The Yankees finished with the best record in baseball, swept the red-hot Twins in the ALDS and are now playing the Angels in the American League Championship Series. The Phillies won their third straight division title, were clutch in Colorado and are now trying to repeat as National League Champions. Both teams are currently three wins away from a World Series showdown.
I am a Mets fan. I hate the Yankees. I hate the Phillies. I hate the possibility of a Yankees-Phillies World Series, although I know it might very well happen. However, if the world is to continue spinning on its axis, we CANNOT have a Yankees-Phillies Fall Classic (or Fall Crassic, if you will).
As Mets fans, how could we root for either team? Yay, Derek Jeter just struck out with the bases loaded! Oh wait, it was Cole Hamels who struck him out. Woohoo, Utley just let a ball go through his legs! Here comes A-Rod to score the go-ahead run. Ugh! See what I mean?
This potential World Series matchup would be like 1999 all over again for Mets fans. In 1999, Kenny Rogers roasted the Mets and their fans by walking every member of the Atlanta Braves in the bottom of the 11th.
Random thought: Perhaps this is where Oliver Perez learned his mantra of “walks are part of the game”. If he was going to learn from a master, he should have learned from Pai Mei and not from the Gambler.
Because of Kenny’s donations to the Atlanta Frequent Walker Club, we were subjected to a Yankees-Braves World Series. I did not watch a single pitch of that World Series because I couldn’t root for the Bronx Bummers or the team that prevented the Mets from playing on.
Although the same teams faced each other in the 1996 World Series, the Braves did not have the same rivalry with the Mets in ’96 as they did in ’99 (the Mets were 71-91 in 1996). Therefore, that World Series wasn’t as unwatchable as the ’99 Series was.
If I’m going to blog about the 2009 World Series, I would probably need to watch at least one pitch of it. I can be sure that if the Yankees play the Phillies, I’ll be watching “Ghost Hunters” or the series premiere of “V” instead.
In addition to it being an unwatchable World Series for Mets fans, please recall that the Yankees and Phillies have played each other in the World Series once before. That was in 1950, when the Yankees swept the so-called “Whiz Kids”, which was the stupid name the Phillies were playfully known as that season. What happened after that World Series? The USA entered the Korean War and the Yankees went on to win the next three World Series.
We do not need a repeat of that! As the movie “Team America: World Police” so succinctly stated, don’t mess with Kim Jong-il! America does not need more conflict overseas and Mets fans certainly don’t need to see Alex Rodriguez finally win a ring or three, thereby becoming a “True Yankee”.
Let’s hope the Angels and Dodgers can pull out victories in their respective series to prevent our hated rivals from winning a pennant and playing for a World Series Championship.
I would like to watch baseball in November and not have to worry that a particular fan base will be spending the entire winter bragging about their pennant and/or championship. Say it with me, loud and proud! Just say NO to a Yankees-Phillies World Series!
