Nope.
"Hearing more talk about how the Mets keep finding ways to win?"
Yes. Because they have been winning.
One guy at the Ledger basically said he'd rather watch tennis than watch the Yankees.
"But some telling evidence points to trouble for the Yankees and a boon for the Mets, suggesting that New York might be turning into a Mets town for the first time since their championship season of 1986."
Nope.
"It is not just a feeling. By the measures of attendance and television viewership, the Mets are surging while their crosstown rivals are sliding a bit."
And when I say evidence, I mean "evidence."
"It is an improbable reversal of fortune, given that the Yankees have dominated the market so clearly since they won four World Series from 1996 to 2000, capped by a triumph over the Mets in the so-called Subway Series."
It's not improbable by any means, and it's not even a reversal of fortune.
The Yankees haven't been too good in several years. The Mets just happened to be even worse.
If you viewed these teams independently, you'd see nothing unusual at all. The Toronto attendance is up, the Phillies attendance is down.
The "buzz" factor is enhanced precisely because it has been so long.
"The Yankees’ paid attendance at home is averaging 39,537 a game, down 5.6 percent from the average at this time last year, according to Baseball-Reference.com. The Yankees, who trail first-place Toronto by three games in the American League East, have never averaged below 40,000 fans a game since moving to the new Yankee Stadium in 2009.
(Major League Baseball, which calculates attendance differently, has the Yankees’ average home attendance at 40,086.)
The Mets are averaging 31,257 a game this season, a 17.6 percent rise from last season. That is still about 10,000 short of the capacity at Citi Field, but this season’s increase of 4,689 fans a game represents a drastic shift from a dispiriting trend: Attendance had fallen almost 32 percent from a peak of 38,941 during the inaugural season of the ballpark six years ago."
Like I said, fair weather fans.
"Yet perhaps a more precise reflection of the passion of a fan base is viewership on a team’s cable television channel. After all, most fans prefer to watch games without having to buy tickets, which can be expensive."
I'd say TV viewing is not a more precise reflection of the passion of a fan base.
"But the Yankees, who averaged 454,000 viewers a game in 2007, are drawing only 256,000 this season, a 10 percent decrease from 2014 after a comparable number of games."
What you're really saying is that nobody watches baseball on TV.
Which partially explains why writers can get away with nonsense like "Teixeira is a gold glover," but I digress.
The Yankees' TV audience fell from 454,000 in 2007 to 284,000 in 2014. To what do you attribute this fall in TV ratings? Because it damned sure wasn't the Mets buzz drawing Yankee fans away.
"The Mets’ average television audience, which reached a high of 314,171 in 2007, bottomed out at 138,627 in 2013 before a slight revival to just over 144,000 last season.
But so far this season, viewership is up 62 percent, to 240,091 a game. And games are averaging 324,195 viewers since the Mets acquired the slugging outfielder Yoenis Cespedes on July 31.
For the season, the Yankees’ lead over the Mets in average viewership is about 20,000 — a far cry from four years ago, when the difference was more than 200,000."
Pitiful.
I mean, what can I say, I'm shocked.
Nobody watches regular season baseball on TV.
Check out the propaganda pics in this article. You don't think the press acts like free PR for the Mets?
I like the ACTION PICTURE of Ruben Tejada running home!
Juxtaposed with Gardner hitting a HR in a sullen, empty Yankee Stadium ... ignoring the fact that it was the second game of a rain-drenched double header.
"The Yankees are an older, less flashy team that lost much of its charisma with the retirements of Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter in 2013 and 2014."
I agree. But those two were playing from 2008 - 2014, while TV ratings tanked. So maybe lots of fans got 4G phones or something. Maybe TV ratings are not really a good reflection of the passion of a team's fan base.
"The former ace C. C. Sabathia is struggling with a bad knee and the wear and tear of pitching nearly 3,000 innings in his career, and the Yankees’ current top pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka, is soldiering on with a slightly torn elbow ligament."
Well, Sabathia and Tanaka may not be big draws, but Sabathia (CC, not C.C., please) has been coming up clutch down the stretch ... and Tanaka is the best starting pitcher in New York.
"Their biggest star is probably Alex Rodriguez, whose unlikely comeback after a season-long suspension has helped keep the Yankees in the pennant race. Although it seems that fans have grudgingly accepted him because he is producing well and not causing trouble, he is not a Jeter-like presence who draws fans to the stadium in droves.
Jeter merchandise is the hottest seller among all Yankees, according to Fanatics.com, a retailer. The Yankees are the top-selling team in Major League Baseball this season, but sales of Mets goods, led by those of pitcher Matt Harvey, are up 140 percent this season and 300 percent this month compared with figures from 2014."
The Yankees are the top-selling team in MLB this season ... but the Mets are up 10,000%!
The GDP of the United States is still #1 in the world ... but Estonia's GDP is up 12%! Because they got a new Dairy Queen right near the gas station!
"Still, the task of turning New York into a Mets town is far from complete. Prince, the blogger, offered two ways to measure future progress: when Mets caps are highly visible on all trains, not just the 7 line to Flushing, and when a fan’s request to turn a restaurant television to a Mets game is not met with a look 'like you have three eyes.'"
Gee, very compelling "evidence."
I heard a guy call a radio show today and say he converted to a Mets fan. He was on the way to Yankee Stadium on Friday night when he turned around and headed for Citi Field. Which is a cute story, but the Mets were playing in Atlanta that night.
I know lots of Yankee fans and I know lots of Mets fans. I actually know one guy who sort of converted. More like he started paying attention to the Mets as well as the Yankees. Doesn't bother me. I'm sure most Mets fans don't want ex-Yankee front runners invading their ballpark, am I right?
So you're not fooling anybody ... and nobody cares who you root for. Nobody. I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true.
"More important, they probably need to do well in the postseason and then re-sign Cespedes.
'I think we have a great chance of going all the way,' Breuer said."
Comedian Jim Breuer, by the way.
Your go-to guy for expertise in ... I don't know what.
"Before that can happen, the two teams will play each other this weekend for the first time since April, when the Yankees took two of three games.
They may want to remind the Mets again of who has been boss for so many years."
I despise the subway series, and this is another reason why.
The Yankees don't need to be crowned Kings of New York ... they're going to have enough trouble hanging on to a Wild Card spot. So taking two out of three is imperative for the Yankees ... just like taking the series against Tampa is imperative.
The Mets have nothing to prove, they already crushed the Washington Grapes.
The Mets are better than the Yankees this year. It finally happened. Give Mike Lupica and everyone else in the press a cookie. They've been waiting for it for 20 years.
Is it as good as you thought it would be?
Or are you setting yourself up for a sweep by the Dodgers?
It would be ironic if the Yankees made it to the ALCS and the Mets got bombed in the first round. The disinterested press should be banned from the press box and the fair weather fans trying to transfer from the 7 train should be blocked at Grand Central.
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