rather than drafting a blueprint for success, this grossly overpaid franchise has written a script for failure since 2000, proving that money may buy you the regular season, but it can’t buy you a championship.

With all the abuse Mets fans take from Yankees fans, you would think they win the World Series every year. News flash: It’s been seven years since the Yanks last won the World Series. In that time, and more than $1.5 billion dollars later, the over hyped Yankees have been knocked out of the first round 4 times, lost to two expansion teams in the World Series, and endured the single greatest collapse in post season history – in all of sports – to their arch rival! Yet, their fans, their announcers (John “Blind as a Bat” Sterling, Susan “Roger Clemens is in the Boss’ Box” Waldman), and Fat Faced Francessa talk about the Yankees as if they are a gift to the entire sports universe and that we should all worship their existence.

PA-lease…it’s over Yankees fans; time to realize that your team has become the Atlanta Braves of this early century. Sure, you will predictably talk about your 26 championships, your recent post season run, but this can only go so far. It will only lay credence to the fact your team has accomplished nothing the last seven years. Even with all of that money thrown at every single available free agent, the Yankees still can’t win.

Mussina, Giambi, Sheffield, Damon, Pavano, Matsui, Randy Johnson, Abreu, A-Rod, Igewa, Farnsworth, Pettite, and Clemens, who looked more like Eyore last night, than Thor. $28 million dollars for that turd! It’s absolutely comical; all of these All Stars and nothing to show for it. Absolutely nothing! And how about that A-Rod? He continues to freeze up in the playoffs; so clueless out there. Maybe he’s thinking about all that money the Yanks are going to waste on him. (Forget my post earlier this week, I said I was delusional) the same way they did with Eyore.

If you want to continue ripping on Mets fans, rubbing it in our faces, calling radio shows and mocking us, that’s fine. If you want to say your team is better than ours, then ok. We can’t argue that. You’ve certainly won more. But the irony here is that the standard isn’t so high anymore. Suddenly, it’s not about the World Series titles, but rather, whose record is better than whose, and how many times in a row you’ve made it to the playoffs. I’m not so sure plunking down $230 million (before luxury tax) on a payroll was executed so they could be the best team in New York. That insanity can be attributed to a nauseating greed that blows any form of reason and logic out the window.

Yet with all of that money, they still couldn’t afford quality bug repellant. Everyone was complaining about the bugs, about how the umpires had a conspiracy against the Yankees by not delaying the game, about how the Indians should have told the Yankees how to deal with them since they were used to it. Funny…how no one complained about Jeffrey Maher in ’96. Incidentally, the Yankees will be wearing new uniforms next year. (up top).

So it is time Yankees fans, to take your lesson in humility and pipe down. Cease the arrogance that is so identified with your fan base. Karma has finally caught up with you. Your team is just not that good anymore. They’re the most over rated team in sports.

Feel free to share this link (http://metslifers.blogspot.com/2007/10/karma.html) with any of those fans who called you or emailed you to mock you after the Mets choked down the stretch this year.

Clemens, Newton, Scientists and Madmen…

It is possible but unlikely that Roger Clemens’ name has ever been written or uttered in the same sentence as that of the brilliant, Sir Isaac Newton, one of the world’s founding fathers of physics, mathematics and philosophy. Roger is more likely to be tied to Scientists of an entirely different nature, like those from the wonderful labs of BALCO. (I’m just saying).

Anyway, on my drive into work this morning, I couldn’t help but think of Newton’s Laws of Motion (as I often do) and how they used to be on regular display when Mike Piazza would reduce Clemens to nothing more than a Little League pitcher. For those of you who do not remember Newton’s Laws of Motion, I present to you a refresher:

1. An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by a net force (Piazza’s Homers off Clemens still circle the universe).

2. Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration (Piazza’s Homers off Clemens were missile-like blasts, hard to see with the naked eye).

3. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Piazza’s regular moon-shot home runs turn Clemens into a juice-induced (I’m just saying), sore-losing madman and eventually beans him in the head, and throws a bat at him (when pitching baseballs is a lost cause, why not try something different, right?).

If only we could bring Piazza back for tonight’s game, bring a little old school flava to the Bronx. Maybe O (Omar) could trade an injured Milledge to Billy Beane and the A’s for one day, since he likes him so much, and let him run along the right field stands slapping high-fives with the fans, or just let him bust out some lyrics from his new CD in the clubhouse for the team.

And while we’re on the subject of Laws, the law of averages will tell you that the Mets are due for a victory and the Yanks are due for a loss. It’s time to get back on track tonight and stick it one more time to the over-paid, over-hyped, Rocket.