Feel the Game – Bobby Motus – Free Man
October 11, 2024 | 12:00 am
With two major league teams, New York City baseball fans formed a rivalry within the city. Since the venues can be accessed via the city’s subway system, it is called the Subway Series when the two teams play, bringing fans from all walks of life together.
The NY Mets play at Citi Field, which is accessible via the 7 train line. It stops at the Mets-Willets Point station. Directly across the baseball field is the Billie Jean King Tennis Center. If the Mets play on days when the US Open is held, it will be an SRO on the trains.
Yankee Stadium is where the New York Yankees play and is accessible via the 4 train line. 161st-Yankee Stadium is the station. It’s 26 blocks from where we live and only a bus ride away. A Filipino neighbor plays there frequently and I might go with him and his son just to try out.
Before, there were two other teams in New York, the Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, but both moved to California in 1957 and became the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers.
There are two other leagues with New York-based teams, the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets of the NBA and the New York Rangers and New York Islanders of the NHL. They are also called this name because when they play with each other, the playing places can also be reached by trains. But the Subway Baseball Series is more popular.
In their last game last July, the Mets, with Puerto Rican star Francisco Lindor, crushed the Yankees 12-3, thus completing a 4-game sweep of the 2024 regular season. Both teams have played a total of 151 regular and postseason games against each other. The Yankees lead by 84 games to the Mets’ 67.
They faced off in the 2000 World Series. At the time, the city painted some of the No. 4 train with the Yankees’ white and blue stripes bearing their version of the “New York” logo. Likewise, the No. 7 train carried the orange and blue colors of the Mets and their own version of the “New York” logo. The Yankees won the World Series, 4-1.
New York City news media said it was a series to remember, headlined by the showdowns between the Yankees’ Roger Clemens and the Mets’ Mike Piazza that included an incident in Game 2 in which Clemens threw a broken bat at Piazza. That week, every morning talk show was about the Yankees and Mets.
After the 2000 championship, they did not win another title until nine years later when they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies. This year, they hope to win the franchise’s first title since 2009. They have appeared in 40 World Series, winning 27 Major League Championships. The Mets have made five World Series appearances, winning twice (1969 and 1986) and are looking for title No. 3.
