We Won, and I Will NOT Get Over It

On another blog on which I post -- I won't mention its name but it rhymes with "Flubway Gawkers," something Yankee Fans could be called these last couple weeks, right? -- a Met fan posted and said Yankee Fans need to get over themselves over taking 5 of 6 from the injured Mets.

Riiiight. As if the Yankees don't have their own injury problems. As if Met fans would ever shut up if they'd been able to win 5 of 6 from us. They've done 4 of 6 twice, but, really, the Yankees are New York's team, so the number I'm thinking of here is 7 of 9: Resistance is futile!

Yes, another crossover between baseball and Star Trek. If you don't like it, you are without honor!

We will not get over it, and we will not stop ripping the Mets. After all the trash their fans have talked about the Yankees, including when the Yankees were better, they deserve it.

As you can see, in some ways, the 1984-90 Met glory years, which included my high school days and some frustrating Yankee seasons, shaped my fanhood even more than the 1976-81 Yankee era, the 1st great baseball team I was aware of.

I didn't quite see the 1970s Oakland and Cincinnati teams at their best. By the time I got to see the Big Red Machine, Tony Perez was already gone, Tom Seaver had joined them, and the Dodgers had taken over the NL West. By the time I got to see the A's, Charlie Finley had dumped, or allowed to leave, everyone from his title teams but Vida Blue (and had already tried to dump him) and Billy North.

The 1980s were a rough time for a lot of reasons, and not just because of lousy music, worse cars and a President who drove me up the wall. A great era for baseball -- but not for a Yankee Fan. It's like I've gotten over 95 percent of it, but there will always be that 16-year-old kid who'd still like to be able to say, "You Met fans are so dumb to be rooting for them. They've never won the World Series in my lifetime" -- and suddenly it's no longer true.

Met fans were so smug in the 1980s, and based on what? In the end, one World Championship, and one other Division Title. That's all they got between late October 1973 and September 1999! An entire generation! Their mouths were writing checks that their team couldn't cash. In contrast, Derek Jeter had topped that at age 24. Come to think of it, Willie Randolph (in the preceding generation) topped it at age 23.

All that talk for them... All that action for us. Case closed -- and well before this season's games between the teams. Whether the current players deserve it is debatable; whether Met fans deserve it is a big fat yes. (Not to be confused with John "the Big Fat YES Anchor" Sterling.)

Let's look at it another way:

Mets from 1962 to 2008, 47 seasons: 7 postseason appearances, 5 Division Titles, 4 Pennants, 2 World Championships
Yankees from 1996 to 2003, 8 seasons: 8 postseason appearances, 7 Division Titles, 6 Pennants, 4 World Championships

Ah, but since then?

Mets from 2004 to 2008: 1 postseason appearance, 1 embarrassing postseason defeat, 2 September chokes
Yankees from 2004 to 2008: 4 postseason apperances, 4 embarrassing postseason defeats but only 1 as bad as what the Mets did in '06

And, of course, in the only true Subway Series since Ike's 1st term: Yankees 4, Mets 1, clinching at Shea, with 25,000 Yankee Fans chanting, "Let's Go Yankees!" and "Thank you George!"

No, I will not stop rubbing it in. Not until the Flushing Heaten stop deserving it. I don't see that happening anytime soon.