Stephen A. Smith screamed in jubilation when Francisco Lindor hit a go-ahead Grand Slam that would be the difference for the New York Mets in the National League Division Series.
But the self-proclaimed die-hard New York Yankees fan wouldn’t want you to confuse his jubilation for actual Mets fandom; rather, he knows what it means for The Big Apple and what a Subway Series would mean for the city itself.
That’s all well and good, but how he got there was quite bizarre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDu39oFnzKY
“Here’s my thing: I think the Mets have been spectacular,” Smith said on Wednesday’s First Take . “Listen, I’m a die-hard Yankee fan; I don’t root against the Mets, except for when they’re playing the Yankees… I ain’t no watching no damn Mets like that. But I got to tell you, I actually screamed in jubilation when Lindor hit that Grand Slam. I mean, I loved it because it was exciting for me.
“And here’s what I love about the Yankees, the Yankees see what’s going on, and they said, ‘Wait a damn minute, this is New York, baby. This is the Yankees. This is our town. We ain’t gonna have you. We understand every 20 years or so, you show up and be relevant — and try to act like you gonna bring a championship to Queens. That’s cool, but not this time.’ The fact that the New York Yankees are doing what they’re doing while the Mets are winning is a beautiful thing because it shows me they’re embracing the moment, which they haven’t done since 2009.”
The Yankees are embracing the moment, running roughshod over the American League Central en route to entering Wednesday two wins away from a World Series berth. But we shouldn’t count our chickens before they hatch, especially with New York headed back to Cleveland. The Guardians don’t look like they’ll be the team to win the A.L. Pennant, but it’s a bit premature to insinuate this series is over.
Not for nothing, but the Philadelphia Phillies made the Arizona Diamondbacks look lifeless in the first two games of last year’s Championship Series, only to blow a 3-2 lead and lose a Game 6 and 7 in Philadelphia. That’s not to say the Guardians will do the same, but we should pump the brakes a bit.
And that’s what Chris “Mad Dog” Russo implored his ESPN colleague to do.
“Take it easy,” he told Smith about three or four times over.
How do the Mets factor into the Yankees playing better? Well, we’re not sure how to make sense of that either. And after arguing about the merits of playing the Dodgers or Mets in a hypothetical World Series that hasn’t happened yet, Smith declared he wanted to face Edwin Diaz in the ninth inning, who he claimed was good for two walks.
The idea that the Yankees somehow saw the Mets performing well and thought, “This is our city; we better step it up,” is an amusing narrative, but it doesn’t really hold up. The Yankees don’t need motivation from across town to know what’s at stake in October, especially when their path to the World Series hasn’t been that daunting thus far.
Smith is right that a Subway Series would be electric, but the notion that the Mets’ success spurs the Yankees’ dominance feels more like a convenient storyline than reality.
[ First Take ]
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