Top 5 rivals in Mets history ranked

3) Mets rival: The case for the New York Yankees

The only American League team on this list, the Mets and New York Yankees are as much of a geographical rival as can be. They both represent the same city. They’re competing in the same market. Unless you live in the Bronx or Flushing, you have a hard choice as to which team to dedicate your life to.

Even if you do live down the street from either ballpark, surely there are plenty who have gone against the neighborhood and chosen the other.

The Mets and Yankees play each other every season because of the rivalry. Interleague play started. Regardless of how the schedule may change, the Mets and Yankees are always on the other’s schedule with games typically scheduled at both ballparks.

The rivalry reached a pinnacle in 2000 when the pair met in the World Series. The powerful Yankees, of course, won over the Mets who hadn’t been in the championship round since 1986. They wouldn’t make it back again until 2015.

Going up against the Yankees as a rival of any kind is tough. The Mets, under the new ownership of Steve Cohen, might have a chance to reverse the clock. Things may eventually feel a little more like the mid-1980s when the city was a bit more of orange and blue than pinstriped.