Thursday, March 10, 2005

Whatever Happened to Yankees-Mets in Spring Training?

As I've said before, I don't care much for spring training games. But since '97 when the Yankees and Mets have gone at it during the regular season, they've stopped having exhibition games. And I really don't know why. Are they afraid it would take away from the regular season matchups? They have Yankees-Red Sox, and that doesn't take away anything from the regular season matchups. If anything, it's one of the few spring games that actually draws a crowd. So why not Yankees-Mets?

Why am I so fixated on Yankees-Mets? Why do I care? One reason: it would be another thing for George to worry about. HE's already panicking over the Yanks 1-5 record, and wouldn't it be sweet for the Junkees to lose to the Mets just to really get him going! The Yankees-Mets matchuos in the past have provided for some memorable moments, such as George getting mad at Frank Cashen for calling the Bronx "Fort Apache" and George going postal on Mike Griffin, who blew a Yankee-Met spring training game. (See Bill Madden and Moss Klein's excellent "Damned Yankees" for more on those incidents.)

It's gotta be that George was behind this, somewhere. He gets enough stress seeing the Yankees play the Sox and his Tampa rival D-Rays (I think George is the only loser out there who stresses over Yankees-D-Rays games). A few losses to the Mets in the preseason, and he might fire a few more secretaries. But I want my Grapefruit League subway series, especially now that the Mets are competitive. The spring could use some more action.

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