Interleague Play, Reloaded

In the run-up to this past weekend, debate raged in broadcast, print, and blog media as to whether interleague play had worn out its welcome. "Just another series" was the oft-repeated mantra of many a Met, Yankee, journalist, and blogger.

We can all admit that the fever-pitch excitement that accompanied that first Mets-Yankees showdown in 1997 at Yankee Stadium is gone. To be honest, the Glass himself was beginning to worry about the relevance of interleague play.

I distinctly remember talking the matter over with friends last year, saying that the Mets and Yankees should get one crack at each other during the regular season. Why not have the Mets play 3 at Yankee Stadium one year, the Yanks play 3 at Shea the next, and then take the third year off?

I was pretty convinced at the time that tinkering with the formula was the only was to preserve the luster of Mets-Yankees baseball.

This past weekend changed my mind, and my sense is that it changed the minds of a lot of different people. I saw several media reports mention yesterday that for all the talk of interleague fatigue, attendance at each of the three games this weekend surpassed 56,000.

That's impressive enough, but speaking personally, it wasn't the fans I saw at the ballpark who put the jolt back into this series, it was the fans I saw out and about in the city of New York.

I graduated from college just short of a year ago now, and I've gotta tell you, the feeling of walking around town Friday night proudly displaying my orange Mets t-shirt was simply electric.

It was a feeling I hadn't had in a while. Everywhere I turned there was somebody new wearing Mets gear, even at a hipstered out nightspot in Alphabet City. With each of those people I shared a high five.

We reveled in talk about Carlos' blast in the first. Or Randy's implosion. Or Heilman's 3 shutout innings. Or Wagner striking out three of the Spanks' best hitters. Or, of course, your boy and mine, D-Wright hitting the game-winning double.

Friday night was perfect.

Saturday, not so much.

I sucked it up though and wore my Mets hat with pride around town. With my body language I tried to project an attitude announcing to all the people in Yankee hats, What? You think I lasted this long as a Mets fan without being able to stomatch a tough loss?

I shared conciliatory glances with the men and women wearing Mets gear that evening. That sucked, we said, but look, we still got a chance to win this series tomorrow!

And then we did, somehow.

We did it in spite of a less than stellar day of Mets pitching, a day on which saw four of our best horses (Tommy, Heilman, Suaner, and Wagner) allowed Yankee batters to reach second base in 8 of 9 innings.

We did it in spite of being on the ropes all night.

We did it in spite of the fact that no one had confidence in Billy Wagner anymore.

And it was glorious. And it was glorious again today.

As I rode the subway to work today I heard pockets of people talking about the game last night. When I got to work all the same conversations were going on on my floor. When I got to my desk no less than 6 people came by immediately to talk it over. When I climbed the stairs to lunch 20 minutes ago I heard people several floors up talking about Delgado's 3-run blast.

For the fans in the thick of New York, interleague play was most definitely back. Had it ever left? I can't say really. I was gone the last 4 years, and watching these games on a television far away from the five boroughs just can't compare.

Don't get me wrong, it still meant the world to me when the Mets swept the Yankees in 2004, but when it was over and I walked outside, I saw a lot of people who just didn't care. I can't fault them for that, but that was my reality.

Being back in the city changed all that, and it changed my impression of Mets-Yankees back to what it should have been all along.

That doesn't mean interleague play is perfect. All you had to do was monitor this past weekend's Blue Jays-Rockies grudge match to know that not all is right with this sytem.

But in this city at least, the formula works. It works because of the people in the Mets and Yankees hats you see roaming the streets, huddling in subway cars, happily greeting each other in bars throughout the town, or dissecting each moment at work.

It's a special feeling.

And it doesn't hurt that the Mets took 2 of 3.

- A.F.O.M.G.