Victoria:

I say I was raised a Mets fan because I was; my father is a huge Mets fan and he instilled that value in his daughters. We even have a sign outside of our house that says Mets Fans Parking Only—this is not a joke. But we aren’t actually all Mets fans. My mother was raised—and still is—a Yankees fan. She never converted to being a Mets fan, and it’s not that she is terribly fond of baseball. I think she still roots for the Yankees to spite my dad. Which is such a girlboss move. This is a fun anecdote for me to segue into the politics of baseball in New York City. 

Living in New York City, the boroughs are pretty divided over what baseball team they root for. Little geography fact for you, New York City is made up of five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. I think the divide in fans has to do with the history of baseball in New York City, especially considering that there was a time when there were not one, not two but three baseball teams—The Yankees, The Dodgers and The Giants. The Dodgers and The Giants have both been moved to different cities and The Mets were brought in in ’62. 

If you’re from Queens you’re most likely a Mets fan; same with Brooklyn. The Mets’ home stadium, Citi Field, is in Queens, so fans being from there just makes sense. Then people from Brooklyn were most likely Dodgers fans but then the team got moved in ’58 so they became Mets fans because it was better than trading to become a Yankees fan. 

Then Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island are a majority Yankees fans. The Staten Island Minor Leagues Baseball team used to be called the Staten Island Yankees until they announced a name switch and offered a vote. Staten Islanders, being Staten Islanders, decided to troll the ballot and voted for the Staten Island Pizzarats—that was their mistake for making a write-in option. That name was too embarrassing so we changed it to the Ferryhawks, still not grand but better than the Staten Island Yankees because 1. Unoriginal and 2. Embarrassing when you’re a Mets fan. 

Anyway, back to the point of this article—shitting on the Yankees. I’ve never had much ammunition as a Mets fan to say I hated the Yankees growing up in a place where my opinion was in the minority. It was wonderful coming to Brandeis and finding that Red Sox fans also hated the Yankees. You know what they say, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” 

I can’t really talk stats; if you’ve read any of my baseball articles you know I’m not a great source on that front. I can, however, speak to the cultural side of it. It’s just the fact that Yankees fans think they’re soooo much better than us Mets fans. Ohhh you had Derek Jeter, ohhhh you have Aaron Judge. Yeah, not for long seeing as he is a free agent. 

Also, why don’t they have a mascot? Do they not like fun or something? Do you think you’re above having a mascot? I actually looked up if the Yankees ever had a mascot and maybe it’s a good thing they don’t ’cause that thing is TERRIFYING. I mean its name is Dandy and it’s the shape of a bowling pin with pinstripes on it. I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking at but it has an orange mustache and I don’t like it and I’m now deleting my search history. 

Okay last point: sure the Yankees have been around longer. But do you know what the Mets colors are? Blue and orange. Blue for the Dodgers, orange for the Giants. The colors blue and orange are also significant to New York City’s flag. The Mets have more heart, they’re the underdogs and our stadium is cooler. 

I’m really grasping at straws here but hey you get the picture: boo Yankees. 

Justin:

So I don’t really have any beef against the Yankees. I am a Washington Nationals fan so there are no relations with the Yankees. However, similar to the Mets, the Yankees are a staple joke team of Major League Baseball (MLB). It’s probably because both teams are in New York and they get so much media attention. Anyways, the Yankees lost to the Houston Astros in four games and it honestly was not close at all. 

In the series, the Yankees had a whopping .162 batting average. That is only slightly worse than the .173 that they had for their entire postseason run. Their offense was absolutely atrocious throughout the postseason and that carried on against the Astros. They only made it that far because their pitching was actually decent this year. Contrary to what lots of Yankees fans think, pitcher Gerrit Cole is really good. He pitched in three games this post season and allowed just six runs. So don’t blame any of the losses on the pitching. Blame it on the offense. 

I am going to start with the obvious one: outfielder Aaron Judge. Judge had an incredible regular season. He set the regular season American League home run record at 62. He led the league in most offensive categories. He is probably going to win the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, even though he shouldn’t. Then who the heck knows what happened. In the series against the Astros, he had one hit in 16 at bats. A guy who is vying for one of the biggest contracts ever, just had an insane choke job in the biggest series of the season. We can also talk about third baseman Josh Donaldson. The Yankees traded Gio Urshela to the Minnesota Twins for Donaldson. Urshela was fine during the regular season, but Donaldson was terrible. He was 6% worse than the average hitter and he got paid $21 million to do so. Now let’s take a look at his stats against the Astros. He had 13 at bats and 10 strikeouts. Similar to Judge, he also had one hit in the entire series. Donaldson became the second player ever to strike out in seven consecutive postseason games. The rest of the guys weren’t as bad. Outfielder Harrison Bader was surprisingly good considering they traded for him because he was good at defense. He was by far their best offensive player. 

Something I found hilarious was how much the Yankees were complaining. In game two, the Yankees players were complaining about how one of Judge’s flyouts should have been a home run. The ball was definitely hit hard enough and high enough, but for some reason it fell just short. Yankees players and fans complained that it was because the roof of the stadium was open. You read that correctly. The players literally complained about it. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, “I think the roof open kind of killed us … I didn’t think, like, he smoked it, like, no-doubter, but it felt like his homers to right.” They were just making up excuses at that point. 

Another fun idea that came up from the loss was about how bad general manager Brian Cashman was these past couple years for the Yankees. Cashman has been the general manager for the Yankees since 1998. Overall he has been okay, but these past couple years have been rough. He decided to not sign outfielder Bryce Harper. Harper is now on the Philidelphia Phillies in the World Series, after winning the National League Championship Series MVP. They could have signed infielder Manny Machado during the same free agent class. Nope. Machado is a contender to win this year’s National League MVP award. They traded for Donaldson and infielder Isaiah Kiner-Falefa. Well I already said Donaldson was bad, but Kiner-Falefa was even worse offensively, as he was 16% worse than the average hitter. I think Yankees fans are ready for a change. 

I have to admit, the Astros are really good this year. There is no shame in getting swept by them. But there is shame when you don’t even put up a fight. On a ticket resale site, the cost of a ticket for the final game of the series was $18. Even the fans were fed up at that point. You’re the Yankees; you can’t be embarrassed like that. Now Judge is going to leave and everything is going to be even more sad. 

So overall boo Yankees.