Mets-Yankees Subway Series could be taste of what's to come in October

At old Yankee Stadium in 1997, the Mets and Yankees played in the regular season for the first time during a three-game series that featured some of the most raucous and frenzied crowds in the history of baseball in this city.

And over the last 25 years, there has been something special about the Subway Series.

But while these games have been circled on the calendar every year since the first ones back in '97, there have only been a handful of times when the Mets and Yankees met during the regular season during what was a potential preview of something much grander down the line.

That included 1999, 2000, and 2006. But it hasn't happened much, with Mets-Yankees tilts most often being juicy matchups between two teams who had very little chance to meet in October.

Simply put, there has not been a Mets-Yankees series in the last two decades where both teams were this good. And there hasn't been a Mets-Yankees series in the last 15 years where both teams were potentially special enough to not only reach October, but make it to the World Series. 

Until now.

In the hours before Tuesday's series-opener, Citi Field was buzzing and absolutely jammed. It was standing room only for manager Buck Showalter's pregame news conference, with former Met and Yankee Lee Mazzilli taking it in.

Out on the field during batting practice was Turk Wendell, a bullpen stalwart of the late-90s and early-2000s Mets and Todd Frazier, who -- like Mazzilli -- has seen both ends of the Mets-Yankees rivalry. 

The Mets are on pace to win more games than any team in their history except the 1986 squad that reached 108 victories before winning the World Series.

The Yankees are on pace to win more games than they have since 1998, when they captured the first of three consecutive World Series titles, with their one in 2000 coming at the expense of the Mets -- and celebrated at Shea Stadium -- in the only Subway World Series New York has seen since 1956.

We can go over the history of each fan base, how those fans view their allegiances, and how many of those fandoms are passed from generation to generation.

We can trace this all back to the battles the Yankees had with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants before both teams fled for California.

But you know that story.

Instead, we'll relish this two-game set between the Mets and Yanks at Citi Field, look forward to the one that will happen later this season at Yankee Stadium, and wonder what might be in the fall.

There are fans of both teams who would be beside themselves with ecstasy if the Mets and Yanks met in the World Series, and those who are dreading the possibility.

When these teams met in the Fall Classic in 2000, the city was transformed and transfixed for a few weeks. It almost didn't feel real.

If it happens again this October, as the Mets chase their first championship since 1986 and the Yanks look to win just their second one since 2000 (and first since 2009), the city will again be at rapt attention.

Think about Jacob deGrom going against Gerrit Cole in Game 1. How about Edwin Diaz on the mound attempting to lock down a one-run game against Aaron Judge? Imagine Max Scherzer going right after Giancarlo Stanton, and Clay Holmes battling Pete Alonso, all with the added pressure of a series that -- at least in a baseball sense -- means everything.

It is fair to believe that a Mets-Yankees World Series in 2022 would top the one we got in 2000, when the Mets lost in five games in an affair that was marred by Roger Clemens' actions in Game 2, throwing a jagged piece of bat at Mike Piazza and somehow not getting ejected for it.

While you're watching the Mets and Yanks play one another in this summer heatwave, picture them doing it again in a few months in the autumn chill, with every first pitch under the lights long after the sun sets.

Take the sound those first Mets-Yankees crowds made in 1997, the frenzy of it all, and multiply it.

Before Tuesday's series-opener, there was a buzz in the ballpark that has been absent during the most recent Mets-Yankees tilts. Fans from both sides were rowdy, preparing to let their emotions spill over.

And then Darryl Strawberry -- another legend who has been on both sides of this rivalry, threw out the first pitch. 

As the suspense built on Tuesday, and the fans went nuts, the real possibility of these two teams meeting in October for just the second time ever became even more tantalizing. For the first time in a long time, the dream of a Mets-Yankees Subway World Series might become a reality.