As a young boy my first exposure to baseball was a trip to Shea Stadium to see the Mets in 1971. I don’t remember whom they played and think I have some recollection of who played on the team back then. At the time I remember they
still were pretty competitive
and one of their big rivals was Cincinnati. But as time moved on through the mid 1970s my father and I developed affection for the Yankees, as well. We con-tinued to go to both games infrequently when we could,
and we watched them both on TV. Shea was so much closer to Queens Village than
The Bronx.

Our family didn’t have enough of a history of baseball to know that you weren’t supposed to root for more than one team. My dad and I were free of that burden so it allowed us to enjoy the sport and it gave us twice as many chances to indulge in watching games. Even in the mid to late 70s when the Yankees ruled and the Mets reeked, there was no reason to change that philosophy.

In the 80s the Yankees declined in their status, and halfway through the Mets would rise to power. In 1985 and 1986 there was the first inkling of a subway series. I was in my last year of college then. I called relatives back here in the city to insure they would buy me tickets for the event if it took place, so that I would be a witness to history. In 1986, the Yankees would stumble from first place late in the season, and Boston would go on to face the Mets in the series and lose to the Amazin’s in historical, dramatic fashion.

Even though they might not have admitted it then, I know that Yankee fans rooted for the Mets that year. They cheered for several reasons. The foremost of course is because the Mets were playing Boston, and every New Yorker hates Boston. Another had to be the fact that they were from New York representing us

When that ball scooted through Bill Buckner’s legs, the place where I was watching the game went nuts. It was made up of expatriated New Yorkers who were living in Dallas at the time. Many like me, were Yankees fans who loved baseball and of course, hated Boston.

I thought and believed that I was the rule and not the exception. I was wrong.

Since coming back here eight years ago I have been exposed to the litany of rhetoric that Fans from all over the city spout about the Hometown rivalry. A rivalry that existed for no reason whatsoever beyond stories connected to why the Brooklyn Dodgers left Kings County. Whatever.

Last year I was caught up in the hype of a potential World Series once again. I went to games for both teams just to have a chance to see either beat up an opposing squad, especially Atlanta that I never considered a real team. But after buying sweatshirts and caps, sitting in the rain for some games, not to mention enduring "sellout" ridicule, I took my "bi-partisan" baseball fanaticism to Atlanta where I saw the Mets give away game six of their series against the Braves.

My dream of a subway series was crushed and Atlanta fans humiliated us. I promptly came back to New York and gave away every and any piece of Met gears I could find. I vowed that never again would I be drawn into that hype or mania.

Still, I saw no reason to dislike the Mets just yet, I just thought I would root for them less. But during the first inter-league games of the year I thought to myself that this would probably be as close as I would ever get to that dream of a Subway Series. I blamed the Mets for cheating me of that, so the rift grew wider.

But who knew that at the end of it all, in the year 2000, the two teams would finally meet in a Subway Series, the first in 44 years. Did I root for the Mets to beat St Louis — of course I did, and so did many of you Yankee fans. As did many of you Mets fans for the Yankees as they played Seattle.