Subway Series will provide great entertainment | Lucas

This is a story of two teams who have lasted a combined 171 years in New York City. One team may have a longer history, and more of a penchant for winning, but the city of New York and its surrounding areas have much love and respect for each of them. For the 22nd consecutive year, the New York…

This is a story of two teams who have lasted a combined 171 years in New York City. One team may have a longer history, and more of a penchant for winning, but the city of New York and its surrounding areas have much love and respect for each of them.

For the 22nd consecutive year, the New York Yankees and the New York Mets will face each other in the MLB regular season. Frequent readers may know that I grew up a fan of the New York Baseball Giants prior to their move to San Francisco. The Brooklyn Dodgers, Yankees, and Giants represented the original “Subway Series.”

The current edition of the Subway Series has taken place since the two teams began meeting for the Mayor’s Trophy in 1963, just one year after the Metropolitans entered the league. However, the two teams’ meetings did not have any significance until inter-league play began in 1997. Even then, these two teams crossed paths even before it mattered.

In 1964, Yankees ownership fired Yogi Berra after just one season as their full-time manager, even though the team came within one win of a world championship. The next year, the Mets hired Berra as a coach, although he played four times at catcher there before the end of his playing career. He was a part of the team’s 1969 World Series title, and managed them to the National League pennant in 1973.

In 1996, the Yankees claimed two former Mets, David Cone and Darryl Strawberry, each of which became a key member of that era’s dynasty. One year later, inter-league play began, and since then, each team has experienced highs and suffered lows through a tremendous rivalry.

Though the Yankees may have been in their own ballpark, and the defending world champions, the Mets actually grabbed the first regular season game between the teams, a 6-0 victory on the back of a complete game shutout by pitcher Dave Milicki.

After three championships in four years, the Yankees were the talk of the town in 2000. However, the Mets came within two wins of facing the Yankees in the fall classic in 1999, and the rivalry truly heated up in the first regular season of the new millennium.

On July 8 of that season, I, along with my good friend and editor Harvey Zucker, attended both ends of a Subway Series doubleheader, with game one in Queens and game two in the Bronx. After the Bombers took game one, 4-2, Yankees ace Roger Clemens hit Mets catcher Mike Piazza with a pitch in the helmet during the nightcap. Piazza unfortunately suffered a concussion on a play that both parties thought unintentional. The Yankees ultimately won that game, also 4-2, and defeated the Mets in the World Series later that year.

After the infamous bat-throwing incident of 2000, Mets pitcher Shawn Estes retaliated in 2002 by throwing behind Clemens, and even hitting a two-run home run off him later in the game.

The next year, with the aid of former Met Robin Ventura, the Yankees managed to sweep the entire six-game season series, including another day-night, two-park doubleheader.

The rivalry grew deeper in the 2000s, with former Met player and manager Joe Torre still at the helm of the Yankees, and former Yankee Willie Randolph taking the Mets managerial job in 2005.

Less than two weeks after Randolph’s firing in 2008, the teams split yet another, day-night, twin-park doubleheader. Mets first baseman Carlos Delgado took advantage in the first game by recording nine RBI, the most ever by an opposing player in the old Yankee Stadium.

In 2009 there were a few big moments in the rivalry. Both teams opened their new ballparks, and Mariano Rivera recorded his 500th career save at Citi Field that season. However, the most notorious moment of the year was when Luis Castillo dropped what should have been a game-ending pop-up by Alex Rodriguez, which allowed two runs to score, and the Yankees to walk off, 9-8.

This weekend, the Yankees and Mets face each other once again, and, even if it does not match these high-intensity moments, it should provide for great entertainment.