I guess I’m supposed to be more excited. As many of you know, I was born
and raised in New York City, and while I have lived in Southern California
for more than ten years–picking up a degree, a wife and an aversion to
wind-chill factors along the way–I’ve never let go of my affection for my
hometown.
So today, with the city in a tizzy over the pinnacle of New York fandom, a
Subway Series, I confess I’m not as thrilled as you might expect. It’s
going to be an incredible couple of weeks back east, and the usual pang of
homesickness I carry around is a full-blown pain right now. I grew up
reading and hearing about the 1950s in New York, with three teams; with
Willie, Mickey and the Duke; with Subway Series more common than other ones.
It’s going to be a little bit of 1956 in New York for the next few weeks.
So to those of you living in the city and its environs, enjoy yourselves,
and know that some of us expatriates are just a little more jealous of you
this week.
Envy aside, this series has me a little concerned that MLB, always willing
to spoil a party, will pounce upon the ultimate large-market World Series
as supposed evidence of the game’s "imbalance". With the
"only large payrolls make the playoffs" line unusable, it
wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the excitement of the next ten days
dampened by the commissioner. I’d love to be wrong, though.
Look for Baseball Prospectus‘s World Series preview on Thursday, as
well as a Prospectus Roundtable dissecting the first intra-city series in
11 years.
Joe Sheehan can be reached at jsheehan@baseballprospectus.com.
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