The Best Rivalry Nobody is Talking About
Written by B-Dub, Tuesday June 09 2009
Well the national media is at it again. It's not bad enough that the World Wide Leader (in Douchebaggery), ESPN has become the Yankees - Red Sox Network, but the first story you see on MLB.com is about the Yanks - Sawks matchup. Enough already.
I told you months ago that this "rivalry" was old news, but apparently some people don't read my brilliant article. We'll call them uninformed idiots. I mean, this "rivalry" has been nothing the last few years, as the teams have hardly ever been good at the same time. Oh sure, both teams are at the top of the standings in the American League East right now, but the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets are also at the top of the standings in the National League East. And this may come as a shock to the national media, but the Phillies and Mets also begin a three game series tonight.
It's just too bad that when the Sox and Yanks play the rest of MLB ceases to exist. Maybe this is why anybody who isn't a fan of either of those teams hates them. I know it certainly ticks me off. Just because these two teams are always the top two teams in terms of player salaries every year doesn't make them the best. A little team from Tampa, with a team payroll roughly equivalent to A-Fraud, proved that point last year.
The Phillies go into new Citi Field in the middle of a 10-game road trip. The Phillies are 5-2 so far having just returned from the West Coast. They swept 3 from the Padres and split with the best team in baseball, the LA Dodgers. Meanwhile, the Mets just took 2 of 3 from the worst team in MLB, the Washington Nationals, after getting swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mets' CF Carlos Beltran said, "Coming here to Pittsburgh and getting swept, me, I feel embarrassed." Well at least Carlos didn't blame injuries.
The Mets have had some serious injury problems this year. 1B Carlos Delgado is out for a month with a hip injury. RP JJ Putz just decided to undergo elbow surgery that will essentially end his season. And Jose Reyes has been out with a hamstring injury that was just diagnosed as a tear. He is expected to be out about three weeks. Those are some significant injuries.
I'll give the Mets credit for only being 3 games behind the Phillies in the NL East with such a rash of injuries. It's even more impressive when you consider that the Phillies have the 2nd best record in MLB, behind the Dodgers. And with their 30-25 record, the Mets are the current leader in the NL Wild Card Race. Yes, I know it's only June.
The pitching mathup tonight in the best rivalry in sports is JA Happ for the Phillies and some guy named Santana for the Mets. Johan Santana went seven shutout innings in a 1-0 Mets win on May 6th at Citi Field and he is 3-0 against the Phillies in six starts as a Met. Game two will pit NLCS and World Series MVP, Cole Hamels against Mike Pelfrey. While that is an obvious mismatch, Pelfrey is 2-0 against the Phillies this season. Game three is a non-descript matchup of Jamie Moyer for the Phils and Tim Redding for the Mets. Expect lots of offense in that one.
Beltran and David Wright are having All-Star seasons for the Mets, even though Wright only has 3 HRs due to those high walls I told you about in my NL East Preview article. The Phillies are being led by Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and newcomer, Raul Ibanez, who currently leads NL OFs in all-star voting. The Phillies are 2nd in Runs in the NL, to the Dodgers 305-302, even though SS Jimmy Rollins is having the worst year of his career offensively. And after a rough start to the season by the starting rotation, the Phillies got a quality start in every game of the road trip so far.
Combining the Phillies potent offense with their suddenly efficient starting pitching and MLB best fielding, with only 18 errors, and you've got a pretty impressive team. They're starting a series against a team from New York. First place is on the line. And yet the national media doesn't even notice.
I can't possibly be the only one that is annoyed by this right? Some of you have to agree with me that it's ridiculous to ignore the other 28 teams in MLB every time the Sox and Yanks play right? Certainly somebody somewhere in the national media must have noticed that the Phillies won the World Series last year. And maybe somebody else even noticed the spectacular choke jobs the Mets did the last two years. Failure makes for great drama. And finally, somebody in the national media blinded by all things Yanks-Sox must have noticed the trash-talking and venom that has developed between the Mets and Phillies right?
No? Oh well. Just keep reading my articles and I'll keep you informed on the best rivalry in sports, even if the national media refuses to get their heads out of their asses to see it.
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6 comments
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TigersFan22, you are so right. There a tons of great rivalries in sports. Why does ESPN insist that nothing else exists in the entire sports world except Yanks-Sox?
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I do like this rivalry alot. They really don't like each other. The 'Swaks (as wilbon says) and the Yanks is starting to bore me. Yankeespn is getting lamer than ever with Yankee weekend, every game is a yankee game. I'm still waiting on that Nats vs Yanks game of the week but thats beside the point...it's just annoying and lets get a little variety. The white sox's and tigers are a pretty decent rivalry, how about the dodgers and uh...well that division sucks but on to other rivalries, brewers and cubbies or just about anyone else who has a rival that we don't see enough of.
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RaysFan, you're wrong about nobody caring about the Mets and Phillies. Nothing approaches the Monica Lewinski on Bill Clinto treatment that the Yanks and Sox get from ESPN, but some people care about other teams. The Mets are a NY team so they get all sorts of hype. The Phils are only the defeding Champions, with more stars than almost any other team. Rollins and Howard have won MVP awards and Howard finished 2nd last year too. Ibanez is on his way to winning a Triple Crown this year and will get serious consideration for MVP. Chase Utley is a star who would have won the MVP last year if he didn't get a hip injury and played through it all year, but a Wuss like A-Fraud needed surgery for. He will win one in teh next few years. And Cole Hamels is only the reigning NLCS and World Series MVP. The Phillies could become a dynasty with this core of talent.
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" Just because these two teams are always the top two teams in terms of player salaries every year doesn't make them the best." I agree, money does not make them the best (Yankees, last win World Series in 2000) but the Sox are not number 2 in salary, they have been 4th the last 2 years. In '08 the Tigers and Mets outspent the Red Sox, and this year the Cubs passed the Red Sox (talk about spending without winning). The Phillies and Red Sox are only 8 million apart in team salary, and unlike the other high priced teams, at least the Phillies and Red Sox have won something recently.
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Nobody hears about the Mets/Phillies rivalry because nobody cares about either team....plain and simple. And yes, I absolutely agree with you, and I am also so sick and tired of ESPN being the Yunks/Sux network for the past decade.
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Whoa! Stop the press. We agree on something! Can't dispute much of anything in this one. Well, I do have to point out that the team from Florida you referred to is not from Tampa. St. Petersburg is their address. If the city of Tampa residents got off their lazy asses, made a drive over a bridge and went to a few more games, the Rays would have more butts in seats and could spend a few more dollars. Most of Tampa is Nueva York Yanquis fans so that's a bone of contention around here. ### As for calling ESPN "douchebaggery", I couldn't agree more. They gobble up the Yanquis...er Yankees and Red Sox and pay attention to nothing else. It's bad because most people learn from ESPN so this hegemonic crap of NY/Boston will continue in perpetuity.