E-Mail This Article to a Friend New York’s baseball teams complete their makeovers BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

With a trip to Yankees and Mets country in the offing for this weekend (be sure to check Monday’s "Sporting Eye" for a report on my visit to Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame’s new Red Sox–championship exhibit), what better time to examine the New York states of mind of both Empire State clubs as they prepare for the 2005 season?

The year 2000 was a historic one for Major League Baseball, as the sporting world got its first Subway Series since the 1950s. When the AL East champion Yankees hosted the NL pennant-winning (via the wild card) Mets, it provided a mesmerizing jolt to the Apple’s baseball-loving community. Since no one in New York is both a Yankees and Mets fan, the battle lines were drawn between the haughty and seemingly entitled Pinstripers fans — whose team was on a Patriots-esque roll, having won three of the previous four World Series — and the upstart, blue-collar Metropolitans, who hadn’t been to the Fall Classic since 1986 (and had won only two championships in their 38-year history).

Hard to believe now, but the Mets came into that Series with a better record despite having to gain their playoff berth through the wild card. Their 94-68 record was seven wins better than the Yanks’, who won the division by two and a half over the Red Sox. For Mets fans, the Subway Series was frustratingly anticlimactic, as the lads from Flushing Meadow just didn’t get the breaks that the Yankees did and fell in a quick five games. Three of the losses were by a lone run (including the 4-3 loss in the opener that saw the immortal Jose Vizcaino drive in the winning run in the 12th), and the game-five clincher was by two (4-2). That series, you may recall, was the one highlighted by Roger Clemens’s throwing of a broken-bat shard at batter Mike Piazza as the Mets catcher left the batter’s box.

Since that Bronx-Queens dust-up, the two teams have faced dissimilar fates; the Yanks, while not having won a World Series since, have lost two others and made the playoffs each of the four subsequent seasons. The Mets, on the other hand, became an 82-win club in 2001 and have finished last in the NL East in two of the past three years. In New York, unfortunately, the Mets became fodder for David Letterman’s late-night skewering, while the Yankees continued to be what they annually and indisputably are: an all-star-laden roster whose payroll is sky’s-the-limit. The Yanks’ collapse last season in the ALCS was not only a gleeful moment for pinstripe-haters everywhere, but also underscored that the team, despite its sparkling line-up, has somewhat underachieved in recent years (given its inherent talent).

The gulf between the two New York teams was indeed wide, but this season marks the start of the Mets’ fight to regain domination of the local tabloids’ back-page sports sections. Amazingly, not one pitcher from the 2000 Mets remains on this year’s team, and the refurbished staff boasts such imposing characters as Pedro Martinez, Victor Zambrano, Kris Benson, and Tom Glavine. The relief corps is a bit suspect and may prove to be the team’s undoing this season, but it does have a top-flight closer in Braden Looper (29 saves in 2004). On the offensive end, more evidence of the Mets’ re-tooling: only Piazza remains from the team that fought the Yanks so gallantly in 2000, but the squad has been bolstered with the addition of free-agent prize Carlos Beltran and former Sox first-bagger Doug Mientkiewicz. The presence of former Yanks Miguel Cairo and reliever Felix Heredia (not to mention Pedro) will undoubtedly add some spice to the six interleague games that the city’s co-tenants will stage in May and June.

The team from the Bronx that the Mets will see across the diamond will be different from the one to which it succumbed in the 2000 Fall Classic. Despite the Yankees’ unmitigated success since their last championship (and even though no player in his right mind would want to leave this team via free agency), they have continually and significantly revamped. In fact, only four players from that last World Series winner have remained with the Yankees throughout the recent "struggles." Only forever-Pinstripers Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, and (the only pitcher) Mariano Rivera remember what it’s like to sip Champagne in October (although prodigal sons Mike Stanton and Tino Martinez have returned to the Steinbrenner AC for this year’s festivities after stints with the Mets and D-Rays, respectively).

The Yankees have made other wholesale changes this season (most likely as a result of their flaws being exposed against the Red Sox), particularly in the starting rotation. Three new starters have been picked up through free agency (Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, and Jaret Wright), and former Redbird Tony Womack is perceived as an upgrade to Enrique Wilson at second base. The aging bullpen has replaced one Felix (Heredia) with another (Rodriguez), but otherwise, the relieving corps and the offense remains intact from last year’s AL East champs, although it’s still vastly different from the 2000 team. Since the Subway Series, the Yanks have signed Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi, Jose Contreras, Hideki Matsui, Robin Ventura, Gary Sheffield, A-Rod, Jon Lieber, Javier Vazquez, John Olerud, Kenny Lofton, Tom Gordon, Paul Quantrill — yet have nothing but "almosts" to show for it. (In fact, of the glittering A-listers noted here, only Sheffield and Olerud have ever won a World Series ring.)

While it will be interesting to see whether the Mets’ foray into the Yankees’ world of free spending ultimately pays off, no team has shown the sheer desperation for a championship — now — that the Yankees have done. What other team could possibly add a trio of top-flight starters in one off-season (including the $16 million man, Johnson, who threw a perfect game last year) while still being able to afford an infield (C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B) that will collectively earn $63 million this season (and its three-man starting outfield will earn another $32 million)? The Yankees, as before, are loaded in all senses of the word, and they will likely continue to dominate the sports headlines in New York City all summer long.

But the Mets are making a statement that their new leadership is serious again about winning baseball games — deciding that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

It remains to be seen whose high-stakes gambles will eventually win the battle of New York, but another Subway Series in the coming years is not out of the realm of possibility.

In New England, that potential scenario provides the locals with one fervent hope: that both teams will find a way to lose.

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com