Jun
23
2012

Beat The Yanks: One Down, Two To Go!

An article by Connor O'Brien

I love beating the Yankees. For almost the entire year, Yankee fans are on top. They have memories of championship stories, epic stories of playoff wins, and an unbreakable confidence in their franchise, all things that I, as a 15 year-old Mets fan, don’t have. It makes me sick to my stomach sometimes how spoiled many Yankee fans are, especially the younger ones who didn’t even endure the very few years in which the Yankees were irrelevant.

Say whatever you want about the format or necessity of interleague play, but every year, it provides me six chances to get payback. Six chances to earn bragging rights. Call it mean. Call it cruel. But as a Mets fan, I’ve earned the right to be that way and earned the right to hate the Yankees.

The tale of the Yankees versus the underdogs began over a century ago, when it was the Dodgers and Giants fans who were wishing for their chances to get payback. For decades, they had to sit back and watch the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio win one championship after another. From 1900 to when the Giants and Dodgers both left the area after the 1957 season, the Yankees won 17 world championships. The Giants and Dodgers won a combined total of six.

The Yankees quickly grew in popularity in the 1920s, overtaking even John McGraw’s Giants as New York’s team. The Giants actually kicked the Yankees out of the Polo Grounds in 1921 because they were jealous of how much the Yankees out-drew them in attendance. This was the 1921 Giants, the world champions!

The animosity between the fans was huge. As Jim Bouton explained in The New York Times, the rivalry between the two teams caused a cultural division:

Growing up in the blue-collar town of Rochelle Park, N.J., you rooted for either the Brooklyn Dodgers or the New York Giants. I was a Giants fan, and I loved going to the Polo Grounds. Nobody rooted for the Yankees in Rochelle Park. It didn’t seem sporting — like shooting fish in a barrel. Yankee fans, we believed, were the sons of bankers who lived in towns with bigger houses and nicer lawns.

-Jim Bouton NY Times 6/1/12

In the 50s, the rivalries reached their heights, with all three teams having success. The Dodgers and Yankees played seven times in the World Series over a 15-year span. However, when both teams left, the cries of “wait ’til next year” went silent. Four seasons without a team left fans with no team to root for.

The Mets gave heartbroken fans something to root for. The Mets are just like the Giants and “The Brooklyn Bums”- underdogs, disrespected by Yankee fans. This new culture of fans was built around the hardiness and resilience the Dodger and Giant fans brought has spread to the entire fanbase. After all, it does take a tough person to be a Mets fan, right?

So say what you will about how meaningless interleague play is. Rant about how you think the rivalry is dead. It’s not dead. It’s still alive and well. I will always love it when we win and hate it when they lose.

C’mon Mets, pull it out this weekend. Great win last night, one down, two to go…

Beat the Yankees.

About the Author: Connor O'Brien

I am a very young, but passionate Mets fan who has blogged about the Mets for three years. I hope you all enjoy the unique perspective that a fan like me can bring to the table. More about me... favorite Met- Johan Santana... favorite food- Citi Field burgers and hot dogs!... favorite musician- Mos Def... favorite Mets moment- the no-hitter of course, but I also attended Game 1 of the 2006 NLDS as well as Johan's three-hit shutout in late September 2008. Follow me on Twitter @UpAlongFirst

5 Comments + Add Comment

alan June 23, 2012 at 9:59 am

To you young Connor…It’s great to see a young man having such passion for his team but as a Mets fan that just turned 60 years old, I can tell you that your hating the Yankees will be redirected before you know it. I felt the same way as you did but figured out that it is really Yankee fans that you hate! The players themselves are just doing their job but it is the attitude of their fans that is the problem. There is a great amount of history with the Yankee franchise and their success over the years has been attained because they always had more money than other teams. Most teams in the 1920 into the 1960′s were family owned and run that way. The teams very often were attained as secondary businesses and while they made money it was nowhere near the kind of dollars that are out there today. The Yankees have always been run like a large corporation and had the money to hire more and better scouts. Then the game itself began to change with the advent if the draft which helped to make parity. That parity coincidentally saw the dynasty’s end for the Yankees in the mid 60′s. Until then, players for the Yankees were used to winning and had swagger, but at the same time the fans began to be arrogant and pompous. In short they felt that as Yankee fans they had a birthright to always be champions. Obviously, there were some lean years for the Yankees and that’s where we saw many “so called” Yankee fans disappear. The other thing is that many of the current Yankee fans are just on board when things are good.

Being a real Met fans is to know the bad times with the good….to have many great memories along with the heartaches of seasons of frustration like we had in 2007 and 2008. Those hurt deeply. The good “Kodak” moments will raise goosebumps on your arms and bring tears to your eyes when reliving them as you get older. I no longer live 10 minutes from the ballpark and live in Arizona and cried as I saw Shea being torn down. I watch the games on satellite TV and on most mornings go to this website and others to see what is being said by other fans. Some of them are smart, some are not. Many are always at odds with how the club is being run and act as if the money that is spent by ownership is theirs. Half think they could run the team better than the managers and G.M.’s. RIDICULOUS!

Connor…..take my advice. Stay loyal to this team…..be patient as they continue to improve in the next year or so. This team has found new direction since Sandy A took over. he has made all the right moves and if those young pitching studs deliver as expected we will have a solid team that contends every year for a 6-10 year period. The other thing I suggest is to always be positive about your hopes for the team but live in reality. Far too many fans get crazy and overestimate the talent we have versus the talents of our rivals.

I am sure that we will end up being anywhere from 5-15 games above .500 this year but would that be good enough to make the playoffs?

It is always good to dream a bit but don’t let yourself lose the truth!

LET’S GO METS!
mjthompson03 June 23, 2012 at 10:05 am

I always laugh at the Yankee fan who spews out their 27 World Championships and hoopla at me. I always tell them it’s too easy to be a Yankee fan. When I see a Yankee fan I see someone who has jumped on the bandwagon. Yes, there are hardcore Yankee fans who know the franchise inside and out, but in my mind most of them don the hats and shirts because the logo is the most recognizable in baseball. Makes me sick! Then they want to yack about the storied history. I have a lot of fun throwing some Yankee trivia back at them and watch them stutter when they don’t know the answer! My favorite question to ask is, “Who is Ron Blomberg?” I personally like Interleague play, but that’s just me. In my mind it will never get old watching the Mets beat the Yankees! Great post Connor!
Connor O'Brien June 23, 2012 at 10:07 am

As I told Joe D in an email yesterday:
” Yankee fans my age have memories of winning championships. I wasn’t even old enough to see the Mets make the WS in 2000 so the only stories that I have as a Mets fan end with me crying my eyes out in ’06, ’07, and ’08. I have very few positive memories as a fan and I’ve always been jealous of what Yankee fans have. That’s why it is so important to me to beat them.”
I don’t know about some of the older fans, but the rivalry is important to me.
srt June 23, 2012 at 10:13 am

Good read Connor.
My Dad was a die hard Brooklyn Dodger fan, later becoming what would start in ’62 a life long Met fan. He’s the reason I too became a life long Met fan. Talking to my Dad last night after FF got the last out…nothing he enjoys more than seeing a Met win at the expense of a Yankee loss.
stick June 23, 2012 at 11:45 am

every win is important. But beating the yanks or the Phils always adds that extra little punch.

NL East Standings

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB
Braves	23	18	.561	-
Nationals	23	19	.548	0.5
Phillies	20	22	.476	3.5
Mets	16	23	.410	6.0
Marlins	11	31	.262	12.5

Last updated: 05/18/2013

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