CR Sports: Tradition and the Mets

For all of Stephen and Matt's disagreements, there is only one that so strongly divides an entire city and parts of three full states.  While that second part of that statement may or may not actually be true, I'm obviously talking about the Mets/Yankees crosstown rivalry.  With the first of the two teams' annual meetings set to take place tonight, Matt and Stephen decided to dissect which offered more compelling reasons for fanhood. 

Earlier today Stephen offered a tradition-based justification for being a Yankees fan.  Matt now gives his take on the joy, or something, of rooting for the Mets:

CLICK HERE FOR PART I

Posted by Matt:

Ah, tradition.  The great thing about tradition is that it takes many forms.  In the most simplistic, and perhaps most conventional, reading of the word tradition, the Yankees do indeed have much more to brag about than the Mets.  The 27 championships, the '27 Yankees team, Mantle, Ruth (though I'd argue Willie Mays, not Ruth, was the best ever)... it's all there with the Yankees, except the stadium where most of it happened.  Sorry, low blow. 

But the Mets have tradition, too, and most of it is of a scrappier, more blue-collar variety - which is what we fans have come to love.  There is no team that embraces its underdog status, out of necessity really, more than the Mets.  We are the team that set the record for most losses in a season... in our first season in existence.  Talk about a precedent.  We won our first World Series, seven years later, after being 10 games back in the standings in mid-August.  Sixteen years later, we won our second title in one of the greatest and most improbable comebacks in World Series history (say no more).  Then our two best young players - two of the best from that entire generation of baseball athletes (Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden) - became addicted to cocaine.

Alas, this is the other side of the Mets story - the franchise that can never get out of its own way.  It's maddening sometimes, but it's a signature part of what makes being a fan of any team both interesting and rewarding.

The Yankees, at least before they tore it down to build a more expensive replacement, used to play in baseball's cathedral, but we are the guys who played our home games in a glorified 1960s trash heap for 45 of the first 47 years of our history (note that this is not in any way a knock on Shea Stadium).  We are the franchise that had it revealed during the end of a disappointing 2002 campaign that multiple players on the team were smuggling marijuana into the ballpark in peanut butter jars.  In addition to our record-setting (and not in a good way) 1962 inaugural season, we once fielded a team dubbed "the worst team money could buy."  During that 1993 season, a player of ours got in trouble for throwing a firecracker at a fan. 

And then there's the fact that in 50 years we had never thrown a no-hitter until last Friday night. 

I could go on and on, but I don't really need to.  The point is that rooting for the Yankees is like being friends with the kid in school who is good at absolutely everything - sure, they might be able to take you along for the ride, but is there anything else there?  The Mets, conversely, are like your friend or relative who just can never quite get it together: they disappoint you perpetually, but you love them anyway.  When they do succeed, you feel that much better, because you were never expecting it in the first place.  Mantle, Gehrig, and Ruth?  Our heroes in the most memorable seasons during my lifetime were people like Benny Agbayani, Endy Chavez, and Todd Pratt.  

There are so many more underdogs than favorites in life, so many more rugged dreamers than flawless perfectionists.  The Mets are the rugged dreamers and, true to form, so are many of our supporters.  We can debate the merits of whether or not that's a good thing, but it makes being a Mets fan pretty damn interesting.

Are you a New Yorker?  Just a baseball fan?  Weigh in with your thoughts on Mets v. Yankees below...