I love brett gardner!!!

[HoustonGM]

A-Rod? They stole him from Texas in a trade.

The fact that it was a trade kind of makes it that they didn't "steal him" from them. Texas WANTED to get rid of A-Rod, because his bloated contract was hurting them.

[JayC]

The same Mets with the 4th highest payroll in the MLB?

Yep, the same Mets that are in the same market as the Yankees are a small market team. In the same imaginary universe where Mariano Rivera is "a mediocre closer," anyway.

[HoustonGM]

To be honest, I consider myself a bigger Yankee hater then I am a Mets fan.

That's pretty sad, that you hate things more than you like things. Try injecting a little more positivity into your outlook.

[metsguy234]

Yep, the same Mets that are in the same market as the Yankees are a small market team. In the same imaginary universe where Mariano Rivera is "a mediocre closer," anyway.

But the Yankees dominate the NY market. It's not fair to the Mets.

[metsguy234]

That's pretty sad, that you hate things more than you like things. Try injecting a little more positivity into your outlook.

But Yankee fans hate the Mets with a sick passion. I think it is only even if I hate the Yankees with a sick passion.

[HoustonGM]

I know many Yankee fans that don't hate the Mets at all, let alone with a sick passion.

[JayC]

I know many Yankee fans that don't hate the Mets at all, let alone with a sick passion.

Me too. A lot of Yankee fans just feel a little sorry for them, and for Mets fans. They're like our underachieving little brothers. We want them to do well and live up to our standards, but they never can quite measure up.

And we really want to see them win the NL, so we can beat them in the Series again.

But the Yankees dominate the NY market. It's not fair to the Mets.

Not fair? What's unfair about it? It's true that more people living in the market choose to support the Yankees. That's certainly not anything that either the team or its owners should apologize for. If the Mets franchise had been run halfway competently over the past few decades -- while the Yankees were doing just that -- they'd have a shot at more fan support. If there's anyone to blame, look to the Wilpons not the Steinbrenners.

As it is even most of their own fans have spent most of this season booing the Mets, not supporting them.

[YEAH DAAAAWG]

To be fair, I have watched Gardner's at bats (at least the last 4 games' worth) and he has hit some great line shots that were snagged by Lowell and other good defenders. He makes good contact, just had bad luck for a stretch.

And he is speedy; the first thing Yanks fans want to do is say 'slightly faster than Ellsbury', just like the Astros say Bourne is faster than him too...heck, even Clay Buchholz said he was just a hair faster than Ellsbury. Somehow Ellsbury went from being a record-breaking speedster, to the standard every new speedy player is 'just a bit faster than'. Interesting, and most likely fan bias (and maybe on my part too).

Anyway, I like watching some Yankees players. Mussina is a great pitcher, he really is. And Cabrera puts up some good at-bats. Sox-Yanks is always a good show, even when we only managed a split after taking the first two. Good enough, for an away series without Papi in there. It's great for Gardner that he got the walk-off, and it's good for Yankee fans to see some of their depth come through, with their injuries and overpaid guys. So, hats off on that one.

I mostly agree.

I haven't seen many of Gardner's AB's, but he does look like a solid player. He probably won't be any better than average to slightly below, but given what the Yankees are playing with now I don't think they'll mind.

I agree about Ellsbury. Its pretty obvious hes one of the fastest, most exciting players in the game, and it seems like people want to downplay it because he plays for the Red Sox. Hes on the same level in terms of speed, at least, as guys like Crawford, Carlos Gomez, Jose Reyes, and Ichiro. I think Bourn probably is at least as fast as Ellsbury, but I think Ellsbury is on that elite tier of speedsters, while Gardner is just a step below.

I agree here too. I've enjoyed seeing players like Cano hit and Mo' pitch (even though its usually very bad for my team), as well as others, as long as its not against my team. I do dislike the Yankees strongly, but I think its more the media attention and the way the players are overrated, and how most Yankee fans suck up everything the media says like a Hoover, that I hate, not so much the team itself. Regardless, I do hate the Yankees, but I do respect the team and I'm always looking forward to the next Red Sox - Yankees series.

[dannymac910]

He's basically a faster version of Johnny Damon. But there are other thing called intangibles that no one can really measure until he has a year or 2 in the league, so it's gonna be fun watching this kid mature.

[KidCavalier23]

I certainly don't hate the Mets. There's no reason for me to hate them. I like some of the players they have like Wright, Church, and guys like that. However, the big shots like Jose Reyes are players that I dislike a lot. So, you really can't say that all Yankee fans hate the Mets. But, you can say all Yankee fans hate the Red Sox, and vice versa.

[metsguy234]

The other thing that pisses me off about the Yankees is that the fans and players always talk about how it is an honor to wear the pinstripes, while the fact is that players only go there and stay there for the $$$.

[HoustonGM]

The other thing that pisses me off about the Yankees is that the fans and players always talk about how it is an honor to wear the pinstripes, while the fact is that players only go there and stay there for the $$$.

I don't know how you can say that with any degree of accuracy without knowing the individual players. Are there some players that go for the money? Sure. But to just label every player that ever goes to the Yankees and stays with the Yankees as a greedy ******* is painting baseball players with an incredibly broad brush.

[JayC]

There's absolutely no way to say honestly that there aren't players who feel that it's "an honor to wear the pinstripes;" that is that they are proud to wear the same uniform that was worn by many of their own baseball heroes.

[dannymac910]

People do go there to wear the pinstripes. We just happen to throw money at them because we have it. Money isn't everything, it's really just a number. So if players wanna go there for the honor, then the money is just a nice bonus.

[koolzach1]

To be fair, I have watched Gardner's at bats (at least the last 4 games' worth) and he has hit some great line shots that were snagged by Lowell and other good defenders. He makes good contact, just had bad luck for a stretch.

And he is speedy; the first thing Yanks fans want to do is say 'slightly faster than Ellsbury', just like the Astros say Bourne is faster than him too...heck, even Clay Buchholz said he was just a hair faster than Ellsbury. Somehow Ellsbury went from being a record-breaking speedster, to the standard every new speedy player is 'just a bit faster than'. Interesting, and most likely fan bias (and maybe on my part too).

Anyway, I like watching some Yankees players. Mussina is a great pitcher, he really is. And Cabrera puts up some good at-bats. Sox-Yanks is always a good show, even when we only managed a split after taking the first two. Good enough, for an away series without Papi in there. It's great for Gardner that he got the walk-off, and it's good for Yankee fans to see some of their depth come through, with their injuries and overpaid guys. So, hats off on that one.

I think that you're the only classy Red Sox fan on here.