Face it. The first subway series in 44 years is upon you, and there is nothing you can do about it.
October baseball belongs in New York the way the NBA Finals belong in Los Angeles and the Vince Lombardi trophy belongs in Green Bay. It's natural.
Still, there are many baseball fans turned away by the prospect of an intra-city World Series, and the oft-heard argument of those expressing their dissent?
"They have more money. It's just not fair."
It sure is hard to argue with numbers, and the pile of green heaped upon the Yankees certainly reaches higher than any other team's. However, look at why they have the highest payroll: they can afford it.
Revenue is generated first and foremost by attendance. The Yankees, by putting a good product on the field and drawing 41,000 beer-drinking, hot dog-eating individuals to Yankee Stadium per game gives owner George Steinbrenner the necessary leeway to wheel and deal his players and his money any way he sees fit.
Small market teams, such as the Minnesota Twins, are caught in the vicious cycle of not drawing people to its games because the product isn't good, perhaps because the Twins cannot afford to "buy" players. The Twins drew a paltry 13,000 per game to the Metrodome this season.
Take a look at this year's version of the Oakland Athletics. Oakland was a team that was not drawing a sufficient number fans to the park, so they built from within and produced a competitive team. Guys like Jason Giambi, Barry Zito and Ben Grieve are A's products. They'll have to pay these players soon.
Will this World Series be exciting for anyone outside of the Big Apple? Of course it will. It is close-minded to think Yankees and Mets fans only reside in one of New York's five boroughs. Also, those who think the World Series is decided sometime in spring training must not have been watching when it looked as if Joe Torre would readily give back every dollar of that much-publicized payroll just to scratch out a run against the pre-pubescent A's and Mariners pitching staffs.
This series scenario is great even for television advertisers, who must have shivered at the thought of being left in the cold by a Seattle-St. Louis match-up. This series, although involving only one city, holds the attention of two groups of fans that just might be the most rabid in sports today. Where else but Shea Stadium can a young fan look into the light towers while his favorite team scurries onto the field and see snipers protecting his very own rawhide glove from chaos? Nowhere.
The interleague sniper tradition started in June. Can you imagine how intense this World Series is going to be?
Even fans that are disillusioned by the recent success enjoyed by Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and the rest of the boys in pinstripes have a good reason to watch -- the Mets. As much as Yankee fans hate to admit it, this could be the Mets' year. Their pitching staff is in line, their bats are hot and the fiery Bobby Valentine holds the reins. He wants to win as badly as his players do. After all, he wants a contract for next year.
This baseball fan can remember the days when the Pirates, Twins and Reds were vying for the fall classic, while classic bums like Mel Hall and Deion Sanders roamed the outfield at Yankee Stadium and Kevin Elster was the future of the Mets at shortstop.
Every dog has its day, and these days belong to the Yankees and the Mets.
