Quote: Manuel says Win, if you wanna be No. 1
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.
