Yankees Prove Themselves Better Than Mets -- Again, and Still

For many years, Sports Illustrated had a feature titled "Dum Quote of the Weak." Here's a pretty good nomination:

Last night, after the Yankees beat the Mets, I saw some yutz on Twitter say, referring to each team's postgame won-lost record, "14-5 > 11-8."

That wasn't the "dum quote." After all, it's true. The Mets do still have a better record than the Yankees.

There are reasons for it, too. One is that the Yankees do not have to play the Yankees.

My response to it was, "27 > 2." This refers to the number of World Series won by each team, and is also true.

Then, a very stupid Met fan tweeted, "live in the past idiot.  Your team is old and washed up.  Buy more talent." (Tweet not changed for correction of grammar.)

Let me get this straight: You've got a 36-year-old Michael Cuddyer as your cleanup hitter, at least until the overrated David Wright returns from injury, and you've got Bartolo Colon as one of your starters, and he's about to turn 42, making him older than any regular starting pitcher the Yankees have had since Phil Niekro was tossing knuckleballs for them 30 years ago. And you're saying the Yankees are "old and washed up"?

And that they should "buy more talent"? Well, we can. Can you?

My team is "old and washed up"? And your team just got beat 2 out of 3 by us, so what does that make you?

His response to that -- again, not corrected for any reason: "it makes the Mets the better team you play a hundred sixty two games it was just two wins"

So if you play 162 games, and it's not fair to base your view of who's better on 3 games (a legitimate point), why are you basing your view of who's better on 19 games? That's not even 3 weeks. It's one-ninth of the season.

A team doesn't usually get its reputation set by 19 games, unless it happens at the end. Like the 1996-2000 Yankees. Or the 2007 Mets.

That's the calm, measured response that could be given in a forum such as this. Such is the nature of Twitter that I added this instead: "'It was just two wins'? It's not even one month, and you're saying @Mets are better? DAMN, you're stupid!"

I'm still waiting for a response. But how could he respond? He knows I've got him. One of the few things he knows.

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As for last night's game: The Mets could have had it, but, being the Mets, they blew it.

Nathan Eovaldi did not have his good stuff, and was pulled in the 5th inning. He gave up a home run to Curtis Granderson to lead off the game. Not that long ago, this would have been no big deal for a pitcher, because the Grandy Man was a Yankee with reliable power. But since he went to the Mets, his batting stroke has disintegrated. This was his 1st homer of the season. The Mets scored another run in the inning, to take a 2-0 lead before the Yankees even came to bat.

But the Yankees came back. In the bottom of the 1st, Alex Rodriguez hit one out, his 5th of the season, and the 659th of his career.

Hitting Number 660, which would tie him with Willie Mays on the all-time list, would net him $6 million, according to the Contract From Hell. The Yankees don't want to pay it. Well, this isn't the NFL, where a contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on, and the team owners can do whatever they want and there's nothing the players can do about it. This is MLB, and the players have a strong union, and, like him or not, Alex is gettin' the money he was promised.

"I don't have a marketing degree," A-Rod said the other day. "I'm just focused on playing baseball."

In the next at-bat, Mark Teixeira reached 1st base on an error by 3rd baseman Eric Campbell. Nothing came of it, but it was a warning that the Mets were going to be less 2000, 1986 or 1969; more 1993, 1979 or 1962.

Bottom of the 2nd: John Ryan Murphy doubled. Stephen Drew struck out. Gregorio Petit doubled. Brett Gardner doubled. Chris Young (ex-Met) singled. A-Rod doubled. That made it 5-2 Yankees. Cuddyer made an error, but it also ended up not mattering much.

The Mets took 2 runs back in he 3rd, making it 5-4 Yankees. They threatened again in the 5th, and Joe Girardi took Eovaldi out. Eovaldi told the media that he understood.

Another Met error put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out in the bottom of the 5th. A-Rod came up, and an error by Met shortstop Wilmer Flores led to another run. Maybe that 1 extra run made a difference in the Met players' minds, maybe it didn't. But the Mets were hopeless at the plate after that. Five Yankee relievers went 5 2/3 innings, allowing just 1 single baserunner, a walk.

Yankees 6, Mets 4. WP: Chasen Shreve (1-0, his 1st major league win). SV: Andrew Miller (7). LP: Jon Niese (2-1).

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Two out of three from "the best team in baseball." Not bad for a bunch of old, washed-up players, huh?

The Yankees, who proved that they're the best team in New York (which is all that Met fans really care about being), and that Met fans, who had already become used to believing that they were better, needed to think again -- or, rather, think -- stay home to face what's left of the Tampa Bay Rays. Adam Warren starts tonight.

The Mets? Who do they play next, and where? Why should I care? They remain a small club in Flushing. They remain Number 2 in New York -- and that's got more than one definition.