IS TITLE #28 JUST A FEW MONTHS AWAY? - Dino Costa · The Yankees? Listen, I maintain that there is no way anyone can be a Mets fan and not also hate the Yankees like poison every

IS TITLE #28 JUST A FEW MONTHS AWAY?

July 22, 2019

By DINO COSTA

I grew up in New York and it will always be home to me no matter where else I might be.

I also grew up in an extended baseball family that was hellaciously divided – as one side of the family bled Yankees pinstripes – while the other was

true to the Orange and Blue.

Unfortunately for the side that adored players such as Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford, it was the other side of the family, who worshiped Choo-Choo Coleman and Dennis Ribant who got to me first as a 5-year old, and so my

baseball fate was sealed, I was officially christened as a Mets fan for life.

To this day I can remember being at my maternal grandmother’s house in 1970 watching a Mets game. I left the room to go into the kitchen to get

something to drink, and then I heard my cousin, Kevin, who was several years older than I was, screaming out loud to nobody in particular;

“Shamsky just hit another one!”

That same cousin and his father, my uncle Ken, a New York City police officer, took me to my first Mets game at Big Shea back on May 19, 1974, a

double-header against the Montreal Expos. We sat down the right-field line that day and watched the Mets drop both games of the Twinbill by the

scores of 7-4 and 5-0. Looking back, I believe that was an introduction of things to come in my life as a Mets fan.

The Yankees? Listen, I maintain that there is no way anyone can be a Mets fan and not also hate the Yankees like poison every day of the year. One

thing has everything to do with the other.

The family arguments that would erupt at different family functions, like for instance, being at my uncle Ken’s home every 4th of July, where I’d

estimate that no less than 80 family members would show up for a great barbecue each summer, and to be fascinated by the arguments and the debates

between the Yankees side of the family and the Mets side, as a kid, to me, this was better than when nightfall came and it was time to light off the

fireworks.

I went to a few Yankees games as a kid. I remember going to a Yankees game during the 1975 season when the Bombers had to use my team’s stadium for 2-years while they awaited the completion of their remodeled dump at 161st

Street and River Avenue in the Bronx.

I can’t recall the exact date, but I do know that Rudy May was on the mound for the Yankees and they were playing the California Angels. One of those on the Yankees side of the family, my uncle Ray, he took me to this game. This was another doubleheader and I’m sorry to report that I can’t even

remember who won these games, I can only hope and pray it was the Angels.

UPDATE: I just checked the wonderful website of https://www.baseball-reference.com/ and I find that not only did the Angels win the first game (8-24-75) with lefthander Rudy May getting knocked out of the game in the 4th inning. The Yankees lost game-1 by the score of 9-0

and they also dropped game-2 that day by the count of 4-3, with Nolan Ryan getting the win for the Halos, and Tippy Martinez taking the loss for New York. Obviously, at least one person in the car on the ride home that day

did so with a smile on his face.

Mets blood has always run through my veins – although – when I worked doing both radio and television in Denver for 5-years, covering the Rockies on a daily basis, and also being part of their pre and post-game television team for two of those years (2006-06), my enthusiasm and passion for the Mets

took a back seat for a while as I developed an affection for the team at Coors Field.

For me, being a Mets fan and going to school each day from the years 1976 through 1981 was sort of like being a citizen in a country that doesn’t

quite feel like it’s your own land. And that reminds me…never mind, this is, after all, a story mostly about the Yankees.

But there were times when I felt like I was the only Mets fan in the entire school district I attended. It was a lonely existence, believe me.

So it’s Game 5 of the 1976 ALCS and Chris Chambliss hits that bottom of the 9th inning home run off of the Royals Mark Litell as I’m listening on a

transistor radio tucked under my covers on that October night. This, of course, sent the Yankees to their first World Series since 1964.

The next day when it was time to get up for school I told my mother I didn’t feel good and wanted to stay home. She didn’t buy it. And so it was off to school I went that day where the all-day Yankees back in the World Series party started from the moment I stepped onto the school bus that

morning until several hours later when it thankfully dropped me back off at home.

But you know something? Now that I think back, I don’t remember any real curriculum at school that day. It was like every kid at the school was

granted a free day. The teachers in each of my classes were as elated as the kid-Yankees fans in school – and the teachers themselves had nothing

else on their minds except for the fact that the fucking Yankees were going back to the World Series – and so nobody really did anything that day so

far as school-work was concerned.

I hated school – and yet it was probably the first time in my life I wished that a teacher would force us all to do math equations in silence or read

about the Mongolian empire back in the year 1294 followed by a test that lasted 5-hours.

When I went to lunch that day it felt like the cafeteria was an extension of the Yankee Stadium bleachers with everyone doing nothing but stuffing

bad hamburgers into their mouths while gleefully reliving the Chambliss home run hours before. I sat at a table in the far corner alone and was

more than content to not have anyone notice me that day.

My gym teacher, Mr. Edwards, knew I was a big sports fan and a huge Mets fan and he was, of course, another Yankees fan who was still floating on

air that following morning after the Yankees won the pennant. I remember going to gym class that day and being needled by this prick about how my

Mets sucked while his Yankees were going to the World Series.

As a then 13-year-old, I remember thinking; “Hey, Mr. Edwards? Why don’t you go and eat a bag of dicks?” Those thoughts entered my mind but the

words never came out, because if they did, when I got home that night my father would have beat the shit out of me. Instead, I simply smiled, nodded

my head, and hoped this guy would suddenly have a stroke. Has the final bell of the day rung yet?

So my hopes now rested with the Cincinnati Reds in the upcoming World Series. Tom Seaver was still with the Mets and he was a part of NBC’s

coverage of the Fall Classic that year.

Thankfully, the Reds not only beat the Yankees, but they also swept them in 4-straight games. For me, this was akin to having Christmas in late

October. Mr. Edwards, my gym teacher, wasn’t too happy with all of this and after the Reds extinguished his team he was always prone to remind me over

the next few months that at least his team made it to the series while my team still sucked ass.

Then after the Reds beat the Yankees in the Series, free-agency followed. I sat back and watched as the Yankees signed Reggie Jackson and Don Gullet.

Reggie’s signing in the Bronx was a huge event with a major press conference and the sports sections in all of the papers being dominated by the news of Reggie coming to the Bronx. The Mets? No signings, no press

conferences, no anything.

1977 eventually arrived, and the Mets picked up infielder Lenny Randle in spring training that year. I was kind of excited by this news. Randle

became available after he punched out his manager Frank Luchessi that spring after Luchassi informed him that Bump Wills had won the Texas

Rangers second base job. If something like that had happened today, Randle would have been suspended for a year (or maybe for life) and would have

been forced to take a few anger-management classes. But back then it was explained that Lenny Randle simply had a bad day and, you know, these

things sometimes happen. Anyway, the Mets needed a third baseman, and Randle could play third base. The fact that Lenny Randle might be a

psychopath mattered not a bit to me.

Aside from Lenny Randle going on to have a career year and a young outfielder named Lee Mazzilli emerging onto the scene, the Mets otherwise

cratered to the basement of the National League East. Tom Seaver was traded to the Reds in June, Dave Kingman was sent to the Padres (1), manager Joe Frazier was fired, and Joe Torre was named as his replacement. The Mets

would finish the 1977 season, sans Tom Seaver, by going 64-98.

The Yankees in 1977? If I thought the previous season was a nightmare then 1977 turned out to be a nightmare double feature.

The Yankees went on to win their division, then they went on to beat the Royals for the second year in a row in the ALCS, and then they bitch

slapped the Dodgers in the World Series as everyone watched Reggie Jackson crush 3 home runs in Game 6 of the clincher.

So as the city of New York saluted their champions with a parade down the canyon of heroes, the Mets sunk into irrelevance that year, unlike anything

they had experienced in their short 16-year history to that point.

The off-season of 1977 saw the Yankees sign a few more free-agents, most notably relief pitcher Rich Gossage as well as left-hander Rawly Eastwick. Like the Reggie Jackson signing from the year before, the Yankees held a big press conference to show off their new signings to the media and the

newspapers in New York were flooded with wall-to-wall coverage of the new World Champions as they looked to reload and repeat the following season.

The Mets 1977 off-season? Well, the Mets finally stepped their toes into this newfangled free-agency game by announcing that they had signed pitcher Tom Hausman. Unlike the Yankees, who by this point were used to hosting big

press conferences to announce their big free-agent signings, the Mets, on the other hand didn’t hold a press conference to introduce their newly

signed pitcher Tom Hausman.

I believe there are two reasons why the Mets eschewed a formal press conference in this situation. Firstly, the only people who knew that Tom

Hausman even existed was his family and close friends. Secondly, I believe the Mets feared that if they invited the press to come to Shea Stadium to

meet their new free-agent signing they were probably worried that nobody in the media would have shown up.

Wash, rinse, and repeat, and that’s exactly what the Yankees did in 1978, besting the Dodgers for a second consecutive year to win another World Series. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot to mention. The Yankees season looked

dead and buried during the 78′ season. At one point they trailed the first-place Red Sox by 14-games. I was in my glory. They fired their

manager, that snot-nosed pissant Billy Martin, Reggie wanted to be traded, Phil Rizzuto talked less and less about his favorite cannoli’s during

Yankees broadcasts, the Bronx was burning and Yankees fans were losing their minds. Of course, by the end of the season, it was me who was losing

his mind.

The Mets in 1978? A record of 66-96. Tom Hausman was probably wondering what kind of a family he’d just joined.

Remember that 4th of July party each summer at Uncle Ken’s house? This quickly became something I looked forward to with much less enthusiasm. I

dreaded seeing the Yankees side of my family with all of their wise-ass smiles and front-running gloating they did. “Fireworks are pretty much all the same, dad, and we have a grill in our own backyard, so why can’t we

spend the 4th here at home?”

But in 1979 that 4th of July party at my uncle Ken’s house was back in style for me. How could it not be? My ship finally came in, and no, I’m not

talking about the Mets ship.

In 1979 the Mets again finished the season in last place and recorded a final record of 63-99. My ship came in that season because the Yankees

missed the playoffs, finished in 4th place in the AL East and Yankees fans everywhere were depressed. Lovely. What’s that? The Mets lost 99 games in

1979? Who gives a shit? The Mets were supposed to lose 99 games, even with Tom Hausman. But the Yankees? They were supposed to win yet another World

Series. But not this year, baby!

The long and short of this whole thing is that from 1976 until 1981, this was a 6-year period of time where it was Yankees dominance in my Mets

universe every single day of the year and it made life much less meaningful if you ask me.

But then once the Mets were sold in January of 1980, all Mets fans looked to the future more enthusiastically than we had done in years, and at the

same time, it appeared that the Yankees express was starting to slow down a bit.

The Yankees lost in the World Series to the Dodgers in the strike-shortened season of 1981, they finished under .500 in 1982, they finished in 3rd

place in both 1983 and 1984…and what made all of this even sweeter, was that the Mets were beginning to emerge as the better team with a

smorgasbord of young talent in their minor league system to complement what they had going on with their major league roster.

They drafted Daryl Strawberry number one overall in 1980, traded Lee Mazzilli to Texas in the spring of 1982 for two pitchers who would go on to have a huge impact for the Mets in the following seasons, Ron Darling and Walt Terrell. They fleeced the Cardinals in trading for Keith Hernandez, we

saw Wally Backman become a gritty big-leaguer, we introduced the world to

Dwight Gooden in 1984, and shook up the baseball world with the blockbuster trade for Gary Carter during the 1984 offseason.

Shea Stadium came alive and it pulsated with energy any day or night the Mets were at home. Attendance skyrocketed, the wins kept coming, a close

divisional race in 1984 where they stayed with the Cubs until almost the very end was followed by 98-wins in 1985 and a second-place finish to the

Cardinals during an era where there was no Wild Card, of course.

In 1986 it all came together. The Mets won 108 regular-season games, narrowly got by the Astros in the NLCS, and somehow won the World Series

after what was the single greatest come from behind win in World Series history, the epic and unforgettable Game-6 affair.

In short, not only did the Mets completely own New York while dominating the sports pages – but what was even more exciting for any Mets fan at the time was the thought that this was only the beginning. That 1986 was a year we’d look back on and remember it as a season where a dynasty was born in

Queens.

Not only that but while the Mets owned New York it also coincided with the dysfunctional Yankees and all of their winning ways coming to an end.

I remember thinking at that time that, not only are the Mets the undisputed kings of New York baseball, and will be for years to come, but also, thank

God in heaven above that I’ll never, ever, need to live through those kinds of years as I did remembering the Yankees dominance from 1976-1981.

Little did I know, huh?

Birth of a dynasty? Yeah, but a few miles north of Queens to another borough called the Bronx.

Listen, all sarcasm and bullshit aside, there are a few things to say about the Yankees that this Mets fan must objectively acknowledge.

Over the last 26-years, since they served notice that they were back in the business of winning and winning big, what the Yankees have demonstrated over these years is truly something to behold. The consistency with which they have won, while also recognizing that they have played during an era

of expanded playoffs, is truly remarkable.

Yes, they have used the Wild Card to secure 6 post-season appearances, but in the years since 1994 where the Yankees have earned a berth in the

post-season via the Wild Card position, they’ve never won a World Series nor have they made it to a World Series getting in as a Wild Card Entry.

But once they finish at the top of their division again this season it will mark the 15th time over the last 26-years that the Bombers have been at the top of the table at seasons end. So, how many divisional championships does

your team have over that same time?

I made mention in a recent column here on the website, I detailed the Mets and all of their never-ending issues with losing and systemic dysfunction

and sparse post-season appearances by the other club in New York, with, by comparison, once they make the playoffs again this season, it will mean that the Yankees will have qualified for post-season baseball in 22 of the

last 26-years. That’s not luck, my friends, that’s brilliant baseball-ops, is what that is.

Getting back to that 1976-81 period of time, the ‘nightmare’ years for any Mets fan, that was really just an appetizer of things to come, right?

How do you suppose any fan of the team in Queens would describe the last more than a quarter of a century, with the Yankees doing

nothing but winning, while the Mets have done mostly a lot of losing? And to add insult to injury, not only did the Yankees beat the Mets in the 2000

World Series, but they did it while celebrating and partying on the Shea Stadium playing field after their game-5 series-clinching win that year.

Will the Yankees win yet another World Series title this year, notching championship number 28?

If they fail to make it to the Series this year, it will mark the very first time in the history of the Yankees organization where they failed to advance to the final round playing in any one decade excluding the years

from 1910 through 1920.

In each of the decades starting with the 1920s, the Yankees have made it to the World Series at least one time over any ten-year period of time. The only other time where they came close to not appearing in at least one

World Series in any single decade was during the 1980s when they appeared a single time, losing to the Dodgers in 1981.

In all of the seasons, since they started winning again in 1994, this one to me just might be the most impressive to date.

Their ability to withstand not only a multitude of injuries but injuries to key players, injuries to their starting lineup, injuries to their starting

staff, have done nothing to slow this club down. It’s been remarkable.

The Yankees have given new meaning this year to the term; “next man up”, unlike I’ve ever seen those words put to use maybe ever before.

As I type these words the Yankees are 30-games over .500 with a 9-game divisional lead. Tampa Bay isn’t catching them and Red Sox manager Alex

Cora’s words before the season about how much better his club would be this year after winning it all last season has proven to be utterly hollow. In

other words, feel free to start the magic number countdown right now for the Yankees.

They’ll win over 100 games. They’ll win their first divisional title since 2012 – and after Aaron Boone’s home plate meltdown with an umpire last week

– it means that every Yankees fan will now refer to this team as a bunch of; ‘savages’ for the rest of the season.

As impressed as I’ve been with the Yankees this year I do find myself wondering if their dominance over a 162-game regular season will manifest

itself into a club that can also win in consecutive post-season short-series situations?

As far as I’m concerned, the path out of the American League and into another World Series for this team goes through Houston almost exclusively.

With credit being given to the Twins and what they’ve been able to do so far this year, one would have to be supremely confident that if the Yankees

met Minnesota in a postseason series, the Twins would be no match.

Then again, Minnesota’s one-time double-digit lead in the standings has been reduced to a mere 3 games with Cleveland zooming up behind them the last few weeks, so perhaps Minnesota doesn’t even win their division or get

to the playoffs at all.

Now, Cleveland is by far a different situation and different challenge potentially for the Yankees than Minnesota would be in a short-series.

Of course, it’s all about head-to-head pitching in short series situations.

Where the Twins (this is before any possible trades might be made) wouldn’t scare the Yankees by rolling out starters like Jose Berrios, Kyle

Gibson, Jake Odorizzi, or even former Yankee, Michael Pineda, Cleveland, on

the other hand does possess starting pitching that could be an equalizer in a series with New York.

Remember that the Indians have been climbing back these past few weeks without their best pitcher, Cory Kluber, who has been out with a broken forearm. He’s just started throwing again and if he makes it back and is the same pitcher he’s always been, then the Indians have to like their chances of coming back to win the division – and maybe even more.

The Indians have been dealing with injuries to their starting staff all year long. Mike Clevinger just recently returned and he’s battled a string

of different hurts this year.

If Cleveland comes all the way back and gets into the playoffs, avoiding the one-game Wild Card, a starting and healthy threesome of Kluber, Bauer,

and Clevinger is nothing for any team to sneeze at. Despite some injuries and inconsistency in their starting staff this year, it’s the Indians who

are second overall in pitching in the American League right now.

But back to Houston who I think is the Yankees main threat.

Cleveland is 2nd best in AL pitching, and right behind them are the Astros. In fact, as an aside, of the clubs that would qualify for the playoffs if

the season ended today, each and every one of them is in the top 5 in overall pitching in the American League.

The Astros throw out Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and Wade Miley, as their first three in a short series and it says here that Houston

desperately wishes they could have Charlie Morton back right about now. Can the Yankees as currently constituted match the Astros starting pitching in

a potential ALCS if both teams get that far?

Right now? I’d say no, but that doesn’t mean that the Yankees still couldn’t beat Houston in the post-season, of course.

But if I’m a Yankees fan, while I’m overjoyed at my rampaging team that is running away with the division right now, as I peer into the future and a

few months down the line, I do openly wonder if regular-season success will necessarily translate into post-season glory.

As a Yankees fan, despite the next man up situation that has been filled successfully time and again this year, do you feel confident heading into a

short series with Cleveland or Houston, and potentially matching those teams starting staffs with names like; Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia, J.A.

Happ, and Domingo German, or even James Paxton (roughed up by Colorado yesterday)?

Can the Yankees can get it done with those names? Maybe? Maybe not?

Of course, not only for the Yankees but for each and every club I’ve mentioned here, the trade market can change things up in a second.

I don’t think the Giants are trading Madison Bumgarner. In the end, they just night, but if I was a betting man (and I’m not) I don’t think

they’re moving him.

I felt earlier in the year and at a time where the Nationals season looked hopeless, that if the Yankees were able to swing a deal for Max Scherzer,

it would push them to the front of the pack of American league teams most likely to make it to late October. But now that Washington has rebounded

and finds themselves firmly ensconced in a playoff race of some kind, Scherzer is going nowhere.

So that leaves what else?

Zack Wheeler?

If the Mets are to trade Wheeler, and I’m not so sure they should anyway, it likely would be to any other team in baseball not named the Yankees.

Now, if the Yankees offered the Mets an impossible to turn down deal, then I guess anything is possible. But given their druthers and with paranoid

ownership in Queens? It says here that if they do trade Wheeler he’s going someplace else other than the Bronx.

Noah Syndergaard? See my Zack Wheeler feelings in the above paragraph. But there’s more to Syndergaard than Wheeler in my mind. As confounding as

Syndergaard has been over the last few years, and as much as he frustrates the hell out of me, because of the glimpses of brilliance he sometimes

shows and his two most recent post-All-Star game starts are in that category, then there is no way the Mets should trade Syndergaard, and if

they do unless the Yankees want to start the discussion with Gleyber Torres’ name, if Syndergaard is to be traded, it also won’t be to the Bronx.

Which leaves the Yankees and every other team that is a current contender, or likes to think of themselves as a contender, with the following names

for consideration:

Robbie Ray, Arizona: Nice lefthander enjoying a solid season for the Diamondbacks. Has never started a post-season game, although he’s appeared

in two, pitching a total of 6.2 innings with an ERA of 6.75

Matthew Boyd, Detriot: Tigers lefty having a decent year. Hits to innings pitched ratio is very good, pitching in a pressure-free environment, has

never appeared in a post-season game.

Mike Minor, Texas: Enjoying what might end up as a career-year. 31-years-old, he’s pitched in a single post-season game for the Braves back

in 2013. Started against the Dodgers, went 6.1 innings, allowed 1-run on 8-hits and earned the victory that day.

Andrew Cashner, Baltimore: Already traded by the Orioles to the disappointing Red Sox who are so far behind the Yankees they can’t even see

them anymore.

Marcus Stroman, Toronto: Nice pitcher, but a difference-maker or an equalizer?

I guess that there are a few other names to be bandied about, but if you’re a Yankees fan, you know who you should hope your general manager Brian Cashman calls? It’s the Arizona Diamondbacks – and it’s not to talk about Robbie Ray – it’s to discuss how Arizona and the Yankees can figure out a

way to send Zach Grienke to the Bronx.

Grienke is one of those pitchers that can be a difference-maker or an equalizer. Grienke, although he sports a spotty and somewhat uneven

post-season record, is a veteran of playoff baseball having made 11 post-season starts in his career, going 3-4 overall with a 4.03 ERA. As a

Dodger, he had a terrific 2013 NLCS winning one of his starts against St. Louis that year while getting a no-decision in the other and finishing that

series with a nifty 2.40 ERA.

Of course, Grienke is on the hook for a pile of cash the next 2-years – $70 million to be exact – but look it now, both the Diamondbacks and the

Yankees should be motivated enough to get creative enough to make a trade happen because it makes too much sense for both organizations.

Arizona is shifting on the fly, transitioning to a younger core while aiming for the future and a player like Grienke, especially with his massive salary has no place in Arizona’s short or long-range plans.

The Yankees are in win-now mode, have overcome a plethora of injuries that would have destroyed any other teams chances – and they need to win the

World Series.

Would Arizona kick in $12 million a year over the final 2-years of Grienke’s contract while accepting a package of young players in the New

York farm system? This is the Yankees after all and they still have that printing press that spits out money in the basement of their stadium, right?

Would Arizona prefer to pay a player who has no place in their current rebuild $70 million over the next 2-years, or would they swallow easier

paying Greinke $24 million over the next few seasons while also potentially getting back some young players of value from the Yankees?

Zack Grienke is having one hell of a season at the age of 35.

Grienke has made 21 starts this year pitching 135-innings, he’s allowed 111 hits, he’s struck out 123 and walked a scant 17 batters all year long to this point. He’s got an ERA of 2.93 which is good for 7th overall in the

National League.

Bumgarner won’t be made available, Scherzer is staying put in Washington, Robbie Ray is an unproven commodity and ditto for Mathew Boyd.

Marcus Stroman might be a slight upgrade, Mike Minor isn’t a slam dunk, and the Mets aren’t doing business with the Yankees for either Zach Wheeler of

Noah Syndergaard.

Grienke won’t guarantee the Yankees another Series championship but his addition would greatly enhance their chances.

If the Yankees want to get back to a World Series and win it again, they’re 28th in franchise history, then they need to figure out a way to put Zack Greinke in pinstripes by any which way possible because his addition to their staff can be the difference between not only having a great regular

season – but having a great season potentially capped off by World Series championship number 28.

(1) The Mets traded Dave Kingman on June 15, 1976, to the San Diego Padres for infielder Bobby Valentine and pitcher Paul Siebert. Kingman would go on

to become the first player ever to play in all 4-divisions in Major League Baseball in the same season. The California Angels would select Kingman off

waivers from the Padres on 9-6-77, and then the Angles would trade Kingman

to the Yankees on 9-15-77 completing a cycle where Kingman played in the NL, East, NL West, AL West, and AL East, in one season.