Surprise, Yankees-Mets Turned Into Subpar Series

Once upon a time, there were the Yankees, who were kings of all of baseball and of New York, and had been for some time. And there were the Mets, and they weren’t very good, but the rare occasions when they played each other were notable occasions.

They called it the Mayor’s Trophy Game. There was the wonderful rainy night in the long-lost Polo Grounds when the Mets had a catcher named Choo Choo Coleman, who could throw if he could stop the ball. In the minor leagues, Coleman’s pitcher, named Clarence Nottingham Churn, completed a no-hitter and was asked who was the most difficult man he pitched to. “Choo Choo,” Churn said.

With a Yankees runner on first base in that first Mayor’s Trophy Game in 1963, Choo Choo scrambled after a ball and got a standing ovation for a marvelous throw to second base while falling on his belly. The runner hadn’t budged off first.

It was what it was: One of one. Beat the Yankees and it meant bragging rights, at least.

Now the Mets and Yankees play three times beginning Friday night at Shea Stadium, and excitement is in the eye of the ticket-holder. This is the fifth season of interleague play, and what does it mean after they’ve played the World Series? Does the spearmint lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight?

“Playing games that count in the standings against teams you don’t compete against in the standings, I don’t like it,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said Wednesday night, trying not to be a crank.

“All I keep saying is I don’t like something,” he said. “Maybe I should retire.”

No, but first things first. This is a pseudo Subway Series, artificial respiration, saccharin, veggieburgers, diet soda, polyester.

“I think the World Series took the luster off this series,” Torre noted. After that Subway Series, there can be no capital letters in these or the three in July.

That’s not the half of it. “In the World Series it was high tension,” he said. “I thought we were under a lot of stress; we were supposed to win.” In each of the five games, the last out was made with the tying or winning run at the plate. High tension at the end of the world, so to speak.

There are other pressing issues now. This is not the Army-Navy Game in which one of the teams can save the season with a victory. The Mets have embarrassed themselves. Only the mathematics say there’s life in them. “Right now, we’re trying to find ourselves, to be honest,” Torre said.

Well, the lords of all they survey are two games behind. Sooner or later they’re not going to win, but they’re competitive, and that’s worth a lot. Three games with the Red Sox would spur a whole lot more fire from them. “We’re trying to catch the Red Sox, period,” said first baseman Tino Martinez, who appreciated the early rivalry with the Mets as much as anyone. They needed to beat Montreal Wednesday night, which they did, 9-3. They needed Martinez’s two home runs.

As expected, Orlando Hernandez will have surgery on his left foot and is expected to pitch the last six weeks. If it were guaranteed, Torre said, “I’ll take that.” The Yankees are revealing the vulnerability they overcame when they had to last year. It’s not in the spirit of the baseball lore that Torre manipulated Roger Clemens out of pitching at Shea, but it is in the best interest of the Yankees. Torre says he’ll keep the faith in his core players to the end. Unsaid is: until the owner brings in someone else, which could be any time now. This is the real stuff of the Yankees.

Torre played for and managed the Mets in the Mayor’s Trophy Game. Ownership does takes the rivalry seriously. Torre wanted to bring up some young players for the game, but M. Donald Grant, the president Torre still calls Mr. Grant, wouldn’t have it. Steinbrenner, of course, would accept the risk reluctantly. At the time, the Mayor’s Trophy Game was the only chance he had to beat up on the Mets in New York.

Late in one of those games Torre was managing, the score was tied and a baseball rolled to him in the dugout. On it was written, “Who’s going to squeeze, me or you?” It was sent by Billy Martin. Torre remembered that he did.

Late in another game, the first baseman preserved the tie with a fine recovery of Graig Nettles’ throw with a runner coming home. “I tried to throw it into the stands,” Nettles said afterward. The Yankees were 10-8-1 in that series -- and that was the one.

The Yankees lead this series 11-7. It will be a noisy full house.

“When 50,000 come out, it’s hard not to get an adrenaline rush,” Torre said.

“We get big crowds every game,” Martinez said.

In baseball’s quest for the golden goose, the original three games is now six games a year. “They were supposed to switch,” Martinez said. “I’d like to play in Wrigley Field. With the wind blowing out. In June or July.”

It’s the Mets again. “We beat that club in the World Series,” Martinez said. “That was the real series.”

Considering what the Yankees are trying to do and what the Mets have done to themselves, this is -- as Martinez said -- “mundane.” Almost, anyhow.