Red Sox Nation, Yankee country? How about Metamerica? My Santana t-shirt provoked plenty of comments walking around downtown San Diego, on one March evening. I had a conversation about Santana, about Delgado, and about El Duque 3000 miles from Shea Stadium. I didn’t hear one peep from Padres fans, and I didn’t see one Yankees or Red Sox cap. This isn’t a very representative sample; it’s March and I was wearing a Mets shirt and hat. However, there were certainly Mets fan about, and people were excited enough to cheer “Let’s Go Mets!” at me as they walked by.
I’m not suggesting we have an election for “America’s team”, I’m just suggesting that maybe Hank shouldn’t count the Mets out so easily. There are plenty of relocated New Yorkers, and plenty of them are Mets fans. There are also plenty of people out there who will always remain National League fans, never jumping on an American League DH team’s bandwagon.
And remember, no one’s talking about how the Yankees kept the same roster they had last year, they’re talking about the biggest trade in baseball and New York; Johan Santana to the Mets.
