Remember: It's not a Subway Series, because it's not a World Series.
This past April, the Daily News published the results of a Quinnipiac College poll, showing that people in New York City preferred the Yankees to the Mets. It wasn't all that close, 54 percent to 34 percent.
Broken down by Borough:
Bronx: Yankees 73, Mets 16
Staten Island: Yankees 61, Mets 36
Brooklyn: Yankees 52, Mets 35
Manhattan: Yankees 47, Mets 36
Queens: Yankees 45, Mets 40
That's right: Even after a much more recent Pennant than the Yankees (3 years ago, as opposed to 9 years), in the Mets' home Borough of Queens, the Yankees have the edge.
In 2016, shortly after the Mets' recent Pennant, Time Out magazine published an article: "14 Differences Between Yankees Fans and Mets Fans In NYC."
Some of the reasons were dumb, like the "better" food at Citi Field, as if that has anything to do with the people eating it. Another was that the author said that Met fans loved Citi Field, while the new Yankee Stadium just made Yankee Fans miss the old one. This is a half-truth: Met fans continually compare Pity Field unfavorably with the old Flushing Toilet.
The author said Met fans make fun of the Yankees for having the highest payroll. This was stupid, because, for years, the Mets had the highest payroll in the National League, and got just 1 World Championship out of it, and then Bernie Madoff forced Fred Wilpon into a fire sale.
The author said the Mets have cooler nicknames, which has nothing to do with how well the teams play.
The author, whom I will not embarrass by naming here, also said, and I quote, "It's harder to hate an underdog with a measly two trophies." The hell it isn't, and I'll explain why when I list my reasons.
These are not in any particular order. And they don't necessarily favor the Yankees.
1. Met fans tend to be fans of the sport first and their team second, and are willing to appreciate the achievements of others. Yankee Fans have a much higher percentage of people who are Yankee Fans, not baseball fans, and couldn't care less about baseball games not involving their team.
They only care about the National League when they want to see who the Yankees will be playing in the World Series. If a pitcher for another team pitches a no-hitter, or a hitter hits a particularly long home run, they don't care much.
The only time these Yankee Fans pay attention to a player for another team is when it is rumored that the Yankees might be acquiring him. Otherwise, fugeddaboutit.
2. Met fans are also National League fans. They will root for the National League Pennant winner to beat the American League Pennant winner in the World Series, even if the NL Champion clobbered and/or humiliated the Mets in the regular season and/or the Playoffs.
Yankee Fans don't think this way. We might root for the AL Champion in the World Series, but few of us will do so because they're the AL Champion. We don't think there's anything special about the American League.
But Met fans do believe (I won't say, "think") there's something special about the National League. There isn't, unless you include not having the designated hitter. And, let's face it, making fans watch pitchers bat is cruel.
3. Met fans have all the arrogance of Yankee Fans, without the results to back it up. They act like 1969 + 1986 > 27 World Championships. Like Mike Piazza's home run in the 1st game back after 9/11 > the Yankees' postseason run. Like (Seaver + Hernandez + Carter + Piazza + Wright) > (Ruth + Gehrig + DiMaggio + Mantle + Jackson + Jeter).
Baby, please! So, no, it is not harder to hate a team with just 2 titles.
4. When the Yankees lose, their fans get mad. When the Mets lose, their fans just whine.
5. Monument Park. Met fans joke about when we're going to put Bucky Dent in there.
The New York Mets Hall of Fame includes Bud Harrelson.
6. A Yankee Fan will treat a win over the Mets as a win that feels great, and move on. But we won't beat it to death unless the Mets really embarrassed themselves, like in the Mel Rojas Game (June 26, 1998) or the Luis Castillo Game (June 12, 2009). But while it might go into rotation YES Network's Yankees Classics, we don't make that big a deal of it.
Met fans treat any win over the Yankees like a World Series win. As they would say in English soccer, "It's their cup final."
The commemorative DVD The Essential Games of Shea Stadium includes the regular-season game of May 19, 2006, won by a walkoff single by David Wright. Not a home run. A single. In May. In a season in which they didn't win the Pennant. (They did win the Division and the NLDS, but came one run short of winning the NLCS.)
When the time came for The Essential Games of Yankee Stadium (the original), we didn't include any regular-season games. Against any team.
7. Yankee Fans lament the bad behavior of Mickey Mantle. Met fans seem to revel in the bad behavior of 1986 Mets like Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden and Lenny Dykstra.
Which brings me to one area where Met fans tend to be smarter than Yankee Fans:
8. Yankee Fans still don't know why Don Mattingly isn't in the Baseball Hall of Fame. (I'll clear it up for you: It's because he doesn't have the stats.) Met fans know damn well why Hernandez isn't in the Hall of Fame. (As the great New York-born-and-raised comedian George Carlin put it: "Druuuuuuuugs!")
9. Met fans will go on and on about how wonderful their broadcasters are, and have been. Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Hernandez are almost put up there with the holy trinity of Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner.
Yankee Fans frequently talk about how they don't like their broadcasters, especially radio voices John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.
10. Rivalries. Everybody hates the Yankees. Of course, the Mets. And the Boston Red Sox. But so does everyone else in the American League. In spite of the hate triangle between the Cleveland Indians, the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox, as fans of any of those teams who they'd rather beat: One of the other two, or the Yankees. It might be a toss-up.
The Kansas City Royals. The Seattle Mariners. The Whatever They're Calling Themselves Now Angels of Anaheim. Who's the team their fans hate the most? Not a regional rival. The Yankees.
When the Philadelphia Phillies won the 2009 National League Pennant, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers, a news helicopter over a major Philly intersection picked up fans chanting that old multiple-sport, multiple-city standby: "Beat L.A.!" But soon, it changed to "Fuck the Yankees!" It's worth noting that the Yankees hadn't wrapped their Pennant up yet.
Met fans have tried to treat several teams as rivals over the years. In the 1970s, the Chicago Cubs, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds. In the 1980s, the Cubs again, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Houston Astros. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Atlanta Braves. Since the late 2000s, the Phillies. And since the early 2010s, the Washington Na tionals.
But who considers the Mets their biggest rival? The Phils? The Nats? I think they'd rather beat each other.
And, of course, the team Met fans mist want to beat is the Yankees. The team Yankee Fans most want to beat is the Red Sox.
Let me add one more:
11. When Tom Seaver was traded in 1977, Met fans - the ones not old enough to remember the Dodgers and Giants being stolen away 20nyears earlier, anyway - had never faced a loss like that before.
Yankee Fans understood that losing a player wasn't the end of the world. Mickey Mantle retired just before the 1969 season; It was sad, but it wasn't a big surprise, and Yankee Fans moved on. After the 1974 season, Bobby Murcer was traded, and Yankee Fans didn't like it, but they moved on.
Met fans couldn't move on from the Seaver trade. They acted as though there'd been a death in the family.
Two years later, the Yankees had a death in the family: Thurman Munson. And Met fans still didn't understand the difference.
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