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June 15, 2006

The Mets

As of this morning, the New York Mets are in first place - with a lead of 8 1/2 games. Seeing this, I briefly wondered: What if the Mets make it to the World Series this year - and the Yankees do as well - and then the Mets win in all? How much will that hurt?

To be honest, it would suck - speaking as a Yankees fan. But, would it hurt more than the 2004 ALCS? More than Game 7 of the 2001 World Series? Somehow, I lived to tell after those - so, I would imagine that I could survive losing the World Series to the Mets as well (over time).

Looking at things deeper, while the Mets have bought themselves a winning team, I'm not overly impressed with their current position in the standings.

Look at the rest of the teams in their division. Washington and Florida are very bad teams. And, the Phillies and Braves are pretenders rather than contenders this season. Given the fact that the Mets get to play these four teams 76 times during the year, their team should win 90 games this season - just by showing up for the games.

Right now, the Mets have 98 games left to their season. And, the current combined winning percentage of the teams they get to play in those games is .480. To be candid, if the Mets win less than 95 games this season then they have under-performed given the state of who they get to play and how often.

There's little question now that the Mets will win the N.L. East this season - all things considered. But, that does not mean they're now the 1976 Cincinnati Reds either.

So, I should only probably worry about the Mets when they actually make it to the World Series. Until then, it's probably best - as a Yankees fan - to filter out the Mets-noise around town these days.

The Mets are just a very good team in an extremely weak division of a league with several poor teams. Think "2002 Minnesota Twins." That's what I'm going to do from now on when someone wants to tell me how great the Mets are, etc.

Posted by Steve Lombardi at June 15, 2006 10:45 AM

Comments

Ugh, not the Mets again. It's endless. WFAN, the main sports-talk radio station in New York, is very Mets-centric (outside of Mike and Chris on "Mike and the Mad Dog" every host is a Mets fan -- most of them grovelingly so). And the "Daily News" is in bed with SNY (they have a show on there and their reporters are on it every night) so every "Daily News" headline is about the Mets.

Here's the bottom line for me: the Mets are a pretty good team with just an okay pitching staff. But if you dropped the Yankees, Red Sox or Blue Jays in their division they would dominate it. Those three teams have better pitching and better lineups than the Mets. Even the Devil Rays would probably be in first place. Those horrible pitchers could never hold down the Rays' lineup. And even though their pitching gets killed in the AL, it's probably good enough to get by in the NL.

I've probably watched more Mets baseball this year than any other year (because my brother-in-law is a Mets fan and we talk about the team) and it's obvious that the NL is at its worst this year. Outside of the Cards and the Mets, you have no other good teams. These teams are pitiful. I watched the Mets annihilate the D'Backs and Phillies. The Mets' competition is just awful. There are good individual players in the NL -- Pujols, Howard, Peavey, Turnbow, etc. -- but as a whole it's a joke.

Posted by: baileywalk [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 15, 2006 12:55 PM

Considering the competition in the NL, and my belief that the Yankees, despite injuries, are the best team in the AL, a subway series wouldn't be unheard of.

Should the Yankees lose in a Subway Series, it would suck a whole hell of a lot....maybe even moreso than the Red Sox loss. This is because when we lost to the Red Sox I was at school...with other Yankee fans...this October, I will be at work...with other Met fans.

I wouldn't be able to tolerate it.

Although, I had a lot of fun at work when the Yankees won the Subway Series in 2000. lol.

Posted by: Jeteupthemiddle [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 15, 2006 01:02 PM