I am not a fan of the Subway Series or Interleague play, for that matter. It’s a ploy by Major League Baseball to drum up more fan support.
And it’s a ploy that has obviously worked, since I am…
The Subway Series is over and thank God for that.
I am not a fan of the Subway Series or Interleague play, for that matter. It’s a ploy by Major League Baseball to drum up more fan support.
And it’s a ploy that has obviously worked, since I am probably in the minority here. Clearly the 150,000 or so who packed Shea Stadium this weekend don’t agree, nor do the other 150,000 who were at Yankee Stadium the weekend before.
Maybe I’m getting more ornery in my advanced age, but I just can’t get excited over games that ultimately don’t mean a damn thing.
But it’s bragging rights, you say. Bah humbug. The Mets swept the Yankees this weekend at Shea, but what does that ultimately mean? The Yankees are still far and away the best team in baseball and the Mets are still battling for a wild card berth.
Sure, it was fun a few years ago when it started, seeing Roger Clemens face Mike Piazza. But it was so much better in the World Series, when the emotions were genuine and there was truly something to play for.
Not surprisingly I didn’t watch too much of the latest installment of the Subway Series. Instead I watched the classic Yankees/Red Sox game last Thursday and then, switching gears a bit, Greece’s unlikely and historic run to the Euro 2004 soccer championship.
In those games there was something at stake and the players as well as the fans felt the tension with each pitch, with each corner kick.
The Mets and Yankees played some good baseball this weekend but it couldn’t come close to the Yankees’ 5-4 win over Boston last Thursday.
Major League Baseball didn’t need its marketing department to drum up interest in that game; it was there from the beginning.
In addition to being another chapter of the best rivalry in baseball, which is usually good enough, there was hated Pedro Martinez on the hill for the Red Sox against rookie Brad Halsey; the agony of both teams loading the bases late in the game unable to score a run; and there was the unreal catch by Derek Jeter, who was bloodied and bruised after diving full-speed into the first rows of seats to make the final out of the 12th inning.
There was the Red Sox taking the lead in the top of the 13th inning just to see the Yankees, down to their final strike, rally and break the hearts of the Red Sox nation once again with another surprise hero.
After Miguel Cairo drove in Ruben Sierra with the tying run, seldom-used John Flaherty ended the best regular season game I’ve ever seen with a ground-rule double.
There was also natural emotion in the Euro 2004 championships. Greece, long considered an easy win for European powers such as Portugal, France and the Czech Republic, shocked the soccer world by winning the European championship Sunday, beating host nation Portugal for the second time in the tournament.
I’m told the Mets and Yankees were playing Sunday, but I spent my Fourth of July, the most American of holidays, watching the European championship, watching David slay Goliath at Goliath’s house.
It may be one of the oldest stories in sports, but it was genuine, which is more than I can say about the artificial Subway Series.
Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
