The Kiss Of Death?

Since the Mets and Yankees were both off yesterday, the New York tabloids have to find something to write about and put on their back pages (US soccer team's loss obviously doesn't qualify). So they both wrote about the same thing: how the Mets have won back the baseball fans of New York City. The News' back page shouted loudly: "Kings of New York."

I love the route the Mets are going, and they are putting together a terrific team for the future. The left side of the Mets infield, Jose Reyes and David Wright, is downright scary. I've always hoped for the day the Mets take back New York from the Yankees. It always goes in cycles here. The Mets last had the run of the city back in the mid-to-late 1980s. But they were poorly run in the latter half of the 1980s, and the franchise paid for it for a number of years. By the time the Mets got better and competitive in the late 1990s, the Yankees had won two World Series and would win two more.

Right now, the Yankees remind of those teams they had back in the early 1980s. Aging homegrown talent and relying on too many free agents who are beyond their best years. Signing guys like Johnny Damon is like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound. They've gotten away from what made them champions, and they need an overhaul of their farm system.

Things are starting to look the Mets way, and that's a good thing. They are on the way to a division title, but they are not there yet. I've always said that I don't count the Yankees out until they are mathematically eliminated.

I hope the Mets become "The Kings of New York" again. But I'm not ready to crown them just yet.