Should Yankees and Mets Fans Be Worried as October Approaches?
- andreasachs1
- Sep 4
- 4 min read
By Ben Leeds / Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
After the Mets' thrilling playoff run last season fell one round short of a World Series matchup with the Yankees, New York baseball fans entered the 2025 season with high, yet not far-fetched, expectations that the two teams might meet in the Fall Classic.
Who could blame them? The Yankees had just reached their first World Series since 2009, and the Mets had produced an unforgettable October, thanks to iconic moments that seemed to occur with every victory.
In the offseason, the Mets signed superstar Juan Soto, stealing him from the Yankees, which solidified the Mets as a serious World Series contender. The Yankees bounced back and acquired a few big names themselves, including Cody Bellinger, Max Fried, Paul Goldschmidt and Devin Williams.
Both the Yankees and Mets started strong, as fans expected. By mid-June, each held sole possession of first place in their respective divisions. The Yankees led the American League East by 4.5 games, and the Mets had a 5.5 game lead in the National League East.
However, both New York squads went into mid-summer skids. Today, they’re both in second place in each of their divisions, still comfortably in the playoff picture occupying Wild Card spots. But if you asked the average New York fan their thoughts on either team, they’d likely tell you that the sky is falling.
That is the nature of New York sports fans: extreme emotional highs and lows. When things are going well, the athletes are treated like heroes. But when the team starts losing, even amidst a winning season, fans will boo them. Is their frustration warranted, given the team's great expectations?
In short, no. While the fans’ worries for this season are understandable, both the Yankees and Mets are one hot week of baseball from immediately flipping fans' bleak thoughts. That hot streak doesn’t even have to come instantly, just at the right time.
Given the unpredictable nature of the Major League Baseball playoffs, countless unlikely teams emerge in October. Just last year, the Mets clinched their spot in the playoffs on the last day of the regular season. They won just 89 games, but they made it all the way to the National League Championship Series before losing to the eventual World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 2024 World Series was an anomaly. The Yankees and Dodgers, both top seeds in their respective leagues, met in the Fall Classic, marking the first time both No. 1 seeds each made the World Series in a full season since 2013. That was the only other time it has happened in this century.
Even after the playoffs expanded in 2022 to include 12 teams, World Series representatives for the next two years all came from Wild Card seeds, the slot that both the Yankees and the Mets currently occupy.
The Philadelphia Phillies won 87 games in 2022 but went on to win the National League title. A year later, both the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks reached the World Series after making the playoffs as Wild Card teams.
The most famous recent example of an unlikely champion was the Washington Nationals’ miracle 2019 run. Washington went 19-31 in their first 50 games, facing unlikely odds of even making the playoffs. They turned their season around and made the postseason, knocking out the 106-win Dodgers, then toppling the 107-win Houston Astros in the World Series.
It only takes one special moment to kick-start a team in October. Washington’s 2019 postseason is proof of it. The Nationals needed a go-ahead three-run double from Soto, then playing for Washington, just to get out of the Wild Card Game. Last year, the Mets themselves were down to their last two outs before Pete Alonso’s season-saving home run gave them a second life, launching their own dramatic streak.
It is all about peaking at the right time. Sure, it would instill more confidence in fans if the Yankees and Mets could generate a few more winning streaks. It might get them a little better seeding and an extra home game or two, but it doesn’t change the fact that their 162-game slate will be wiped clean once the postseason begins.
Then, the Mets and Yankees are at an advantage just from their experience alone. Players like Francisco Lindor and Soto are proven playoff performers, as well as Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger on the Yankees’ side of town.
Most years, winning the World Series is a shot in the dark; the teams with the best record in the regular season often fail to put it all together when it matters most. That opens the door for teams like the Mets and Yankees, who can lean on past deep playoff runs in hopes of being the last team standing.
Ben is from Trumbull, CT, and is a senior at Marist University in Poughkeepsie, studying communication with a concentration in public relations and sports communication. There, he is the editor-in-chief of Center Field, Marist’s student-run online sports reporting publication, and is in his third year as the women’s volleyball beat writer. Additionally, Ben also works as a managing editor of the campus newspaper, the Marist Circle. Previously, Ben interned at the Highlands Current, reporting on news in the Beacon, NY area and with Forever Blueshirts, a website covering the New York Rangers.
Comments