New York Sign Language
Yankees, Mets Inspire Special Brand of Loyalty
By BOB YAMPOLSKY
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ヤンキースとメッツでNYは2分割
NY にはヤンキースとメッツという大リーグの2チームがあります。リーグが違うため、普段は試合をしないのですが、年2回のインターリーグ・ゲームのときは別。選手や監督も同じ都市のライバルに負けじと熱くなり、マスコミも地元ファンも盛り上がります。
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There are three types of New Yorkers: Yankee fans, Met fans and people who do
not care about baseball.
Of course there are some people who root for other teams, like people who
have moved to New York recently. And there are people who say they like both
the Yankees and the Mets. But real Yankee fans hate the Mets, and real Met
fans hate the Yankees.
I am a Yankee fan and have been one since birth. I am not exaggerating when
I say this. Like religion or citizenship, allegiance to a baseball team is
something that is decided before you are born. My father was a Yankee fan, and
so am I. It is that way with all my friends who are Yankee fans.
Our sign for this month appears on a subway train: SEATS RESERVED FOR YANKEE
FANS ONLY. Of course this is an ad, for the sneaker company Adidas, and it
is meant to be humorous. But it is also meant to be arrogant — and arrogance
is a characteristic often associated with the Yankees.
The Yankees started out in 1903. They were called the New York Highlanders
then. They changed their name to the Yankees 10 years later, and 10 years
after that, in 1923, Yankee Stadium opened. Many legendary players were
Yankees — Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle — and the Yankees
have won far more World Series than any other team — 24.
Let us contrast the Yankees with the poor Mets. They are a fairly recent
team. Their first year was 1962, when their record was 40 wins and 122 losses.
They were so inept they were almost charming. "Doesn't anyone here know how
to play this game?" was their manager's famous lament. Once their catcher was given a birthday party. "Why
didn't you give me a cake?" he asked. The answer: "We were afraid you'd drop
it."
The Mets' colors are orange and blue, and behind these colors there is a sad
New York story. New York once had three Major League baseball teams. Besides
the American League Yankees, there were the New York Giants and the Brooklyn
Dodgers of the National League.
In the '50s, both teams left New York for California. This was a great shock
to the city. (Even today there are people in Brooklyn who have not gotten
over this.) The Mets were created to fill the void left by the Giants and
Dodgers, and for their colors they took the orange of the Giants and the blue
of the Dodgers.
When the Giants and Dodgers were still in New York, there were a number of
memorable Subway Series — that is, World Series between New York teams.
But ever since the Mets have been in town, there has been no such luck.
However, after the players' strike in 1995, which resulted in the
cancellation of the World Series, Major League Baseball faced a backlash
from the fans. To appeal to them, baseball started interleague play: teams
from the American League playing National League teams during the regular
season. This has meant that twice a year the Yankees and Mets play a
three-game series.
In the series at the beginning of the month, the Yankees won two out of three,
I am happy to say. All three games were sellouts, with intense media
coverage, excited fans and a playoff-type atmosphere.
The Yankee manager, Joe Torre, insisted that the games were just like any
other game, but he belied their importance by changing the pitching
rotation, so that Hideki Irabu, who should have started the third game, did
not. His place was taken by the newly acquired, five-time Cy Young Award
winner Roger Clemens. But he was promptly shelled by the Mets as they won
the third game of the series.
That win ended an eight-game losing streak and gave a little breathing
room to Bobby Valentine, the Mets' manager. Valentine is called one of the
most disliked men in baseball and he holds the dubious record of having
managed the most games without ever making it into the postseason.
Mayor Giuliani was at the games, wearing a Yankee cap. To his credit he
does not hide the fact that he is a Yankee fan. He sounded unconvincing when
he said that he also roots for the Mets, except when they play the Yankees.
But he is a politician and he cannot risk offending the many Met fans in the
city.
A few days after the series, the Yankees traveled to the White House, where
President Clinton honored them for their phenomenal year in 1998, when they
won a total of 125 games. Hillary Clinton, who is planning to run for Senate
in New York next year, showed up wearing a Yankee cap. A Chicago native, she
sounded extremely unconvincing when she declared that she was a Yankee fan.
Mayor Giuliani, who is expected to be her opponent in the Senate race,
responded thus: "Really? You know, I've been to a thousand Yankee games, and
I've never seen her there once."
Shukan ST: June 25, 1999
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