You revived a zombie in order to insult the Yankees?
Well played 
8-7. Now it doesn’t matter who ultimately wins the Series.
I’ve wondered which teams local NY hobbits root for, myself.
Slightly out of the intended survey group, I suspect, but for a different data point, I’m a transplant from Cincinnati, a member of that third New York that E.B. White identified. I am also, I admit, a casual sports fan at best–the only time I’ve ever really been able to follow a sport is when I was a kid and we had season tickets to the local minor league hockey team. I just can’t be arsed to put the work into staying on top of it otherwise.
So, I came here. For baseball, for me, there wasn’t really a choice: it was the Yankees from the start. My poor grandma probably turns in her grave every time I say it, but it’s the truth. The thing is, for a casual fan like me, they’ve got the history, the pinstripes, the rings. The Mets have got… um. Well, I guess they’re some sort of heir to the Brooklyn Dodgers. On the other hand, if the Dodgers were to miraculously return… well, let’s say that if they’d been here to start with, I’d have been a Brooklyn fan in a heartbeat. Again, history and such. As a bonus, it’s vanishingly rare that I’ll have to choose between the Yankees and the Reds in a game–interleagues don’t count, and if there’s ever a Yankees-Reds world series… well, blood is blood. On an entirely practical level, I rarely make it to Yankee Stadium and visit the Staten Island Yankees and Brooklyn Cyclones whenever I can, rooting for the home team unless the Cyclones are facing the Yankees in Brooklyn.
Hockey’s a similar story, though without the complication of a hometown team. The Rangers were one of the original six, and they’re a Manhattan team. Plus, at such point as I’m inclined to drop the cash on a ticket, I’m currently walking distance to MSG. It’s much more likely for me to watch my Rangers games at the Flying Puck, a Rangers bar near MSG, and if I’m in the mood for live hockey, to visit the much cheaper Devils. (You may be seeing a trend here. What can I say; I’m frugal.)
Football I probably follow the least. To the extent that I care, I’m a Pittsburgh fan. I went to school there. The Jets and the Giants… whatever. Doubt I could find any reason at all to care about either, unless I were more of a football fan generally and they wound up with a player I liked. (That I developed no affection for the Bungles should need no explanation.)
Basketball I actively dislike.
All of that said, there’s a certain level at which I’m just a New York fan now. I focus on the Yankees and the Rangers, true, but if the Mets or Islanders wind up in the World Series or Cup Playoffs, or the Jets/Giants in the Superbowl, I’ll happily put on their cap for the day.
(Bonus: Soccer. I’m a complete tyro and rarely watch, but I have some affection for Man City because of a friend, and Zenit because I lived in SPb for a few months.)
If you wanted a connection, the Rooney and Mara families are connected by marriage. Rooney Mara, the granddaughter of both Steelers and Giants owners, will be playing the eponymous role in the upcoming The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Totally understandable that the casual fan would gravitate to the Yankees - why not?
For native New Yorkers, baseball history runs deep around here, it’s the most followed sport (more so than football, though it’s getting close) and most loyalties are handed down. For newer generations arriving to the city, it’s often predicated on either geography or which team is capturing the headlines. Given how many residents of the city are recently arrived, the recent but very long run of Yankees success (playoff appearances in 15 out of 16 years, numerous World Series and mostly victories therein) have (to my eye) skewed the weight of fans accordingly in that time in the city proper. (Those coming from elsewhere in the US typically bring their native city team allegiances with them, unless they only start following baseball after getting here.)
For me, I’ve told this story before, but I started out a default Yankees fan (one of my closest friends is a big Yankees fan) but couldn’t deal with the omnipresent hubris from the organization and many of their fans. (Not all.) I only started following MLB in 1995 as the Yankees made the playoffs for the first time in many years. I watched the ALDS with him and felt… Something. I liked this game, the lack of a game clock, the green grass, the way each individual skill seemed easy - run 90 feet, throw a ball, catch a ball, swing a bat - but putting everything together in coordination with one’s teammates and the game situation produced endless combinations of situations. And I’d played baseball as a kid, so I knew the mechanics already.
After the 1996 comeback championship I tried to get on the pinstriped bandwagon, I really did, but I just couldn’t stand my fellow travelers. Instead of reveling in the magic of the moment, all the talk was about establishing a dynasty. Pinstriped glory. Advertising slogans like “at any moment… history”. OK I get it, this is the winningest team in baseball history, in sports history, most HOF guys in Cooperstown, Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, etc., etc… But it wasn’t what I really wanted as a fan. What I wanted was an underdog story. The “I totally can’t believe that just happened” feeling (preferably in a good way), and not the sentiment of “all right, the team I expected to win just did it again!” I really enjoyed seeing the '96 Yankees win, but it seemed to me most Yankees fans seemed to take it for granted, talking like of course they would win, they’re the Yankees. This wasn’t just fan talk or sports radio callers, either - this was from listening to their broadcast teams on the TV and radio.
Pfeh.Part of my being a nominal Yankees fan was the pride in the winning history, of being a proud New Yorker, and of having been born in the Bronx and living there for the first 6 years of my life. But I grew up in Flushing, and rode the train past Shea Stadium every day to high school (including in 1986, when I totally didn’t pay attention). I started to follow the Mets. I listened to Bob Murphy, Gary Cohen, Gary Rose, Ralph Kiner… They were not homers, they were elegant and clear painters of the word pictures, they spoke to me. I had found a home.
These past 10 years I live in Flushing again less than 4 miles from the ballpark and am even a season ticket holder, so there’s no going back for me now! So far in 15 years I’ve gotten plenty of “I can’t believe that just happened”, mostly of the disappointing variety but not exclusively so, with the big prize of winning a World Series yet to happen. But I trust someday it will. Or rather, I hope. A much better way to live than in expectation, I think.
You know what I dread? The day that the NY/Brooklyn hipster set “discover” the Mets like they did Pabst Blue Ribbon or something as a reverse cachet of sincerity. It would be worse than the off color Yankees hats everywhere from a few years back.
Great post, robardin… I think you summed up the reason many of us have remained loyal to the Mets (Bob Murphy included) quite eloquently. I’ll even take the PBR crowd over the casual/bandwagon fan too…(know them well - I currently live in South Florida, where Marlins attendance was 28th in the league in the 2003 Championship season, but 65K+ fans show up for a WS game).
The oozing arrogance of certain purchased players over the years - Reggie, Giambi, Clements, ARod, etc. - makes it easy not to jump ship.
As many a Mets fan will state, my second favorite team is whoever the Yankees are playing - Lets Go Tigers!
You realize that is impossible, yes?
Let’s see . . .
Super Bowl. Triple overtime. Score 0-0. The Giants are so exhausted they don’t take the field for the third overtime and forfeit the game. Final score 1-0. Does that work?
O.K., two points.
I don’t think so. I believe in the NFL a forfeit is 2-0, unless the forfeiting team is not in the lead.
I’ll bet you a cup of coffee that a football forfeit is 1-0. A baseball forfeit is 9-0 with everyone on the starting lineup getting a hit and an RBI (IIRC). Basketball and hockey, I have no idea.
Let the rules mavens chime in.
According to this, it’s 2-0.
According to wikipedia, the score for an NFL forfeit is 2-0. Hoopy Frood provided another cite. Neither of those are what I would call definitive, so if you have a better cite please share. Unfortunately I don’t drink coffee so I can’t take your bet.
Agreed. Unfortunately, it was the best I could find with a quick google search. Most of the other sites were even less definitive. Most were just reposts of the WikiAnswers result on the topic. (And WikiAnswers is pretty much on-par with Wikipedea.)
Go Orioles
I will root for both the Mets and the Yankees. And will not separate them.