Subway Series?

“The New York Yankees have the greatest fans in the world...I can’t imagine they will jump ship.”

The above quote was attributed to George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, referring to the sudden recent increase in support for their crosstown rivals the New York Mets. As someone who would only switch allegiance from Charlton under clear and present threat of death, it's certainly a curious comment.

New York has gone baseball-mad because the regular 162-game season ended last weekend and both of their teams finished with an identical (and joint best) 97-65 win/loss record. Hence the mighty Yankees and usually hapless Mets enter the post-season play-offs as favourites and 2nd favourites respectively to lift the World Series title later this month.

The Yankees won the first in a best-of-5 series with the Detroit Tigers last night, the winners playing either the Oakland Athletics or Minnesota Twins for the right to represent the American League in the World Series. Meanwhile the Mets begin their own series against the LA Dodgers this evening, and if successful will face either the St Louis Cardinals or San Diego Padres for the right to represent the National League. If both New York teams triumph, it will represent the first so-called 'Subway Series' since 2000 when the Mets and Yankees competed for the World Series for the first and only time (the Mets were only formed in 1962).

Although a Subway Series would whip up a frenzy in this already crazy city, it would be the least desirable match-up for the TV companies such is the disdain felt for New York in much of the US. Indeed the 2000 series received what was at that time, the worst television ratings for a World Series, though last year's one-sided Chicago White Sox/Houston Astros series was even more of a turn-off. However, given that the last Subway Series occurred less than a year prior to 9/11, it is certainly possible that the country will rally around its biggest city as it continues its amazing recovery. Not surprisingly perhaps, the broadcasters would love a Yankees/LA Dodgers World Series drawing millions of fans from the two largest TV markets as well as providing the sort of 'angle' (East Coast vs West Coast) that also attracts the neutral.

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, the Yankees regularly competed with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants in their own versions of the 'Subway Series' but the Dodgers decamped to LA whilst the Giants now find themselves up the coast in San Francisco. Indeed it is this very mobility of the so-called US sporting 'franchises' which probably helps to explain Steinbrenner's quote above. I can only hope he is referring to the many 'neutrals' in the city who are deciding who to back, but if not it backs up my view (which is not always well-received) that the devotion felt by a British football fan will never be matched here.

When I arrived in the city, there was no question about who I would support, namely the Mets. As a Charlton fan, and thus the perennial underdog, it would have felt very unusual to support the Yankees whose 26 World Series titles renders them very firmly as the 'Man Utd' or 'Liverpool' of Major League baseball. Moreover from my experience, the Yankees fans are a far more boisterous lot than their more thoughtful compatriots at Shea Stadium, perhaps a perfect parallel between Millwall and Charlton. Oh and finally, the Mets have an injury crisis right now.

Either way however, I've near bugger all chance of getting hold of a ticket so I'll be watching it unfold on TV. And if those legions of Charlton fans heading to Fulham on Monday week are moaning about the inconvenience of an 8pm Monday night kick-off, bear in mind that today's Mets game starts at 4pm in New York on a weekday purely to accommodate the demands of the TV companies.