Rant #2,176: Every 1's a Winner (Not)

Today is July 9, the 190th day of the year.

Just so you know, 169 more days until Christmas. I think I got that right.

My family and I had a nice weekend, and how was yours?

The weather is hot in my neck of the woods, and it is going to get even hotter this week.

My allergies are bad--right now, I am not seeing clearly out of my left eye--and the entire weekend, my left side was bothering me.

Talking about sides, can the year be more different than what is happening in New York baseball, where the Yankees are battling the hated Boston Red Sox for the top spot in the American League East, with both teams on pace to win more than 100 games this season, while on the other side of the fence, the Mets appear to already be playing out the string.

As the All-Star break nears, the Yankees are on pace to win about 104 games, while the Red Sox are on pace to win 106 games.

Not only would this scenario put the Yankees in second place in their division, but it would force them to play a dreaded one-game Wild Card playoff with another team, where one team wins, and moves on to the playoffs, and the other team loses, and goes home.

This seems unfair to either the Ynakees or the Red Sox, because it appears that one of those teams will be the Wild Card team--they win over 100 games, yet they aren't in the real playoffs until they win another one-game playoff?

There has been lots of chatter that because of the situation this season, that the playoff seeding should be changed.

Rather than have a second place team in such a situation play a Wild Card game, simply seed the playoffs with the teams with the top records in order, which this season, right now, would put the Red Sox as the first seed, the Yankees as the second seed, and the 2017 World Series winner the Houston Astros as the third seed. Each is expected to win at least 100 games, and it is only fair that they get in.

The Cleveland Indians are, at least right now, the Central Division winner, and right now--even though their record is inferior to the three teams I just mentioned--they will be in the playoffs without a Wild Card even though they have the fourth best record of the qualifying teams.

It just plays out as wrong.

Most years, you don't have such a situation, but this year, you do, and it involves baseball's two marquee teams, the Yankees and the Red Sox, so the problem is magnified 100 fold.

And let's be honest about it, all this revolves around money, and the networks showing the playoffs--Fox and TBS--would love to have the Yankees and Red Sox go as long as they can in the playoffs, and perhaps even end up playing each other for the American League championship, to boost national ratings.

Baseball has become such a regional sport now, and there are really three teams that can draw national ratings at the playoff level, and that is the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers. The Dodgers went to the World Series last year, and could do it again.

Yankees-Dodgers ... Red Sox-Dodgers? This is what Fox wants, and that is not really a knock on the Astros, the 2017 World Series winners, but for national ratings, the big boys are the Yankees, Red Sox and Dodgers.

And no, the Mets are not in that group, and this is one of the few years that me, as a Yankees fan, has had to soothe certain Mets fans I know on Facebook from completely jumping ship.

The Mets are terrible. They have little or no fight in them, they don't score any runs--they were shut out by the suddenly hot Rays 9-0 yesterday and only posted two hits, and while their pitching is good, the team's talent is thin as Olive Oyl is.

The team began the season 11-1, but since then, the team has gone 24-50, and the only team preventing the Mets from being in last place is the Marlins, who sold off virtually their whole team this off season and are percentage points worse than the Mets in the standings.

The Mets have had some tremendous injuries, including to their great starting pitchers--the only asset they have--and their minor league system is almost completely barren of talent.

The team is currently swimming in a sea of mud, stuck between a rock and a hard place about what to do to improve themselves for not just this season, but for the future.

Do they trade one of their great starting pitchers to get young talent? They have few trade options other than their starting pitchers--Jacob deGrom, perhaps one of the best pitchers in baseball, is in that mix--so do you just mark this season off now, and build for next year, or do you sit on your hands and do nothing?

And what can you do to look respectable during the crosstown rival Yankees juggernaut?

I swear to you, I have had to talk to long-time Mets fans on Facebook from jumping ship this season. I tell them you have to stay with your team through thick and thin, because if you stop rooting for them, not only do you seem like a fair weather fan, but you lose your own dignity by doing so.

Heck, I rooted for the Yankees when they were a last place team--1966--through the dark days leading up to the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s through another dark period, the mid to late 1980s, and through the return to the promised land in the mid-1990s to the present time.

The Yankees have seemingly not missed a beat in 25 years or so, but if they were a last place team like the Mets nearly are, I would continue to root for them.

Mets fans should stay the course, because through a couple of savvy moves, they can find themselves relevant again pretty quickly.

The Yankees have proven that, the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies are proving that this year, and Mets fans should simply take a deep breath and take it all in, because this regular season has the rest of July, August, September and the start of October  to go before it mercifully ends for them.

Me, I am concentrating on the Yankees.

Can they overtake the Red Sox during the regular season?

Yes, we will find out in due time.