NEXT weekend, the first one in June, the Mets get the Yankees. The last weekend in June they get the Braves. By month’s end we will see what this team has done with its greatest opportunity yet of the 1990s.
For not since 1990, when the Yankees and Braves produced the worst records in their respective leagues (the booby prize for the Yankees was Brien Taylor), have these two organizations been this vulnerable to the Mets at the same time. And since they symbolize nothing short of the two great nemeses of the Mets – one for city bragging rights, one for NL East supremacy – June only represents the kind of grand opportunity that may just come along once every decade or so.
“I do believe in this short window we do have an opportunity to improve our position in both the city and our division,” Mets GM Steve Phillips said. “That does not mean we will surpass those teams. That remains to be seen.”
At present, the Braves and Yankees are playing like aging heavyweight champs, expecting the judges to give them the fights based on stature and reputation regardless of how few legitimate punches they throw. And maybe this analogy should be honored by the Mets, who should feel the urgency that nothing short of a knockout will give them the belt. June, if nothing else, affords the Mets an opening to buckle the legs of the Braves and Yankees.
That concept would have seemed inconceivable in spring. The Yankees were expected to come back to the pack some after 114 regular-season wins last season, but not nearly enough to cede Big Apple dominance. And the Braves lost Andres Galarraga for at least this season to cancer, but not their footing as perceived kings of the NL East.
But a funny thing has happened on the way to the expected. The Mets have outperformed the Yanks at nearly every position while the best 1999 work by Brave aces Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux has been in a sneaker commercial rather than on the mound. That has enabled the Mets – at least record wise – to play with the Yankees and Braves. Starting next weekend in The Bronx, they actually get to play the Yankees and, later in June, the Braves.
This organization needs to seize the possibility. Needs to send a message crosstown and intra-division and to their fans that they are ready to be taken seriously. To own their city and their division simultaneously for the first time since 1988. And why shouldn’t they rise to that challenge?
This will come as a crushing blow to George Steinbrenner – which could mean wholesale firings at any second – but the more interesting team in town right now is the Mets.
Once you get beyond the glamour of Derek Jeter and Mike Piazza, the two most exciting New York players are Roger Cedeno and Armando Benitez, though it will be fascinating to see what happens to Benitez if he has a showdown with Tino Martinez.
The Mets’ Japanese pitching import, Masato Yoshii, has it all over the more famous Hideki Irabu. There is no Dwight Gooden or Darryl Strawberry around this time for the Yankees to torment the Mets. The depth, diversity and hitting eye that has long been the staple of the Yankee batting order is now advantage Mets. The Mets’ bullpen is deeper; their hunger more palpable.
As for the Braves, their one great edge over the rest of baseball has slipped. Maddux and Glavine are a combined 7-8 with a 5.01 ERA and a .321 batting average against. John Smoltz is on the DL. Ryan Klesko is doing a nice job replacing Galarraga at first, but the Braves are getting terrible production out of the left-field spot vacated by Klesko. And their perennial problems – lack of a bonafide leadoff hitter and closer – remain.
It should be pointed out that despite their problems, the Yankees and Braves have remained among the elite teams in their leagues.
Phillips thinks the Yankees are going to be fine, that a talented team has merely “hit the kind of skid that happens in baseball.” Phillips, though, said because the Braves are facing some injury problems their situation is more perilous. Nevertheless, he professed the utmost respect for Braves’ front office’s ability to solve problems.
Still, there are troubles there for both the Yankees and Braves. A door is open to the city and to the NL East that has not been previously open to the Mets in the 1990s.
It is the opportunity of a decade. Are the Mets up to the challenge?