Writing the Pine

New York City is the greatest city in the world. Other cities have their moments and are pretty good in their own ways, but really, no city touches the Big Apple. I’m biased, of course, since I live there but others would agree too; New York City, one of the largest in the world, is the best. It’s got everything. The glitz and the glamor of Manhattan, the hustlin’ and bustlin’ Brooklyn, the multi-cultural Queens, the boogie-down Bronx, and even the smelly Staten Island. Because of all this, us New Yorkers are lucky enough to have two teams in basically all of the major professional sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NHL, and the NBA if you include the Nets).

Or are we?

I was thinking about this the other day with the Subway Series coming this weekend and since  I was in Boston (which is a nice city in its own right but even as a Mets fan, I say Boston sucks) for a work conference and couldn’t help but notice that the entire city was behind the Red Sox. There were signs supporting the Red Sox everywhere: the billboards, people’s cars, and even the Dunkin’ Donuts cups had the Red Sox logo on them. Of course this makes sense given that they are the city’s only baseball team and they most definitely are like this for the Patriots during football season as well. I’m sure this is also the case in say Milwaukee and Houston, but we don’t really get that in New York. There are so many damn teams to choose from.  Every sport we have multiple teams. There’s the Yankees and the Mets. The Giants and the Jets. Knicks and Nets (I’ll count them even though they are in New Jersey. They’ll be moving to Brooklyn soon anyway). Rangers, Islanders, and Devils. Half the city’s population supports one team and the remaining half, the other team. We don’t really feel the same camaraderie here in New York as one team cities such as Boston. Very few companies would dare pledge their allegiance to one team over the other and why would they? It wouldn’t be good business to shun half their potential customer base. Sure, I might see a Mets Subway cup once-in-a-while but you better believe there’s the same Yankee cup right behind it. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t too long ago that Subway ran a commercial featuring then Yankees manager Joe Torre and then Mets manager Willie Randolph.

Some other cities have it the same. Los Angeles has the Clippers and the Lakers vying for the city’s affection (but we all know Donald Sterling’s team is the bastard child of LA). What’s interesting about LA is that, while the other multi-teamed cities have teams in different leagues (AL/NL, NFC/AFC), the LA teams are division rivals. (Okay, they are “rivals” but maybe Blake Griffin will change that). Chicago has the Cubs and the White Sox. Chicago is interesting though, because there is more of a historical and social divide between those teams – much moreso than there is in New York with the Mets and Yankees. Therefore, I suppose it would seem logical for Chicago, of all cities, to have two teams.

Many large states have multiple teams. Texas, for example, has the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, and Dallas Mavericks in the NBA, the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers in MLB, and the Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys in the NFL. The cities are physically close to each other but needless to say, it’s not the same as the teams being in the same city. The in-state rivalry is fun but again, it’s just not the same. Just look at the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Sabres. Technically, they’re both New York teams, but they’re not New York teams. They’re in the state, but not in the city. Sorry Buffalo, but you don’t really count (even with Terrell Owens now a resident).

If it gets this crazy now, how much crazier would it be with only one team in town?

(Ruby Washington/New York Times)

I might sound like a typical, ungrateful New Yorker but believe me, I’m totally grateful that we can have two teams in each sport. There are definitely advantages to having two teams. Growing up, I had a choice between two teams to root for while still representing my city. Not many others can say that. And when the Subway Series comes around every year in baseball (like this weekend) or when the Giants and Jets square off every now and then, few events generate the amount of hype and electricity those do. I’m just saying, sports traditionally brings a city together but in New York, it creates a division for absolutely no reason. Not only do we root for different teams, but we grow up despising the “other” New York team, whoever that may be. I kind of miss the feeling of a whole city uniting behind one team during a playoff run. We got a little bit of that when the Giants went on their Super Bowl run and upset the Pats, since well, none of us like Boston, and it was a fun time for all of us. It kind of sucked when the Yankees won all their championships in the ‘90s not just because my team didn’t win, but because I had to deal with my drunk neighbors celebrating outside while I just sat angrily in my living room like all the other baseball fans around the country.

But imagine for a second if the New York Mets did not exist and the Yankees were the only baseball team in town. (This probably deserves an article of its own). How would things be different? How much bigger would the Yanks/Sox rivalry be then?  How much bigger would it be if the entire city of New York was behind the Yankees?  (For that matter, how much more would everyone hate the Yankees?) That’s 19 million people backing the Evil Empire.  It would be, without a doubt, the biggest rivalry in all of sports, if it isn’t already.  (That or it wouldn’t be a rivalry at all).  Yankee Stadium would need to be the size of Giants Stadium.  It would be hysterical on a nightly basis and if they ever won a championship? Fuget about it.

Trust me, I understand that since we do have so many people in this great city of ours, that it only makes financial sense for us to have two teams and all that good stuff.  A 100,000 seat stadium for baseball is not feasible and obviously the two team system is working.  Almost every New York team is striving, except ironically enough, the team that technically has the entire city to itself, the Knicks.  (But LeBron will change that in 2010).  As I said before, since we have the capabilities to house multiple teams, why wouldn’t we?  I’m not complaining about it.  It’s just another case of, it’s always greener on the other side, I guess.

So while I still believe New York City is the greatest city in the world, I still sometimes get jealous of the Cleveland’s and Miami’s of the country. I guess I’m just going to have to live with the fact that there will be very few sporting events that us New Yorkers can unite and back with one voice (the Red Bulls don’t count). But I know there’ll always be one thing my city can agree on:

Boston sucks.

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