If you’re a Mets fan, especially one that lives in New York, you’ve heard a Yankee fan say the following phrase.
“I’m a Yankee fan, but I don’t hate the Mets.”
That may be true. To be fair, they’ve never really had a reason to.
When the Yankees were reeling off championships in the late 90’s, the Mets were innocent bystanders for the most part. Except for 2000, of course, when the Yankees beat the Mets in the World Series.
Post 1990, the Mets never existed as a threat for the Yankees and their fans. Most of the time the Mets didn’t even exist as a competent ball club.
The Yankees would make the playoffs every single year with some World Series trips sprinkled in.
The Mets, on the other hand, would make the playoffs once a decade with a myriad of embarrassing moments along the way. Sometimes those embarrassing moments would even materialize during the playoff appearances.
So, that Yankee fan who “doesn’t hate the Mets” may not be lying.
BUT for that statement to remain true, there needs to be a specific set of circumstances present.
The Yankees need to be good AND the Mets need to be a laughingstock. If that’s the case? Sure. They don’t hate the Mets.
They might congratulate you on a win over the Marlins after the Mets have been mathematically eliminated. Then they’ll remind you it’s Bobby Bonilla Day and go about their business.
But if you want to know how they REALLY feel? Deep down? Take a free agent from them.
They might fill the entire bingo card in one brief conversation.
– I didn’t even want Juan Soto.
– He’s not even that good.
– He’s not worth the money.
– He won’t produce anything without Judge behind him.
– He’ll be a DH in two years.
– Bellinger is better than Soto.
– Actually, Trent Grisham is better than Soto.
– He misses the Yankees.
So on and so forth.
It isn’t just that Soto chose another team over the Yankees.
If he chose to sign with the Cardinals, he probably would have gotten a tribute video when St. Louis came to town. (He did have the biggest Yankee hit in the last 15 years.)
Some fans would have booed, some fans would have cheered and that would have been the end of it.
It’s the fact that he went to the Mets.
Juan Soto turned his back on the pinstripes to play for a second rate organization.
It’s no longer a secret how the Yankee fans truly feel about the team that plays in Queens.
And the media? My God.
We know that LOLMets was their bread and butter for years. But what we are witnessing these last few months is just insanity.
I’m thankful that the national media has “First Take Hot Take Skip Bayless” brain rot. Baseball is too nuanced for these idiots to discuss it anymore.
That is evidenced by the fact that only two baseball stories have gone national this season.
Torpedo Bats and Soto leaving the Yankees for the Mets.
They didn’t even care that Pete Rose and Joe Jackson were taken off the ineligible list.
At this point the national media needs some sort of combination of Soto being a bust and the Mets not making the playoffs. Aside from that they don’t have much interest.
After this season, ESPN will no longer broadcast baseball games. Baseball fans everywhere should be rejoicing.
Before yesterday’s game, Buster Olney announced that Juan Soto would be “mic’d up” and he would be asked about Aaron Judge. Goes to show you how ESPN is interested in operating nowadays.
Credit to Juan Soto for not doing it. Maybe he learned from answering a question honestly during spring training that turned into an annoying nothing non-story for a week.
Would have been cool if Soto got a few hits last night too but that was a nice start. Time to stop giving oxygen to this dumpster fire.
Listen. This isn’t the Juan Soto we watched in Washington, San Diego and the Bronx.
He’s seeing a ton of pitches and makes the lineup better. But we have yet to see the generational talent for who we paid a King’s ransom.
With that being said, the Mets are in first place and Soto isn’t going to suddenly forget how to play baseball in his prime.
So Yankee fans can make fun of us on Bobby Bonilla Day.
But next year they are going to have to save some of their Juan Soto hate for Kyle Tucker when he chooses to play in Citi Field.
Met fans should embrace these times we are living in. I lived through the alternate reality and this is way more fun.