Subway Series Will Take A Strange Turn In 2015

The New York Yankees and Mets will go back to the familiar six-games in the Subway Series for 2015, but will they even matter?

Much like that annoying bug flying around the room, that’s how the Yankees felt about playing the New York Mets.

The Yankees were the talk of the town and had proved everything. The only outcome conceivable while playing the Mets could be viewed as negative.

When they met, the Yanks were supposed to win, and if they didn’t it was viewed as a stain.

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Not anymore.

While inter-league play was a novel idea 20-years ago, and Bud Selig deserves plenty of credit for its introduction, baseball has taken the idea and crushed any uniqueness left between both the American and National League.

Due to 15 teams residing in both leagues and the fact that there is always at least one series at all times featuring teams from different leagues, the Yankees and Mets now have a chance to play in very late September.

What’s worse is baseball took advantage of that terrible opportunity.

Unlike previous years which saw the Subway Series as New York’s time during the Summer to celebrate baseball, despite records, both series between the Yanks and Mets will come as bookends to the regular season.

43. Final. . 3.

Subway Series schedule:

Yankee Stadium, April 24-26
Citi Field, September 18-20

Yes, that’s right. We could effectively have a Subway Series that either means completely nothing during the time that our attention has already shifted to the Giants and Jets, or these two teams from separate leagues can play spoiler and ruin the others’ season.

I don’t think this is the way inter-league play should have evolved.

August 27, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Mets injured pitcher Matt Harvey stands in the dugout during the game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: John Munson/THE STAR-LEDGER via USA TODAY Sports

First off, how is it considered fair to have a team from a completely separate league factor into the other league’s pennant race so late in the season?

This is not the NBA, or NHL. With those sports each team plays non-conference teams twice a season (one home, one away) and are considered to fall into one category, the league itself.

The NFL was so sick of seeing the spoiler card played out from non-conference, and even non-division teams that they moved to the last two weeks of the season only featuring divisional games.

Baseball is trying to “half-way” this.

Fine, if their strategy is to shift towards the direction of one MLB and the once novel idea of inter-league play not being a big deal, then they need to expand the division to reflect that feeling. Every team in that case should be playing every team from the other league for at least one series a season.

Then nobody will see issues with inter-league play effecting a late season playoff push.

That’s not where they currently stand though. There are still only a handful of inter-league series per year, as they try to keep it at the very minimum.

Not only will the Mets and Yankees play each other in late October, but they’ll open up the first Subway Series of the campaign on April 24. Everybody in the New York City area knows how miserable the weather is during April, and Yankee Stadium will host their lone, supposed to be “special,” Subway Series during that time.

It makes no sense.

However, while the scheduling itself is terrible, the matchup and storyline is now fantastic.

Like I previously mentioned, the Yankees can no longer view the Mets as that annoying nat which is always flying around looking for scraps. They aren’t that little brother that cannot compete.

The Mets will surely pass the Yankees as the top dog in this town. It’s only a matter of time.

What Sandy Alderson’s group possesses is the best pitching in baseball. One through 10, there is no MLB team that can match what their organization can throw out there. Matt Harvey’s return is only the icing on the cake.

Harvey is that “Namath-Like” personality who’ll replace Derek Jeter as the baseball god in the city, while his group of youngsters teach Brian Cashman a lesson – which is signing too many aging veteran free agents will cripple a franchise.

It’s just the Mets luck though, that as soon as they’re ready to take over the town, baseball goes ahead and minimizes the Subway Series.

Will 2015 be the season that starts a new era in New York City baseball? Or will the Mets once again find a way to flop it?

Stay alive during football season people, there could be a huge series heading our way in the Fall.

Next: Are the Mets or Yankees closer to winning a championship?

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