an annoying sign and another gorgeous baby

this billboard is on the Grand Central Parkway, past LaGuardia, heading for the Tri-Boro bridge. (important note to my parents and husband: traffic was not moving when I took this shot, and I threw the car into park to take it.) note that this is in Queens, less than five miles from Shea Stadium, and then check out the uniform of the guy in the middle, the focal point and biggest figure on the billboard.


That's right, it's the other New York short stop. His team wasn't even winning the wild card when this sign went up, while the Mets have been in first place in their division since May! I suppose I ought to be happy that they deigned to put David Wright up there at all, but why is he the same size as David Ortiz?! Seems to me they're saying that in NYC, Ortiz is as big a star as Wright, which is a joke. At least Smoltz is smaller than the rest of the guys on the sign.



when I finally made it to the city, I had the pleasure of meeting our other new cousin. we all enjoyed meeting E and seeing his parents and grandparents, and SJG was not surprised as she was holding him to see that he was very interested in the Mets game on the television. His dad and grandpa saw Gooden and Strawberry when they were in Single-A ball in Lynchburg in the 80's, which I find indescribably cool.

waiting for the headline

the Mets are, again, the team with the best record in NY. not just by percentage points-- by 1 win and 3 losses.

when will we see a back cover heralding this achievement? will Adam Rubin even mention it?

I'm not holding my breath.

The Daily News ♥'s the Yankees

Adam Rubin, the Mets beat reporter for the News, posted in his blog when the Yanks record surpassed the Mets that the Yanks are the kings of New York, the NY team he'd bet on being in the playoffs. This was behind the back cover declaring the same.

Why is this guy blogging about the Mets? And now that the Mets have a better record than the Yanks again, can we expect a back cover heralding their triumph as the kings of New York?

Of course not. The fact that the Mets have been in first place since May 16 and are clearly the best team in their division doesn't matter next to the Yanks being on the march. How far the mighty have fallen, when the best they can say is that they have (excuse me, had) a better record than the team they've always regarded as their inferiors anyway. It almost amuses me to hear Yankee fans talk about the records, when it obviously doesn't matter whether the Yanks have a better record than the Mets-- all that matters is their record against the Red Sox.

And I think we all know how that's going.

ETA: Rubin is on the Francessa Sports Final tonight. I wonder how much he'll piss me off there? I bet the guy is a Yankee fan.

flaw of sampling?

I've only been keeping track for three days, and already my trusty spreadsheet shows that the Yanks were twice as likely as the Mets to be the lead sports story in the local press in that time. while neither LHJ nor I are even remotely surprised by these numbers, I'm compelled to point out (as any good critic should) that the three days which surround Joe Torre being booed at Yankee Stadium for the first time ever aren't exactly a fair sample of what's headline-worthy in New York sports over an average three days. so, the watch continues into the long days of summer, but I am willing to take on anyone willing to bet that at the end of the season, the Mets will have more headline coverage than the Yanks in the New York sports press.

one could argue that the Yankees slide is a bigger story than the Mets rise, in absolute terms, but I would counter that this is only so because the media is so focused on the Yankees and their success in the Torre era. no matter what the year, there's some reason to think that what's going on with the Yanks is just a more headline-worthy story than whatever is going on with the Mets. it's not fact, it's attitude.

keeping tabs

I've decided to keep track of whether the Mets or Yankees get the lead story in the local press, both television and print. Click on the link to see the spreadsheet.

Here's how it works: the team that was the first story on the evening news and the team that was the story on the back page of the two local tabloids (the New York Daily News and the New York Post) gets 1 point, and the team that was second gets two.

as a result, the team with the lower score is the one that gets more headlines and lead stories in the local NYC press.

I've already had two outlier situations-- one in which both the front and back page of the Post was about the Yankees (in which case I gave the Yankees no points at all, rather than the 1 they'd record if they were just the back page story, and the Mets their usual 2 as the second story), and one in which the front page was about the Yanks and the back page about the Mets (in which case I gave both the Mets and Yanks a 1 as the lead story).

I'll update as I make appropriate adjustments, but I'm sure this spreadsheet will prove LHJ's and my theory that the NYC sports press usually leads with the Yanks, no matter what is happening with either NY team.