LET'S GO YANKEES!
Just chanting that in my head in the same monotone sound that can be heard from the bleacher bums in Yankee Stadium.
Typing this makes me feel a bit dirty. I'm going to need a shower after writing this article.
Unfortunately, I'll probably be showering quite a bit during this postseason, as I, a huge Mets fan and self-proclaimed Yankee hater, will be rooting for the Evil Empire of the Bronx during the 2009 baseball playoffs.
Yes, it's true my fellow Mets fans, I will be rooting for the New York Yankees to go all the way this season. It's sickening, I know, but I am making this ultimate sacrifice this postseason, so that my beloved Mets can be successful in 2010.
I know it sounds crazy, but before my Mets fan club card is revoked by my fellow Flushing faithful, hear me out.
Last season was a huge disappointment for the Yankees. While the Yankees record was a more-than-respectable 89-73, the team watched as their most hated rival, the Boston Red Sox, beat them out for the wild card. For the first time since 1994, there was no October baseball in the Bronx.
Now let's see, a disappointing season, no playoffs, all while your most hated rival makes the post-season. Sound familiar, Mets fans?
The following offseason, Yankees brass had close to $80 million coming off of their $200 million payroll. The Yankees were committed to using as much of that $80 million as necessary in order to make it back to the World Series.
Yankees GM Brian Cashman went out and got the best pitchers available in CC Sabathia, and a solid No. 2 starter who has proven he could beat the Red Sox in A.J. Burnett.
They also got Nick Swisher and maybe the third-best player in baseball (behind Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer) in Mark Teixeira. Yankees management felt those pieces would fill the biggest holes on the team and automatically propel the Yanks to championship contender status once again.
Not only were they correct, as the Yankees would win 103 games, more than any other team in the sport, and sweep the red-hot Minnesota Twins in the ALDS, but the signings were so good that Brian Cashman actually lowered the payroll from 2008 to 2009.
The Mets find themselves in a similar boat this offseason, after an extremely disappointing season in which anything that could go wrong for the Mets did.
Also, like the Yankees in 2008, the Mets have plenty of holes to fill at important positions, and should have money to spend this offseason without dramatically increasing payroll, as close to $40 million (including Billy Wagner's salary) will be coming off the books for the Mets after this season.
This is why it is so important that the Yankees win it all this season. If the Yankees win the World Series this year, they will prove that it is possible to rebuild a team in just one offseason by making solid baseball decisions.
Decisions that are based more on what will translate into wins, rather than economics. The entire baseball world will be watching, so it will be impossible for the Wilpons to not take notice.
Sure, much of the talk during March and April was that the Yankees overpaid for the players they wanted, but after seeing what transpired this season, can anyone argue that the Yankees new acquisitions weren't worth every penny?
Anything less than a World Series championship will make what the Yankees did last offseason look like nothing more than frivolous spending, not seen with the Yankees since George Steinbrenner would throw money at over-the-hill players during the 1980s.
If the Yankees do win it all, however, it will not only give the Mets management the perfect blueprint for this offseason, but also put pressure on the team to right their ship as quickly as their cross-town rivals did.
In other words, my fellow Mets fans, if the Yankees win, we win.
Maybe the disappointment of this season, or the past three seasons for that matter, have made me a bit delirious, but as I see it, the best hope the Mets have for a successful 2010 directly coincides with a successful 2009 for the Bronx Bombers.
So join me, my fellow Mets fans, in cheering on the Yankees this postseason. Ignore the nausea that comes along with chanting "Let's go Yankees," or how your eyes will burn the first time you pass a mirror and see yourself in a navy blue ball cap with white interlocking "NY." It will be worth it in the long run.
After all, what's the worst that could happen?
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