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Help me, New Yorkers

Spacemans Bong Jul 20 2005 02:12 PM

I'm having an argument with a rather thick soul who says that: 1) New York is not a baseball town first and foremost 2) The Giants, not the Mets, were the single most popular franchise in New York in the 80s Now, this fellow is a man who protests to hate New York, so I'm wondering how he got this idea. I say he's wrong. Am I correct, or incorrect?

Benjamin Grimm Jul 20 2005 02:16 PM

Very wrong. But I wouldn't waste time arguing with him.

Willets Point Jul 20 2005 02:17 PM

The thick soul is wrong.

metirish Jul 20 2005 02:26 PM

1) New York is not a baseball town first and foremost Well that's just wrong, NYC has always been a National League City first and foremost. I'm no huge fan of Mike Lupica but in more that a few articles he talks about how no team captured the City like the Mets did in the 80's, especially the 86 team.

soupcan Jul 20 2005 02:36 PM Re: Help me, New Yorkers

1) New York is not a baseball town first and foremost Is he kidding? The City supported three teams for, like, ever. How many cities can't even support one, let alone the two we have right now? The Mets and Yanks are on the backpages all year long. Football basketball and hockey don't get that kind of coverage here. 2) The Giants, not the Mets, were the single most popular franchise in New York in the 80s According to what? I never saw any Giants music video. Show people pictures of Darryl & Doc and Bavaro and Simms. Which picture would most people be able to name both guys? No contest. Dude doesn't know what he's talking about.

Elster88 Jul 20 2005 02:38 PM Re: Help me, New Yorkers

="soupcan"]1) New York is not a baseball town first and foremost Is he kidding? The City supported three teams for, like, ever. How many cities can't even support one, let alone the two we have right now? The Mets and Yanks are on the backpages all year long. Football basketball and hockey don't get that kind of coverage here. 2) The Giants, not the Mets, were the single most popular franchise in New York in the 80s According to what? I never saw any Giants music video. Show people pictures of Darryl & Doc and Bavaro and Simms. Which picture would most people be able to name both guys? No contest. Dude doesn't know what he's talking about. I agree with Soup, though a picture of LT and Simms would probably be just as recognizable as the Drug Brothers.

Vic Sage Jul 20 2005 02:38 PM

tell the fella to stop smoking crack.

Spacemans Bong Jul 20 2005 02:43 PM

Thanks guys, I thought he was wrong. When I was a little kid growing up in California, with a mixed Mets/Red Sox family (this is what happens when your family grew up in Fairfield County in the 60s), Doc and Darryl were basically New York sports for me.

soupcan Jul 20 2005 02:44 PM Re: Help me, New Yorkers

Elster88 wrote: I agree with Soup, though a picture of LT and Simms would probably be just as recognizable as the Drug Brothers. Better example but I still bet most people could pick our two cokewhores over their cracker and crackhead.

Spacemans Bong Jul 20 2005 02:54 PM Re: Help me, New Yorkers

soupcan wrote: ="Elster88"]I agree with Soup, though a picture of LT and Simms would probably be just as recognizable as the Drug Brothers. Better example but I still bet most people could pick our two cokewhores over their cracker and crackhead. Plus, you'd have to assume that a lot more people could also pick other Mets (like Hernandez, Carter, Dykstra, Wilson) over other Giants.

Johnny Dickshot Jul 20 2005 02:59 PM

David Cone's wang is better recognized than most football players.

Spacemans Bong Jul 20 2005 03:06 PM

I should have dismissed the argument as soon as he claimed his basis for saying the Giants were more popular was "No one cares about the Mets." Apparently he forgot that the Mets set an attendance record by an NY club that took 14 years (and 4 World Series in 5 years) for the Yankees to break. Or that the Mets have outdrawn the Yanks more than the Yanks have outdrawn the Mets. Pfft!

ScarletKnight41 Jul 20 2005 03:17 PM

Sorry that I'm late to the discussion. But your friend is dead wrong on both counts. New York has always been a baseball town - football has never grabbed the soul of the City the way that baseball has. And the 1986 Mets totally owned this town!

Frayed Knot Jul 20 2005 08:09 PM

Yup. And it's got a lot more to do with it than just mid-'80s Mets vs Giants. NYC has always been more of a baseball town than football (just like Boston btw despite all the recent success of the Pats). In a lot of ways - history, city game, etc - NYC rates basketball ahead of football. You want to find a (Pro) football-first city head yourself to the rustbelt towns of the near & middle west: Pitts, Cleve, Chi

Edgy DC Jul 20 2005 08:56 PM

The New York region is a huge place. There are enough peoples that it doesn't have to be this sort of town in exclusion of that sort of town. New York is a baseball town. And a football town. And a hockey town. Hell, yeah, it's a basketball town. Only one other American city shares it's status as a marathon town. Tennis? Yup. Relative to the rest of North America, you could probably say it's a cricket town. Give them five-10 years, another successful Republican mayor, and you could probably chalk NYC up as a NASCAR town. It's New York, man, it's got everything, plus Brooklyn. It's supporting two big-league teams and two minor-league teams. And if not for that anti-competitive agreement that prohibits teams from challenging for turf rights, they'd have about six teams in the greater metropolitan New York City area. But as long as he uses nebulous terms like "baseball town," he's got a can't-miss argument. Make him define "baseball town."

Willets Point Jul 20 2005 09:36 PM

NYC is also a horse racing town. "The Big Apple" came from jockey parlance. If Edgy is right, I guess Aqueduct is due to be replaced by a NASCAR track though. Or maybe they could just race on the BQE.

metirish Jul 20 2005 09:45 PM

NASCAR is coming to NYC, and if all comes together it will be Staten Island, as for NYC being a football town, I can only relay my own thoughts,when the soccer world cup was held in American in 94 I was of course happy that Ireland was based in NYC but confused to learn that Giants Stadium was in New Jersey and not NYC.

SI Metman Jul 21 2005 12:44 AM

Yup, SI will be getting the NASCAR track, although a lot of the people here don't like the idea. The track is supposed to be in the middle of nowhere by the Goethals Bridge.