Why a Subway Series would have been better

With the adrenaline still pumping from Saturday night series-clinching ALCS Game 5 win, I felt ready to take on either NLCS team going into Game 6 on Sunday night. Considering the two possibilities, facing the Mets in the World Series was a high-risk, high-reward proposition. Losing the World Series will always sting, but just visualizing a Mets ticker-tape parade down Broadway after beating the Yankees is still sending chills down my spine as I write this. We all have Mets fans in our lives who would hold it over us forever if we did not pull out the series.

Believe me, I saw the danger with the matchup, but I wanted to run towards it. I wanted the all-out New York-centered media frenzy, the spotlight completely on our city, the cringy ways New York-based businesses would integrate it into their market, and the good-natured fun everyone in the New York market would have with the matchup. I was rooting for the Mets to pull off another comeback so we could get another Subway World Series.

The past decade-plus for New York sports has been much of a slog. The city’s last parade was in February 2012 for the New York Giants. Thankfully, that drought will be lifted this Thursday with the New York Liberty eking out the winner-take-all Game 5 of the WNBA Finals. While other cities have had it worse, things have been pretty embarrassing as the biggest sports market in the country. Our NFL teams have been routinely pathetic ever since the Giants won their 2011 Super Bowl. The Mets and Yankees were coming off humiliating seasons in 2023 that felt like rock bottom. The Brooklyn Nets Big Three flamed out in a remarkable, spectacular fashion. The Knicks are now in the best position they have been since the late-90s, but that was a long time coming.

Looking past that the Giants and Jets are still in purgatory, it feels like New York sports are getting their swagger again. While I do not go out of my way to root for opposing New York teams, I want our sports scene to be bumping. A Subway Series would have been a loud way to announce our resurgence. If you live in a territory dominated by New York sports fans, the World Series would have become a hot topic in your office, school, bars, coffee shops, bowling alleys, wherever your third places happen to be.

As someone not old enough to remember the 2000 World Series, I never viewed the Mets as a true rival because they have never prevented the Yankees from accomplishing anything. I know I’m supposed to hate the Mets, but it hasn’t been clear to me why. The Mets have not been dominant in my lifetime to make me jealous, they haven’t stolen a sought-after free agent that the Yankees pursued (though this could quickly change), and they have never taken us out in the postseason. I am still waiting to get that competitive spark I need to properly grow a dislike for the Mets that I see fellow Yankee fans have. Mix this in with Juan Soto’s potential bidding war this winter between the two teams, and there’s a dark reality where the Mets end up becoming my most hated team by the end of the year.

As for the matchup component, when comparing the Dodgers and Mets, it was closer than their regular season records suggest when taking into account Los Angeles’ pitching injuries and Freddie Freeman’s struggles since he sprained his ankle late in the season. The Dodgers’ lineup is deeper, but the Mets offense was hitting its stride with Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, Mark Vientos, and Jesse Winker all having great Octobers. As for the pitching, it all felt like a big question mark for both sides.

It would have been scary facing the hot team when it seems like the baseball higher forces are on their side. If the Mets pulled off a 3-1 series comeback, there would have been many fans that would have wanted no part of the Mets because of their wild journey to the World Series. But, as we saw Sunday night, eventually the Cinderella team’s luck runs out. You know who aren’t called teams of destiny? Excellent teams. Being matched against the “plunky underdogs,” the Mets could have brought us back to being the Evil Empire. Every neutral fan would have backed the Mets and all of their mischief. I wanted to get back that edge back of America rooting for the Yankees’ downfall. I mean are we even the Bad Guys in the World Series?

I certainly am not complaining about the matchup at hand. As a baseball fan, this may be odd, but I root for the health of the sport. I want more people I can chat with about baseball. I want it to penetrate the national conversation in sports more often. With the Yankees and Dodgers, we will see soaring World Series television ratings, and hopefully, baseball will claim a bigger share during this crowded time in the sports landscape. It’s the two largest fan bases, but also the four star position players who have accumulated the most bWAR since the start of the 2022 season: Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani, and Mookie Betts. In my eyes, it’s good to have more people out there that like the things you like. I do not know if it will end up capturing America’s attention like the 2016 World Series between Chicago and Cleveland was able to, but it has the best chance to.

I know some Yankee fans despise the Mets and their fans and hope for their misery on every pitch and can’t wrap their heads around the idea of pulling for them to make the World Series. Not that we are lacking it now, but I did feel like it would have added another layer of heat to this World Series and would have been a fun time for our region. However, when just thinking about compelling storylines, we couldn’t lose with either team. With what we have ahead of us this next week and a half, this is why we all love our dumb hobby of watching sports.