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| SUBWAY SERIES | |
 October 18, 2000 
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RAY SUAREZ: For the first time in 44 years, the major league baseball pennant winners come from the same city. First the New York Mets beat the Cardinals to earn the right to play in the World Series, then last night the defending champion Yankees sent the Mariners home to Seattle. Continuing a NewsHour tradition of evenhandedness in debate of current events, we'll get two perspectives: For the Mets, U.S. News and World Report columnist John Leo; for the Yankees, NewsHour essayist Roger Rosenblatt. Since there's no baseball debates commission, I make the rules. We will begin with a two-minute opening statement on behalf of your team, gentlemen, followed by a closing statement in response to a question from me. I've done the coin toss earlier. We'll begin with Roger Rosenblatt. You, sir, have two minutes for an opening statement. And Mr. Leo, you may sigh and roll your eyes when you feel it is necessary. ROGER ROSENBLATT: Thank you, Ray. Thank you for this opportunity. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked this question, perhaps never. And I would like to answer by saying that I remember a time that warms my heart when I talked to an old friend who was a Brooklyn Dodger fan. He asked his son, who was a Yankee fan, "how can you do this? How can you be a Yankee fan?" And that boy looked up at his father and said, "Dad, it's because they win." Well, I'm sorry. It's because they win, and that's what America likes in a team. That's why the Yankees are America's team. They win, America wins. There are specifics, of course, about the Mets and the Yankees and this contest of wills, and ability. The Yankees have a great manager, a wonderful manager in Joe Torre. He is stable. He is dignified. He wins, of course. He is knowledgeable, kind -- everything a manager should be. And then there is Bobby Valentine, who last year dressed as Groucho Marx in the dugout, calling into question his stability. And I think he may be dangerous. Then the question of pitching: Pitching of course is essential to every team. We have Mariono Rivera, the greatest relief pitcher ever as our closer. And he is unflappable, whereas the Mets have Hernando Benitez, who is flappable. We also have three Cy Young Award winners on the team, two of whom, by the way, happen to be refugees from the Mets; the Yankees took them in, which is the way the Yankees behave. To be sure, the Mets have two people named Bobby Jones. I'm not quite sure what that means. We have the great Tino Martinez, the great hitting first baseman. They have a relative newcomer called Timo Perez. The difference between Tino and Timo is everything. RAY SUAREZ: All right. Mr. Rosenblatt. ROGER ROSENBLATT: Oh, thank you, Ray. RAY SUAREZ: John Leo now speaking on behalf of the Mets. JOHN LEO: I'd like to congratulate Roger for doing the best he could. A lot of people, Ray, think that it makes no difference who wins. Two New York teams, that makes no difference at all. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Yankees are the team of Manhattan. Sure, they have a stadium across the river, but they're the team of the establishment. Rooting for them is like rooting for Merrill Lynch. The Yankees are in Manhattan. The Mets are in Queens. The Yankee fans don't even know where Queens is. Luckily they all have limo drivers who do. Now, what about the tradition of the Yankees? The Yankees, I think Roger would be the first one to admit that 60% of Yankee fan support comes from the wealthiest 1% of America, or it could be 40%. I'll have to check my figures. But I think you know where I'm coming from here; whereas the Mets, instead of a desiccated tradition of mindless confidence have a scrappy incompetence about them, as if there's something wrong with dressing like Groucho Marx to be successful at Shea Stadium. Now, the Yankees as I pointed out before, are the team of HMO's, big oil, and big tobacco. The Mets are the team of working families. These are people who don't go to work in pinstripes and they don't send their ballplayers out to wear them either -- the Met tradition very different from the Yankees. The Met tradition is to lose at least 100 games a year. If they get three hits in an inning, you'll look up and see all three runners are on the same base, and the manager is dressing like Groucho Marx. That's our tradition. We have Marv Throneberry. You have Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. We have marvelous Marv. Marv couldn't hit, run, or throw, but he fit in pretty well with the Mets theme of things. Casey Stengel once said, "I wanted to give you a birthday cake, Marv, but we figured you'd drop it." This is the tradition that we uphold. This is why America loves the Mets, because of this dedication to scrappy incompetence. It isn't like rooting for the sun to come up in the morning. People like Roger-- I don't mean to the personal-- Roger will throw a tantrum if they don't win a pennant in the World Series every years, whereas, the Mets are happy to win every thirty years - thrilled when the Mets win because the Mets should win. RAY SUAREZ: Now we go to our closing statements in response to this question: In the rest of north America, west of the statue of liberty, why should anyone care who wins this contest? Roger Rosenblatt. ROGER ROSENBLATT: Ray, is there a North America left of the Statue of Liberty? I'm sorry -- the rest of the country should care. You ask that question, and one would ask, "why should France care about Paris? Why should China care about Beijing?" And the answer is, there is no reason for any of this, but these are the national cities, and New York is the national city-- full of the energy, full of the force, full of the ambition, full of the heartbreak, full of the joy of the country itself. If you can make it here, Ray, you can make it anywhere. New York, New York, it's a wonderful town, and the Bronx is up. RAY SUAREZ: And Mr. Leo, why should baseball fans west of the Statue of Liberty... JOHN LEO: I think I've already gotten into that, Ray. I think the important thing is we have a national psychodrama here. Either you want Merrill lynch to win and the sun to come up in the morning and the same boring money team to win, or you want a team that the country can care about... ROGER ROSENBLATT: Ray, ray, there he goes again. RAY SUAREZ: Please, these are many rules, gentlemen. Follow them. And Mr. Leo? JOHN LEO: Well, I just want to say that I don't want to get into psychobabble, but a lot of people are Yankee fans because they were for Superman, unstoppable forces. And when you give up that fantasy of covering weakness with the strength of outsiders, you grow up. If you don't grow up, those people are called Yankee fans. RAY SUAREZ: Well, gentlemen, thank you very, very much for participating in this debate. This is democracy in action, and I think we now understand the story much more clearly. Thank you both. |
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