The New York Yankees and New York Mets are on a collision course to headline another World Series as the AL and NL champs — just like they did in 2000.
Although World Series champions alternate throughout the years, there are a few MLB franchises who consistently rank among the best in the league.
In New York, there have been two baseball teams to represent both ends of the victory spectrum. The New York Yankees are historically the winningest MLB franchise with 27 titles, and they haven’t missed the postseason since 2017.
The Mets, on the other hand, are virtually the opposite: they’ve won two World Series titles in nine postseason appearances in their 60-year history, hence their “LOLMets” moniker. In true LOLMets fashion, the NL East New Yorkers dashed their postseason hopes right at the end — but things might be different this time around.
As of mid-June, the Yankees and Mets claim the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the latest MLB power rankings, according to MLB.com.
The Yankees’ success has been the talk of the town, but that’s no surprise: the iconic New York team is coming into their own this year more powerfully than seasons past. And the Mets are keeping up with them, as the only MLB teams to boast 40+ wins are both headquartered in NYC.
If the stars align and the Mets and Yankees both make the World Series, it will be a historic rematch that New Yorkers haven’t seen in 22 years.
Yankees and Mets could divide New York in second installment of Subway World Series
FiveThirtyEight’s Neil Paine illustrated just how rare it is for the Yankees and Mets to be good at the same time, describing the New York teams as “ships passing in the night” when it comes to MLB success. More often than not, it’s been the Yankees who have witnessed success, but the Mets have had their moments in the sun.
And at the turn of the millennium, the Mets and Yankees aligned for a World Series only New Yorkers could truly appreciate.
Former Yankees rightfielder Paul O’Neill recounted what it was like to play in that series in a published excerpt from his book, “A Swing and a Miss”:
“Flash back to the 2000 postseason, and we were all singing “New York, New York” for the Subway Series between the Yankees and the Mets, the first Subway Series since the Yankees defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956. I was excited to be competing in such a monumental series and excited that the Yankees had the chance to win our third straight championship and our fourth in the last five years.”
According to FiveThirtyEight’s projections, the Yankees have the best chance of making the World Series for the AL at 31 percent, with the Houston Astros coming in second at 21.2 percent. And while the Mets have the second-best chance of making the World Series at 13.9 percent, they are far behind the expected NL frontrunners, the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are currently at 36. 7 percent.
Still, the Mets are winning in the power rankings, which means the FiveThirtyEight projections may be accounting for some LOLMets moments later on down the line. But for now, there’s no need to take away the dream of chanting “New York, New York” in October.