FanSided

3 ways the Mets are taking Big Apple baseball from the Yankees

By Tim Boyle |
Arizona Diamondbacks v New York Mets
Arizona Diamondbacks v New York Mets / Dustin Satloff/GettyImages
1 of 3
Next

The New York Yankees this. The New York Yankees that. Playing in the same city as the most successful North American franchise in the major sports hasn’t always been the easiest thing for the New York Mets. Now in their 60th year of existence, the power has swung back into their laps.

For those who weren’t around in the early 1970s or throughout most of the 1980s, it’s a dynamic we are not accustomed to. The Yankees won the first World Series I ever watched. Then they proceeded to win three straight only two years later.

Meanwhile, the Mets have only made it to the World Series twice in my lifetime. My hips are brittle. My knees are giving up. I’m no longer a young man and yet it’s only now in the year 2022 when the Mets seem to have finally taken Big Apple baseball away from the Yankees. How did they do it?

The Mets have an owner the fans can trust, the Yankees do not

The praise Steve Cohen gets is unlike anything you’ll find in most major sports. Usually, it’s the owner who feels the most wrath. They are the gatekeepers who determine how much is spent on the team. All responsibility ultimately falls on them.

The Mets have a rare professional sports owner that the fans actually like. It’s not just because the previous ownership regime was so disliked. Cohen actually takes steps toward bettering the team on and off the field. Everything he touches in the baseball world turns to gold.

Over in The Bronx, the opposite is happening. Under the Steinbrenner Family Flag, George’s son Hal is developing a far different reputation than his father. The Yankees have been accused by the fans for being cheap over the last few seasons. Certainly not the case, the high demands of their fans are catching up and making the franchise look second-class to the freer-spending Mets.

General manager Brian Cashman is also beginning to wear on the fans. His tenure with the club hasn’t yielded them much over the last few seasons other than contention for a championship. Yankees fans want much more.

New York Mets v Philadelphia Phillies
New York Mets v Philadelphia Phillies / Rich Schultz/GettyImages

The Mets addressed their issues this offseason, the Yankees brought back a lot of the same players and problems

What did the Mets need most this offseason? With a bundle of free agents coming off the books, the team had a lot of work to do.

A major priority of the ball club was to add to the starting rotation. They did this by signing Max Scherzer to a record deal and making a trade for Chris Bassitt.

Also on the offseason agenda, the Mets needed to improve their starting lineup. What did they do for this? They signed Mark Canha, Eduardo Escobar, and Starling Marte. All big league hitters with a nice mix of talents they could bring to the Mets roster, each should continue to make the team better.

The same thing didn’t happen with the Yankees. They already had a good roster but instead of getting better, they kind of did the same thing all over again. Aaron Boone is back in the dugout when there was some thought he could leave. Flawed outfielder Joey Gallo returned and the Yankees move forward with baseball’s greatest all-or-nothing slugger. Unfortunately for them, the nothings have been far too common.

Then there’s the way they attacked the shortstop position. In a winter full of free agent options, the Yankees ended up making a trade for Isaiah Kiner-Falefa. Huh? And the team they acquired him from, the Minnesota Twins, were able to sign Carlos Correa only days later.

Add in that they still don’t have a deal with Aaron Judge and it’s easy to see why the Mets are becoming New York’s number one team in the eyes of fans.

Apr 17, 2022; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets outfielders Jeff McNeil (1) Starling Marte
Apr 17, 2022; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets outfielders Jeff McNeil (1) Starling Marte / Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

The Mets are just more fun while the Yankees remain uptight

This isn’t to say players on the Yankees are bad people. I actually kind of like the professionalism Judge and Giancarlo Stanton display. But when it comes to liking or disliking players on a team, sometimes it’s petty things that can cause us to feel a certain way.

Take Gerrit Cole as an example. When he got rocked early on in a game this season, he blamed it on Billy Crystal’s first pitch taking too long. This might be the lamest excuse of all-time. Worse and longer delays happen to pitchers more regularly. It’s not as if Cole was pitching his first game in the big leagues. It showed a lack of ownership for getting beat up. He had already made his way onto the baseball villains list when he became the posterchild for doctoring baseballs.

More than personalities of specific people, the aura around the Yankees can come across as arrogant. Their grooming policy is archaic. Worst of all, many fans carry themselves as if they've not only been alive for all of their champions but also had the game-winning hit in the World Series.

Mets fans have their own dud fans as does every fan base. It’s just different with the Yankees. We saw the worst of it on April 23 when after the team won they had fans throwing trash on the field at Cleveland Guardians players.

Over in the locker room, players on the Mets wouldn’t be caught dead making an excuse for a poor performance. Imagine Jacob deGrom losing a game and making any excuse relating to the pregame ceremonies.

The leadership in the Citi Field home locker room will hold them accountable unlike the Yankees who seem to be trending in the wrong direction. If it’s not one of the veterans on the roster, Buck Showalter will be the one to do it. Aaron Boone will step up but only when the analytics department tells him to.

dark. Next. 5 greatest offseasons the Mets have ever had

Next
Home / New York Mets News