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Prior to yesterday’s game, Jerry Manuel explained to reporters why he, from an out-of-town perspective, believes the Mets are a second-class citizen to the Yankees, saying:
We’re kind of like the second team…The Yankees have won 26, 27 championships. They’ve been here longer, I would think…That’s just the way it is. That’s just my opinion now. I don’t speak for everybody else. That’s my opinion. And being a baseball person all these years, from the outside, I’ve seen it that way. In Chicago, if you asked me, ‘What was the favorite team in New York?’ I would have to
say, ‘The Yankees.’ I don’t have a problem with that. I love playing them…Shoot, use that as motivation. If you want to be first, win. Win some world championships. Don’t be first just by popularity, or who wears what jersey. Win some championships and you can claim first. I don’t have a problem with that.”
…it’s sad, but true…i’m not happy about it, but he’s right…also, he’s right that if the Mets truly want to take the town back, they need to win…because, i think it’s quite clear that part of New York is a front-running town when it comes to baseball…
…i say that, because, to me, the two fanbases are probably split fairly even…it’s the middle ground, the undecided, fair-weather, front-runner fan who likely sways towards the championships and the cache of cheering for the favorite…and so, the team who is winning is the team with more ‘fans’…that happens to have been the Yankees over the last decade…for much of the 1980s, it was the Mets…and so on…and that’s all totally understable…
According to a poll by Quinnipiac University from last summer, which you can check out here, 52 percent of New York City baseball fans said they would back the Yankees over the Mets in a Subway Series, while only 44 percent said the Mets.
I don’t want to make a big deal about this but, why the hell would Manual say anything like this? Last I checked, he worked for the mets. His comments may be true, but come on, your a met.
I agree. I guess this guy is throwing out as many controversial and eybrow raising comments as he can to see what sticks.
In his two weeks as manager, he’s already been more interesting and colorful than Willie ever was. Not that it matters because if he doesn’t win, he’ll be just a footnote in NYM manager history too.
What was he supposed to say?
How about nothing.
ah very williesque
Well, I think that if Willie said this, every fan would go nutz.
Well, back in the good old days (mid 80’s - 1990ish), the Mets owned NY. And it wasn’t even close.
Sure, you had the hard core Yankee fans (the ones that went back to the early 60s), and some Reggie era front runners that stayed around, but NY was a Mets town in those days.
It didn’t really change back until the reign of terror started in 1995/1996.
Yeah, it wasn’t even close. I remember a poll in the Daily News back in ‘87 or ‘88, and something like 2/3 or 3/4 of baseball fans in the city were Mets fans. I also think the Mets had an advantage earlier on because a lot of the Giants and Dodgers fans switched to the Mets, so even in the early days of the franchise NYC was more of a Mets town. The combination of those fans dying off and the Yankees rising to prominence changed the balance of power of course.
If I recall, the Mets outdrew the Yankees in 1962, a year they won the World Series.
the Yankees have traditionally been second (or third) class citizens, and they’re only pretenders now.
I hate to be the hater here, but:
Mets attendance 1962: 11,532 per game
Yanks attendance 1962: 18,439 per game
Guess I don’t recall.
Hell, Yeah!
NY WAS a Mets town!
What JM says actually bears this out: when the Mets win, you know they will own NY again.
The more I hear from Manuel, the more I like.
LGM
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The reason is the Yankees always seem to have the intangibles, which are guys who come through in the clutch. The Mets (unfortunately) seem to have too many excuses.
Truth be told, I would rather focus now on the NL. The month of July has us playing 26 games against good NL teams. If the Mets can play .650 ball for a while then I think we are in the hunt. The total record would then be around .530 and we would be going into an August schedule that is much easier. July is going to be critical.
It is time to get serious and start winning every series and quit playing .500 baseball. Otherwise we need to start looking at 2009.
Manuel is correct, anyone who thinks differently is hopelessly dreaming, and if the Mets want the town, win.
Anyone who was in this town during the mid-to-late ’80s know how this type of thing fluctuates. The Mets OWNED this town back then, and they will again. NY was a National League town even when Ruth/Dimaggio/Mantle played, and it still is. It only needs a quality team to root for.
With the Yanks old and on the cusp of mediocrity, the door’s open for the Mets. Let’s hope they take advantage soon.
One thing that struck me this weekend: the Yankees are really a boring team to watch. Yeah, their offense is great, but man do their games plod along. Every single guy on the Yankees seems to take a stroll after every pitch. It’s painful to watch a Derek Jeter at bat. I absolutely love the game of baseball, but even I was reaching for my remote in some of those innings. Suddenly I felt like Homer Simpson in that episode where he gives up alcohol.
“I never realized how boring this game is!”
I think it’s the wording more than anything else. If he had said the Mets are the NY team with more to prove, it probably would have sounded better. I don’t think referring to them as the second team should be coming from the manager to the press. If you want to motivate your team with those words, better to do it in private.
Why does Manuel talk so much?? We know the deal here in NY and know there are front running yankee fans out there. We don’t need to be reminded about where we stand by our own manager. I think he’s getting too comfortable trying to be the anti-Willie. Worry about winning first. Winning cures all so let’s do that and go out there without talking smack.. Let’s do it professionally and quietly!! Enough with the rhetoric already. JUST WIN BABY!!!
because talk is all he’s got.
And he knows he isn’t, and Willie wasn’t the problem, so he’s saying stuff, pretty much doing the same thing with the team, and hoping his ‘different attitude’ earns him a job if the team turns it around despite him.
I don’t neccesarily disagree with you, but Randolph always got killed for his post game “non-remarks”.
It seems like we (as represented by the media) want it both ways - we want a guy who speaks his mind and tries to honestly answer questions, doesn’t just throw cliches out there after every win/loss, then they get skewered at every turn (gangsta, fertilizer, now this).
How long before the media gets what it deserves and Manuel starts talking without saying anything like Randolph?
Well, you know where Randolph got that from..the team the media loves, guys like Derek Jeter and the Yankees.
Double standard much?
The media is irrelevant. The only reason they ‘want’ actual content is so they have an easier job. If you win and say nothing, they won’t be able to kill you, if you don’t win and say nothing, that’s all they’ll write about.
it’s not like he’s saying that people in new york didn’t already know. the players know it too. you’re reminded on a consistent basis about the 26 championships and their endless current streak of playoff appearances. we haven’t won in twenty-two years. the yankees haven’t won in eight years but that was the end of a dynasty.
what jerry is completely correct. he’s talking reality and if the mets and their fans want to stop hearing about it then you know what has to happen. that’s it. no more excuses. that’s from the top on down. if a player is underperforming, trade him or release and eat the money. the yankees have no problem doing that, for some reason, the wilpons are reticent. pay above slot for draftees, why don’t we? treat the mets as a sacred franchise, a credit to the game instead of a frachise just off its training wheels.
wow met fans complaining that their team isnt second important in ny on a monday? didnt see that coming …sarcasm.
i dont see how this is controversial at all. its the frank truth. people here are always bitching about spin and now you get the truth and its controversial.
win. thats it. win.
I do like the picture Matt used. A chess board. The only thing more boring than watching the Yankees play “21st century” baseball.
How about a slice of Humble Pie?
ha