'Unfair' Subway Series? Some Mets Relieved To Play Only 4 Games Against Yankees
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The Subway Series been been a subject of hot debate since its inception.
Divisive in nature, forget the New York bragging rights at stake between the Yankees and Mets. What we're talking about here is the series itself.
There are the Mets fans who balk at having to play six games -- the original format had just a yearly three-game series, abandoned after two seasons -- against the big, bad Bombers. Others think the Subway Series has simply outworn its welcome.
Now the rivalry is taking on a new shape. In the preliminary 2013 schedule released Wednesday by Major League Baseball, the Yankees and Mets will play four games in a one-week span. Citi Field will host the Yankees on May 27 and 28. The final two Subway Series games will follow on May 29 and 30 at Yankee Stadium.
"It gives fans a taste of that interleague Subway Series, but at the same time it makes the schedule a little more, I don't know if 'fair' is the word," Mets third baseman David Wright said Wednesday, according to the New York Post. "It will be nice to have a little more balance to the schedule."
Wright didn't want to wade the fair versus unfair waters. But starter R.A. Dickey wasn't afraid to go there.
"I like it better," Dickey said, according to the Post. "It's unfair that every year we have to play the Yankees, just because they are an inter-city rival when the other teams don't."
While some -- perhaps many -- Mets fans would agree, not everyone was on board with the sentiment that less is more.
"Since 2007, at least since we've been around here, there is no expectation of winning," WFAN morning show co-host Boomer Esiason said on Thursday. "There's an acceptance of losing."
Esiason's radio partner Craig Carton agreed: "We all joke (when) I open up the church, 'Mets Fans for Yankees.' This is why I do it, because the Mets franchise gives you no hope. They give you nothing."
Well outspent even before this offseason's dramatic payroll cut, the Mets took just one game against the Yankees in 2012.
"We played the Yankees more than anybody. That could be difficult," said manager Terry Collins. "I think it's starting to even out."
The boys from the Bronx have a 54-36 advantage since the interleague format debuted in 1997.
"(The Yankees) have a real good team, so it's obviously beneficial for what we're trying to accomplish that it's (condensed)," said Wright, according to the Post. "Not that we don't enjoy that series, because at least I do, but the Yankees are always a good team."
Do you agree with Wright and Dickey or Boomer and Carton? Be heard on all things Subway Series in the comments below!
