Beware the eye-rolls of Pittsburgh fans. Look out for the stink-eye glares from Kansas City, and Oakland, and Cincinnati, and Cleveland. Be on guard for venomous glares from Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Milwaukee.
We are on our own here.
“You know what the rest of the country calls that ‘Golden Age of Baseball’ you ever-so-breathlessly write about every once in a while?” a decidedly midwestern friend asked me not long ago, referring to the days when the Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants ruled major league baseball, specifically the years 1947-57.
“We call it The Dark Ages,” he helpfully replied. “Nobody wants the Dark Ages back. Except you.”
OK. So shoot us. I think New York baseball has actually been quite generous the past six decades. The Yankees and the Mets have shared Gotham since 1962, after all, and in that time they have been consistent in but one thing: They have failed to replicate that halcyon time when the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants dominated the standings.
In 60 shared years together, the Mets and Yankees have finished in first place in the same year exactly once — in 2006, when both teams were 97-65, the Yankees finishing 10 games up on the Blue Jays and the Mets 12 up on the Phillies. Neither team made it to the World Series that year, Detroit and St. Louis kneecapping both clubs in the playoffs.
In 60 shared years together, in fact, the Mets and Yankees have only occasionally shared prosperous times. Since 1995, when the wild card was invented, they have made the postseason together exactly four times in 27 years: 1999, 2000, 2006 and 2015. And there has been, of course, only one Subway World Series, in 2000, an event in which New York bathed itself in glory while the rest of the country impatiently waited for it to be over.
So it’s not as if baseball has suffered from New York overload.
Only, in the summer of 2022, it seems like that’s about to change. We are now officially beyond quirky small sample sizes, and we can declare with a modicum of comfort: The Yankees and the Mets are having scorching-hot seasons.
The Mets have already overcome some ominous injury concerns and were on a 105-win pace entering Saturday. The Yankees have overcome the most pessimistic fears of their own fan base and simply become addicted to winning. Heading into their game Saturday night against the Cubs, they were on a 117-win pace. That would be a record.
But even if they cool off a little, this promises to ape the kind of summer our grandfathers used to accept as routine. From 1921-57, the Yankees and Dodgers finished in first place in the same year seven times; the Yankees and the Giants did that six times; and of course there was 1951, when all three finished with a piece of first place.
Once the Dodgers and Giants escaped to the West Coast, it took until 1985 before the Mets and Yankees gave us a shared summer of brilliance. You could argue the first great day of that modern New York era was Sept. 12, 1985, when in the afternoon the Mets won a wild 7-6 walk-off against the Cardinals, edging into first place by a game, and at night the Yankees held off the Jays, 7-5, drawing to within a game-and-a-half — as close as they got the rest of the way.
See? New York has shown restraint, even in the fact of regular criticism that MLB is rigged to service the big-market teams. There may be some truth to that — and the fact that the season was delayed by a lockout initiated by the small-marketeers puts an added layer of laments on the pile — but look at the markets that share teams. See how often they’ve faced each other in the World Series since the first wave of expansion in 1961.
New York: once, 2000.
Chicago: none (though the Cubs and White Sox did play in 1906).
Los Angeles: none.
San Francisco Bay: once, 1989.
So we will take this summer, and we will enjoy this summer. Bronx or Queens, Major Deegan or Northern Boulevard, AL or NL, Yankees or Mets: For once, everyone is happy, everyone is smiling, everyone is enjoying the ebb and flow of the long season because there’s a surplus of flow and a minimum of ebb. Maybe it’s unrealistic to expect that to last all summer.
But here’s a thought to sustain us for a bit: Maybe it’s not.
Vac’s Whacks
Good for Kenny Atkinson, hired Friday by the Hornets. If there’s justice in the world, he’ll taste a Finals before Sean Marks does. And if you know anything about the Chaminade/St. Anthony’s rivalry, you know I mean that sincerely.
The bum who punched that Lightning fan out on their way out of the Garden shouldn’t just get a lifetime ban from MSG but from every ballpark, arena and racetrack from here to Monmouth Park.
It’s hard to believe, but Thursday will be 25 years since the first Subway Series game, a 6-0 Mets win. Dave Mlicki, who had his finest hour as a big leaguer, went the distance, then chatted with the media so long he missed the team bus and needed to take a cab back to Shea Stadium.
Have to say, I’ve long been a fan of Jessica Biel, so “Candy” on Hulu is right in my wheelhouse. Added bonus: Timothy Simons (Jonah from “Veep,” below), note-perfect as always.
Whack Back at Vac
Ted Amoruso: It’s only June, and already not a good year for baseball managers named Joe.
Vac: Right now I have to believe the manager of the White Sox is quite grateful that his parents named him “Anthony.”
Stewart Summers: The NBA had better hope Saudi Arabia doesn’t start its own basketball league and offer nine-figure appearance fees to superstar pro basketball players who come on board.
Vac: And thus was an idea hatched.
@Derek09329884: This Mets team appears weak by not responding to getting hit by so many pitches. They also look like they quit. No fight in them. Buck Showalter is not protecting his players.
@MikeVacc: This is where slippery slopes come into play. Did anyone really think Yu Darvish hit Pete Alonso on purpose? The Mets have plenty of baseball fight in them; can that be enough?
Eddie Sebastian: Do you think if Michael Chiklis was behind the Rangers bench in place of Gerard Gallant, would anybody notice?
Vac: Personally, I can’t stop seeing Don Rickles whenever the camera catches Coach Gallant … but Detective Vic Mackey works perfectly well, too.
