It was 18 years ago that the Yankees first began to show signs that they were emerging from the haze. They won 88 games that year, finished seven games behind the defending-champion Blue Jays, drew more than 2.4 million fans to old Yankee Stadium.
Simultaneously, the Mets bottomed out, lost 103, were tossing firecrackers at children and squirting bleach at reporters when they weren’t threatening to show them The Bronx. The Mets attracted less than 1.9 million to old Shea Stadium that year.
It was the first time in 10 years the Yankees had outdrawn the Mets. In some of those seasons, the gap between them had been more than a million paying customers, and there was a growing belief that New York had finally and permanently embraced its “National League Town” roots. Yes, based on where we sit today, that sounds as ridiculous as Turtle becoming a millionaire on “Entourage.” But it’s true. You can look it up.
Eighteen years later, though, it is impossible to fathom. By most definitions, a generation is anywhere between 25 and 30 years, or the average difference in age between parents and their offspring. But in baseball, 18 works better. Eighteen takes you from cradle to college, from kindergarten to kegger, and the years in between, presumably, are when baseball means the most to you.
So an entire generation of New York baseball children have been born, raised and sent off into the world knowing only one pecking order in New York City. The Mets have had their moments: 1999, 2000, and 2006, and even the agonizing Septembers that followed. There remain a lot of Mets fans, through their struggles, in the same way there always were plenty of Dodgers fans in the ’30s and Giants fans in the ’40s.
But it’s a resounding Yankees town now. It’s been a resounding Yankees town before — from 1976-83 the Yankees not only outdrew the Mets 2-to-1 in some years, but they were building a miniature dynasty while the Mets were losing 96 games a year, hopelessly out of the race by Memorial Day every year. As bad as it’s felt to be a Mets fan the last three years, this hasn’t even been close to those years.
And yet, by 1986, the Mets ruled the city again, and the Yankees were heading headlong toward Palookaville. So it happened once. Could it happen again?
Well, anything’s possible. But there are a few things to remember. The Mets were helped along in the ’80s by the fact that the Yankees simultaneously crashed and burned, spending 18 years — there’s that magic number again — without a championship, an eternity in Yankees years. If the Yankees had kept making the playoffs, then the great siphoning of “fence” fans would have been less inclined to pick Flushing over The Bronx.
And there is this to consider: Mets fans often lament that if there had been a wild-card system in place, no matter how you split teams up, the Mets would have made the playoffs every year from 1984-90, and who knows how those five extra appearances might have helped their collection of Commissioner’s Trophies. But by using the same standard, the Yankees would have easily qualified in 1985 and ’86, and may well have done so in ’84 and ’87, too, which certainly would have slowed the Mets’ rise to citywide pre-eminence.
Bottom line: The Yankees aren’t going anywhere, which is far different than cynics who believe the Mets are going nowhere.
Could it happen? Sure it could. But if it does, it will be a far more difficult for the Sandy Alderson Mets than it was for the Frank Cashen Mets. Because soon enough, New York’s “National League Town” legacy will have flimsier roots than Lady Gaga.
WHACK BACK AT VAC
Richard Lense: Jorge Posada’s division-clinching hit was, for me, a “Field of Dreams” moment.
VAC: Seconds before the hit, I Tweeted, “Man, this would be cool,” without detailing who or what I was talking about. And seconds afterward, I got a bunch of replies all saying essentially the same thing: “Yes, Mike, it was.”
Adam Kaback: As a die-hard Jets fan, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the medical staff doesn’t consult with the Mets’ staff on how to treat a [Nick Mangold’s] high-ankle sprain (Hello, Ike Davis). If they do, we better be scanning the free-agent market looking for a center capable of starting the next 10-12 weeks!
VAC: And that’s with a hopeful prognosis.
Marty Gavin: I’m still haunted by what my son, Chris, said moments after Carlos Beltran went down looking in 2006, as I tried to comfort him by talking about “next year.” He said, “But Dad, you don’t know that. Look at the Red Sox. What if it takes 80 years?” So the clock is ticking here, and you have to be in it to win it … I say, bring the pain of ‘07 and ‘08 back! I can take it! I’m well trained!
VAC: I think the worst part was seeing the Mets on the periphery of other people’s pennant chases the last week. Which is lately what passes for — all together now — “meaningful games in September.”
Mike DiDio: I think the real problem with Eli Manning is the Giants could have had Philip Rivers or Ben Roethlisberger. If those two had gone first and then we got Eli, I’d be happy and wouldn’t look back. But every time he throws one up for grabs I say, “We could have had one of the other two and kept the pick the Chargers used on Shawne Merriman.”
VAC: Eli winning the Super Bowl has softened what would otherwise undoubtedly have been a constant roar. And the fact that Merriman was exposed as a steroid creation kept the noise down, too.
VAC’S WHACKS
* I would believe Russell Martin’s expression of hatred for the Red Sox a little more if this wasn’t a guy who, until 15 minutes ago, had been taught to feel the same kind of hostility toward the Giants.
* It has to have been tough being a Mets fan the past three years, but there had to be some kind of gallows pleasure watching them inflict the kind of nerve-shattering damage on the Braves and Cardinals this week that the Marlins and Nationals visited upon them in 2007 and 2008.
* After a week or so of new-season TV, my very quick and very subjective takes on some freshmen shows — Thumbs up: “New Girl,” “Free Agents,” “Unforgettable,” “Prime Suspect.” Thumbs down: “Playboy Club,” “Whitney.” Willing to give one more week: “Revenge,” and “Up All Night.”
* I was reminded this week, spending a day around the leadership of the Long Island CYO, just how worthwhile that group — and every organized youth sports operation that devotes so much time to kids and athletics — really is. Playing CYO hoops for St. Thomas the Apostle remains one of the greatest experiences of my life. And I fully expect to beat OLV one of these days when it counts, too.