Baseball fever ignites on LI as Mets and Yankees fans dare to dream about winning it all

Maria Masullo still could hardly believe it Friday morning, that crack of a bat a night earlier that sent Mets fans into a frenzy and helped ignite playoff baseball fever on Long Island.

"I can’t calm down," said Masullo, 59, a lifelong Mets fan from Center Moriches. "I’m sure every Mets fan is on a high today."

On the day after Pete Alonso’s ninth inning blast vaulted the New York Mets past the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Wild Card Series, exuberant Mets fans wore jerseys to work, raced to sporting goods stores on their lunch breaks for merchandise and shared with one another the disbelief and joy from the prior night.

The 4-2 win set up a thrilling potential plot line in New York, where the Mets and Yankees remain alive for the possibility of meeting in the World Series for only the second time in history. The two teams squared off in the 2000 Subway Series, with the Yankees winning the championship in five games. Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, playing for the Yankees, was the MVP.

The Yankees, who had a bye in the first round of the playoffs, open at home against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday. The Mets are in Philadelphia on Saturday to face the National League East champion Phillies.

Masullo wore a blue and orange mini-backpack featuring a Mets logo Friday as she shopped for more gear at Dick's Sporting Goods in Patchogue. She described a feverish atmosphere at work that morning at March Electronics in Bohemia. 

"We’re all going crazy today," she said. "Running in the office screaming, ‘Let’s go Mets!' That’s how we’re greeting each other today."

Even some local Yankees fans couldn’t help but get swept up in the emotion of the Mets’ magical week, which included another comeback win against the Atlanta Braves on Monday to clinch a postseason spot.

The voices of WFAN’s Brandon Tierney and Sal Licata blared out of Yankees fan Eugene Miglionico’s van as he sat in the parking lot at Dick’s on Friday. He had planned to try on a new pair of sneakers but couldn’t bring himself to step out of the van until a commercial break as the broadcasters discussed the Mets win.

Miglionico, 70, of Sayville, said his daughter is a Mets fan so he roots for them as well. He texted his daughter Thursday night an encouraging message before the ninth inning, confident that Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor could spark a rally as his team faced a 2-0 deficit.

"I never give up hope," he said. "That team, it always fights right to the end."

Margarita Lepre, 65, of Manorville, witnessed the victory at a watch party at Citi Field, where several thousand fans erupted into pure bedlam at 9:43 p.m. as Alonso’s home run ball cleared a right field fence 896 miles away.

"I can't express how happy I was because it really brought me to tears," she said Friday.

Margot Murray, 60, of Setauket, echoed the glee of other fans Friday, while pointing out: "It’s hard to be a Met fan sometimes because sometimes they collapse on you."

For some of the team's younger fans, the excitement didn't hit until the next morning. Six-year-old Connor Scuderi admitted Friday that he fell asleep at his grandparents' house before Alonso's home run.

"He saw it in the morning and freaked out," his father, Joe Scuderi, 40, of Coram, said after buying a new Mets cap.  "I was jumping around screaming, dancing without him. Now he's all excited for tomorrow."  

The Mets will host a watch party at Citi Field with Game 1 of the Division Series broadcast on the stadium’s Citi Vision, which is billed as the largest scoreboard in Major League Baseball. The team announced Friday that gates will open at 2:30 p.m. and tickets are $10 and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

 The Mets-Phillies series was the hottest ticket on the secondary market as of Friday morning, according to the ticketing technology company Logitix. The average ticket sold — without fees — for Game 1 in Philadelphia was $417 compared with $293 for Game 3 in New York.

Fans were busy arranging their schedules Friday to prepare for the weekend playoff games.

Yankee fan Alex Collesidis, 30, of Yaphank, said he was eager to watch his team play again after all the excitement around the Mets this week. He said he thinks the Yankees "have a very good shot to take it all" whether it's against the Mets or another team.

Caitlin Buthmann, 36, of Riverhead, said she already had planned a brunch Sunday morning to watch the Jets play in London at 9 a.m. The party now will continue through the 4 p.m. Mets game, she said.

"I’ve written the day off and that’s OK," she added.

 Buthmann said she joined The 7 Line Army, a Mets fan group, in 2014, and that the team’s current run brings back memories of the 2015 National League championship.

"Going through the 2015 playoffs was such an incredible experience that this kind of gives you those same goose bumps," she said.  

Chris Fischer, 40, of Port Jefferson Station, said Friday he watched the beginning of Thursday night’s Mets game at a bowling alley before catching the last two innings at a bar in Holbrook. He said the bar "went wild" as Alonso hit the three-run home run.

Looking ahead, Fischer said it would be "incredible" if the Mets and Yankees reach the World Series.

"It’s kind of like, as a New York fan, this is what you wanted, what you thought of your whole life," he said.

With Carissa Kellman

By Joe Werkmeister

joe.werkmeister@newsday.com

Joe Werkmeister covers the towns of Southampton, East Hampton and Shelter Island. He is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and previously worked as the editor of two North Fork community newspapers.

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