For Hal Steinbrenner and Steve Cohen, no extra emphasis on Subway Series
Yankees' Hal Steinbrenner and Mets' Steve Cohen Credit: Corey Sipkin / Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It’s easy to imagine how much George Steinbrenner wanted – needed, required -- the Yankees to beat the Mets once interleague play began in 1997.
So how does The Boss’ son Hal feel about it as the Subway Series resumed on Tuesday night at Citi Field?
“Everyone asks me about the Mets,” Steinbrenner said on Tuesday afternoon at the owners’ meetings in Manhattan. “Unless I'm playing in the World Series - I understand the city-city thing, I get it - but the teams I worry about are in my division.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone may have shed a little light on how Hal Steinbrenner truly, feels, though, when he was asked how the Yankees owner thinks about the games about the Mets.
“I think he wants to beat the Mets,” Boone said firmly. “But Hal is also very measured. I just appreciate my relationship with Hal and his investment and his interest and the questions he asks and wants to know about things. I think he does it different than George did, obviously. But I think he’ll be excited if we walk out of here with some victories, to say the least.”
The Yankees went into Tuesday with a 78-60 record against the Mets since interleague play began with a 6-0 Mets victory at the previous Yankee Stadium on June 16, 1997. The Yankees are proud to point out that that is the highest win total by any team over any opponent since interleague play came to be.
The Mets are making up ground, however. They went 4-2 in 2021 and split four games last season. The teams meet again on Wednesday and have a two-game series scheduled for July 25-26 in the Bronx.
The Mets came into Tuesday having lost eight of nine. A couple of wins against the Yankees could help jumpstart their season. But at this point ,the Mets need wins against any opponent.
Mets manager Buck Showalter – who managed the Yankees for George Steinbrenner before interleague play began -- said Mets owner Steve Cohen hasn’t put any extra pressure on him to win the games against the Yankees.
“I haven't met many more competitive people that Steve,” Showalter said. “He wants to win every game and wants to do everything possible to help that from his capacity. So I've said many times, it's so important to our fans, and it's important our players. That’s where I know Mr. Steinbrenner . . . We had to beat the Red Sox in the spring, we had to beat the Mets [in spring training] and it turned into where we had to beat Tampa. So those players knew they were making those [spring training] trips. Everybody was going to [Port] St. Lucie and it was actually a feather in your hat if you were asked to go.”
Cohen, in an interview with SNY in April, said of the Yankees: “I don't think about them. They're in a different league. The Yankees are a great history and a great tradition. There's room for two great teams in New York.”
There is a chance the Yankees and Mets could one day occupy the same division and play more than just four or six games a season. The thinking is that if (when) MLB expands to 32 teams, a radical realignment could take place that dissolves the American and National Leagues and plays more on geographic rivalries.
“When expansion hits, if we get to that 32 teams, there could be realignment that goes with that,” Boone said. “So never say never. But that's for people above my paygrade.”
--- With Laura Albanese
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
