I know you guys think I hate the New York teams and especially the Yankees, but really I don't.
Opening Day: Torn between two lovers ...
Well, sometimes I hate the Yankees. But only when they're winning! Either way, though, I often watch them. Because they're the Yankees. I watch the Mets a lot, too, because of their broadcast team and also because of Bobby Dick--oh, right. Probably won't be watching the Mets as often this year.
Which is all sort of a pointless lead-in to this interesting news (via the Times):
For Mets and Yankees fans, this opening day will be like no other. Owing to a whopper of a scheduling quirk, the teams will open their seasons at home on the same day, at the same hour, for the first time, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
At roughly 1:05 p.m. on April 1, barring poor weather, a Yankees and a Mets pitcher — probably C. C. Sabathia and Johan Santana — will unleash their respective first pitches of the season on mounds less than 10 miles apart.
According to Elias, two New York teams haven't opened their seasons on the same day since 1956, when the Giants and Dodgers did it. Apparently it wasn't terribly uncommon in those days, with three of the 16 major-league franchises sited in New York City. But the Giants and Dodgers headed west in '58, and since then the ratio's never been higher than 2 of 20 (1962-1968).
It's sort of hard to understand what all the fuss is about. It's not like a lot of people would be going to a Mets game if there wasn't a Yankees game, or vice versa. I think teams just love to bitch about the schedule, no matter how little revenue they might actually lose.
If it were me, I'd try to do this every year and get the mayor to proclaim New York City the Baseball Capital of the World.
But that's just me.
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