I made my opinions on a potential Yankees-Phillies matchup pretty clear last week.
You would think that Mets fans would know enough to blindly agree with what I say, but there’s still a shocking amount of Internet debate surrounding the existential dilemma we’re currently facing.
Paul at Section Five Twenty-Eight and James at Amazin’ Avenue, two gentlemen known to frequent these parts, made compelling cases for why we should root against the Phillies. I’m with them.
In fact, the main arguments against rooting against the Phillies boil down to these:
1) The Yankees buy their championships
First of all, Mets fans: Just because your glass house is falling apart doesn’t give you the right to throw stones. The Mets had the second-biggest payroll in baseball this year, and even if they didn’t spend like the Yanks did, they still tried pretty hard to buy a championship. They just did a poor job of it.
Second, there’s still nothing illegal about trying to buy a championship. The Yanks bring in a lot of cash, so they spend it on players. Would you prefer the Steinbrenners pocketed the loot? Would that be, in some way, more honorable?
The disparity in payrolls is Major League Baseball’s problem, not the Yankees. The Yankees are doing the best that they can do win. It is the league’s responsibility to regulate their spending. And if you believe that the league should do more to regulate that spending, then you should be rooting for the Yankees, because if the Yankees keep not winning World Series with the league’s highest payroll then there’s no evidence that they can actually “buy” a championship.
2) My friends are Yankee fans, and they’ll rub it in my face
Will they? Then I have a solid suggestion for you: Get some new friends.
I recognize that there’s an obnoxious sense of entitlement among some Yankee fans, but I’ve actually found it remarkably easy to filter those people out of my life. It turns out, people who are obnoxious and entitled about anything are just not too pleasant to be around. Nowadays, the Yankee fans I do interact with are mostly kind and reasonable people who recognize how lucky they are to root for a team with a $200 million payroll.
Beyond that, Mets fans: Are Yankee fans really rubbing it in your faces, or are they merely celebrating their team’s victory? Because I always sense a whole lot of Met-fan paranoia when they say, “oh, they’re taunting us,” or whatever. I often get the feeling Yankee fans couldn’t really care less about the Mets, and Mets fans simply harbor a good deal of Freudian envy toward their luckier neighbors.
3) I can’t root for A-Rod because he’s a (cheater/[expletive])
First of all: Let’s stop castigating specific people for the steroids thing. A-Rod failed a test on the condition of anonymity, then fessed up about it when the results were illegally leaked. That doesn’t make him right, but there were 103 other people on that list, and for all we know several of them are current Phillies. Lots and lots of baseball players did steroids, and so rooting against any team just because they have a player who we know for certain did steroids represents a woefully ignorant approach.
Second: Yankee fans barely even like A-Rod. If you’re a Yankee-fan-hating Mets fan, you should praise A-Rod just to tick them off. I guarantee those same entitled and obnoxious fans that threaten your sanity here in New York are the ones that have long scorned A-Rod’s unclutchiness and cancerous clubhouse presence.
Think of how he’s making them eat their words this year! And think of all the sportswriters who have been forced to question everything they thought they knew because of A-Rod’s postseason performance! That alone makes me root for the guy.
So yeah, I’m rooting for A-Rod and Yankees. Or, as Catsmeat suggested the last time I weighed in on this, some unprecedented tectonic event. Either is acceptable. Rooting for the Phillies is not.
Tedquarters 
Your picture in this post said it all. You could have saved yourself 671 words and just posted that d-bag’s picture under the heading….”Mets fans: You’re rooting for this guy?”
Ted, you do bring up some good points.
However, my friends are in fact Yankee fans, and will rub it in my face…however, this isn’t something that should come between people, and it also may be self-wrought (I have confidence about the Mets going into every season, and this year, well, it was perceived very badly seeing as the season was a train wreck.
Who knows what we can do. We’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t.
Really, Omar Minaya could’ve saved us all a lot of hand-wringing and grief, and released Ken Takahashi this coming Wednesday.
Think of how caught up we’d’ve been in THAT. The Series could’ve come and gone, and no one in orange and blue would’ve noticed.
Maybe there’ll be a presser about resigning Emil Brown, or Daniel Murphy buying a new car.
Thanks, as always, for the link back,
Paul
I’ve been leaning towards the Yankees but have trouble bringing myself to officially commit to such a decision. That picture of Victorino helps, but not as much as this picture of C.C. Sabathia, even if it is from his Milwaukee days. http://www.theonion.com/content/news/c_c_sabathia_prince_fielder_keep
Giant chili dog or not, C.C. is actually one of the reasons I’ve been leavning towards the Yankees.
“On Monday, Yost announced that any player who attempted to devour another, no matter how delicious they seemed to appear, would be subject to disciplinary action. However, like many disciplinary measures involving athletes, the decree seemed only to make those involved more cunning.”
Actually, no.
The only one I’m close to agreeing with is #2. But it’s not friends as much as family. And it’s not informed fans (like my Uncle, who throws a few barbs here and there, but at least knows what he’s talking about) it’s the casual Yankees can do no wrong who’s #27 again Lets go Yankees they’re the best hahahaha. Some of these are cousins and coworkers and etc.
But beyond that, it’s not so much this week, as it’s next year, and the year after that..etc. It’s when the Subway Series comes around again. It’s when next October comes and maybe both teams are in the playoffs and 27 rings and Jeter is a god gets thrown around.
It’s the fact that the Phillies victory is tied into the Mets struggles, while the Yankees are not. I can get joy out of the Yankees losing, but if the Phillies lose, they still ‘beat’ us, the Mets still didn’t win the division, and while there is some momentary joy in them not having another ring, it’s fleeting.
Many Mets fans want to be the ‘lovable underdog’ or some such. Well, having to take the division from 2-time champs would make that more so, as it would heighten the level of the Mets-Phillies rivalry.
In terms of historical comparisons of franchises, I had being regarded as the ‘little brother’ of the Yankees, especially when if the Mets were good, it wouldn’t be the case. Giving them an 8th ring to our 2 would only make that case stronger, whereas giving a third ring to Philly would not be as insurmountable.
i think every last one of you mets fans that can envision any baseball related fate worse than a yankees 27th championship are bats@#t insane
Can I still root for Pedro?
I blogged this: http://www.blueandorange.net/?p=758
I just hate the Yankees more and it’s well within my right to have that preference. As I mentioned to Ted on Twitter earlier, I’m a bit peeved about this becoming a right/wrong issue. It’s not so clear cut; Phillies and Yankees is about the difference between AIDS and pancreatic cancer.
I have thought a lot about this, and this is my conclusion:
GO ORIOLES!!!!
Seeing the still frames of Vic Torino running out of his way into Jose to get that interference call pushed me solidly into the “I’ll be watching other sports or reading or maybe at a movie with my girlfriend” camp.
Come to think of it, Game 1 is on Wednesday night? I’ll be seeing “Where the Wild Things Are” with the old lady. I will also silently be rooting for the aforementioned earthquake.
Maybe it’s because most of my close friends and family are Met fans, or because my Yankee fan friends are pretty rational non-obnoxious people, but I don’t hate the Yankees. The Red Sox and their fans are far higher on my “hate list” (which is an extensive list, mind you).
Yeah I’m actually in the same boat. I wonder if this has something to do with Georgetown. The two of us make for a small sample size, but it felt like the Boston and Philly fans there were particularly obnoxious.
From my experience, Boston and Philly fans are particularly obnoxious everywhere.
You have an extensive hate list? Who would’ve known?
Is this analogous to 1986, Mets v. Red Sox? What was this Yankee fan to do? Let’s go Mets. It’s a NEW YORK thing.