Balance of power shifts to Flushing
October 8, 2006


LOS ANGELES -- Mark down the date -- Oct. 7, 2006 -- and commit it to memory, because on that day, the baseball landscape in this town officially tilted away from the Bronx and back toward Flushing.

Saturday, the Mets erased any doubt about which is the best baseball team in town. After all, they're the only team still playing baseball. While the Yankees are packing trash bags and wondering which of their overpriced underachievers will be leaving town, the Mets are waiting to see whom they will play for the right to represent the National League, and more importantly, New York City, in the World Series.

Not long ago, it seemed as if they were headed for an intracity showdown, but the Yankees weren't able to keep their end of the bargain. Right now, October belongs to the Mets, and so does New York.

"At least for the rest of the season, we're only going to talk about National League baseball in New York," Mets general manager Omar Minaya said.

The displacement, which has been under way all season, was consummated Saturday when the Yankees were eliminated from their Division Series by the Detroit Tigers a few hours before the Mets completed a sweep of the Dodgers in the NLDS with a gritty 9-5 victory in which they came back after blowing an early 4-0 lead.

They did it the way they have done it all season, by manufacturing runs with timely hits, heads-up baserunning and just enough pitching to get by. And they did it despite a rash of injuries that has depleted their starting rotation and Saturday night might have robbed them of Cliff Floyd, their regular leftfielder.

But they will go on, because that is what they have done all season.

They are the ones coming home alive, back to Shea to open the NLCS on Wednesday against the winner of the Cardinals-Padres series. The Yankees are coming home to face a firing squad consisting of one deadly sniper, George M. Steinbrenner III.

And that is as it should be, because right now, not only are the Mets the better ballclub, they are a truer reflection of the city they represent than the current Yankees could ever be.

The Mets are as diverse as the city itself, with a homegrown black manager in Willie Randolph, a homegrown Dominican GM in Minaya, two homegrown infield talents, one Latin, one white, in Jose Reyes and David Wright, and a Jewish rightfielder in Shawn Green.

And they have a loyal, subway-riding, mostly blue-collar fan base that has yet to be displaced by the front-running limousine crowd that has overrun Yankee Stadium since 1996.

The Yankees are the privileged New York of Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump and Billy Crystal and Goldman Sachs, the exclusive New York that can always get a table at Elaine's or Rao's.

They are Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and a mismatched band of outrageously paid mercenaries who haven't produced. Their lineup is a gaudy collection of freelancers who have never jelled into a true team, their clubhouse devoid of camaraderie.

"No matter what they say about juggernauts or murderers' row, you still have to play the games," Randolph said.

Since the last time the Yankees won the World Series, in 2000, Steinbrenner has spent more than $1 billion on ballplayers. All he's gotten for his money is frustration against the Diamondbacks, humiliation against the bargain-basement Marlins, a momentous choke job against the Red Sox and three first-round knockouts.

In the process, Yankee Stadium has become a tense, joyless cauldron where winning is demanded rather than enjoyed and victory brings not pleasure but relief.

This year, Shea Stadium was what Yankee Stadium used to be, before too much success brought a sense of arrogance and entitlement to increasingly jaded fans. Mets games were festive and fun, and the stories coming out of Shea were mostly uplifting -- the emergence of Reyes and Wright, the return to New York of El Duque, the huge contributions made by "little guys" such as Endy Chavez and Jose Valentin.

The Mets have been as bracing as a ride on the Coney Island Cyclone.

Said a decidedly gleeful Valentin: "Who's the better team in New York now?"

This artice makes me happy.