Met life

Shea's tenants can't even keep up with 'slumping' Yanks

The Yankees have been in something of a funk lately. They'd lost three of five heading into Wednesday, dropping them to 20-6. They're on pace to win about 125 games.

The glitch in the machine might provide a few glimmers of false hope in places such as Red Sox Nation, but mainly it's a blessing for Yankees fans themselves, who have been struggling with embarrassment over their team's riches. It's one thing to root for baseball's best club, which the Yanks have been, more or less, for seven years now, but it's quite another to support a team that humiliates demonstrably weaker opponents. ("We were lam-BAH-sted, and lam-BAY-sted," sniveled Twins manager Ron Gardenhire after Minnesota was outscored 38-9 in losing four straight to New York.) There's little glory in rooting for Goliath against David, or the hare against the tortoise.

The conundrum: When your team has a $21 million Japanese home run king (Hideki Matsui) and a $32 million Cuban Clemens in the minors (Jose Contreras), and a $14 million should-be quarterback in Class AAA (Drew Henson), you're bound to be a bit sheepish after an 18-3 start. Sensitive Yankees fans -- and, yes, a few such exist -- would be happy to see the team drop a few more games and join the mortal ranks.

I know a lot of Yankees fans, and their discomfort shows. Rather than talk about how splendidly they've played -- and without Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, to boot -- these fans are now resorting to the rare dissing of the crosstown Mets. When Yankees fans are at ease in their royal skin, the Mets are insignificant, not worthy of scorn. Now? "The circus is in town," they say. "It's playing at Shea Stadium."

This is particularly vexing for the Mets fan, because they crack similar jokes among themselves. Anyone who is not a Yankees fan, or who is a Yankees fan and can remember the troubles of the 1960s and '80s, knows that the true test of a team devotee is his fealty when his team is at its lowest ebb. True Tigers fans look at Wednesday's standings, see their team's 3-21 record, sigh, say a prayer to Al Kaline, then pull on their navy caps with the white D and face the world. Diehard Indians fans are still proud of their tribe, even if Cleveland is 7-19. The best Pirates fans embrace the notion that, even on a 2-8 skein, they are all Fam-i-lee.

The Mets fans a have endured similar challenges, and not just in 1962, when the club was so cute that losing didn't matter. The doldrums of the late '70s and early '80s was a stern test of loyalty. That allegiance paid its greatest dividends to the faithful, those who endured Juan Samuel and Vince Coleman, in the Mets' more recent rise from ineptitude to Mike Piazza-led respectability in the late 1990s

But today's Mets are a hard, hard team to love. The strike out so much. They can't catch the ball. And so few of them seem to care. A Mets fan really does want Armando Benitez to get his groove back, but, well, he looks so bored out there sometimes. It would be a lot easier to be struggling around .500 if there were more guys like Tug McGraw around.

The Mets' payroll is second to the Yankees', but the disparity isn't small. The Yankees may spend about $35 million more than any other team, but the Mets have more than enough dough to work with. They could afford the first-place Kansas City Royals roster three times over. Yet their budget has been botched. It's a poorly envisioned, badly constructed, fat-cat team. Vaughn. Cedeno. Burnitz. Floyd. Alomar. It doesn't add up. Mets fans, who relish the underdog role (with the Yankees across town they have no choice), like their team to be scrappy and smart. Instead they have a team that's lazy and lacking in fundamental instincts that even Little Leaguers possess.

Oh, it's a trying time for the Mets fan (although his love, even now, is true). About the only solace a Mets fan really has is that he or she is not a Yankees fan. Now that would be embarrassing.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy takes sides each week at SI.com.

 

Related information

Stories

Previous Kostya Kennedy columns

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video