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Look who's No. 1 in New York; BY MIKE LUPICA, DAILY NEWS SPORTS
Topic Started: May 14 2007, 02:11 AM (77 Views)
Gategem
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I’m sure some of you guys will have something to say about Lupica’s column.

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This is not breaking news inside Shea Stadium, or even on the inside with the Mets. But the way they measure how they are doing each day is by checking the standings in the NL East, not whether they are on one of the back pages of the New York City tabloids, and not by checking their record against the one belonging to the darlings of the tabloids, the Yankees.

Boy, oh boy, the Yankees do win when it comes to big headlines. You can call that one the way Russ Hodges called Bobby Thompson's home run: The Yankees win the back page! The Yankees win the back page! The Yankees win the back page!

But here is an interesting question: How often this season have they been big positive headlines?

If you are looking at the Yankee season into this weekend, they sure have dominated the coverage. The dysfunctional family is getting a lot more attention than the extremely functional one. It is the only place, through the first fifth of the season, that the Yankees are winning anything in baseball.

The Mets were a better baseball team last season than the Yankees and are a better team so far this season, even with a payroll that is $80 million smaller. The gap was even wider last year. The Mets were a more interesting team last season, got a better managing job out of their manager and got a much better job out of their general manager, whose solution to all pitching problems isn't throwing the equivalent of $28 million at Roger Clemens.

The Mets didn't make the World Series last year, even though they had Game 7 at home and looked like they would make the Series. That night, the night of Game 7, was one of the electric, unforgettable baseball nights Shea has ever had, and you know it best if you were there. It came out wrong in the end. Jeff Suppan pitched the game of his life and Yadier Molina hit one over the wall and Carlos Beltran took a called third strike to end everything and Endy Chavez's catch on Scott Rolen - as great a postseason catch as anybody, Willie Mays included, has ever made - became a footnote to the game ending wrong for his team.

It was still some night.

Friday night, Suppan was pitching for the Brewers at Shea and the Mets beat him, seven months after Game 7. If they had beat him in October, they don't just make the Series, but they probably win it. You have to think that would have been the best way to make the back page.

They didn't win. Omar Minaya went back to work. He doesn't get to spend $200 million a year. Minaya will never have that luxury, or the Yankees' luxury taxes, for that matter. He does not have an outfield worth $40 million. He has a left side of an infield - Reyes, Wright - worth talking about, one that is a whole lot younger and a whole lot cheaper than the one the Yankees have. Minaya can spend, too, don't worry about that. He spent on Beltran and he spent on Billy Wagner and he spent on Pedro Martinez.

But look at the other moves he has made over the past few years. Look at John Maine and Oliver Perez. When do the Yankees go out and find two young guys like this? Maybe Jorge Sosa will turn out to be another one before he is through. And last season Jose Valentin turned in the year he did at second and this year Damion Easley comes along to win games, even though it probably seemed to Mets fans that they were fine with Chris Woodward off the bench.

"(Minaya) is constantly looking for ways to improve us," Mets' chief operating office Jeff Wilpon said on Friday.

The Mets beat Suppan on Friday, got beat good by the Brewers yesterday, are 23-13 and right there with the Braves in the NL East. The Yankees are still under. 500. The Mets even got a back page yesterday.

They did not get the back page with their third baseman talking about their shortstop. They did not do it Yankee style, which is often Paris Hilton style. The Mets did not do it because the manager was in trouble or with Clemens or Carl Pavano or the owner's son-in-law getting picked up by the cops or questions about the line of succession or by firing a trainer.

They did it by winning a ballgame Friday night, against the team with the best record in their league. In a city where the tabloids cover the Yankees the way the British tabloids cover the Royal Family, the Mets play their own game.


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Yanksfan03
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I hate Lupica, but it'd be absolutely stupid to say the Yankees are a better team than the Mets. On paper, they probably should be, but that doesn't mean sh*t.
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Grandy4MVP
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The Yankees ended up with the better record last year.....if I"m not mistaken that is. The Mets got further but we had a better record. The same will probably hold true again this year. I think when all is said and done, the Yanks will probably win more regular season games. Yankees staff is going to be too good to continue to lose, I still see 95 or so wins for the Yankees.
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Grandy4MVP
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May 14 2007, 08:49 PM
The Yankees ended up with the better record last year.....if I"m not mistaken that is. The Mets got further but we had a better record. The same will probably hold true again this year. I think when all is said and done, the Yanks will probably win more regular season games. Yankees staff is going to be too good to continue to lose, I still see 95 or so wins for the Yankees.

I will correct myself, we ended up being tied at 97 wins last year and obviously the Mets lated till game 7 of the NLCS, so of course they had a better year overall but like I said, when it's all said and done by the end of the year Yanks will be right there with them.
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