This week, postseason baseball returned to New York City in full capacity, for the first time since 2006, both the Mets and the Yankees made it to the playoffs. This is also the first time in my life as a Yankees fan that I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m jealous of the Mets.

Growing up, it was never very difficult to support my team. During my lifetime, the Yankees have won five championships, seven pennants and 13 division titles. They’ve only missed the playoffs three times. The Mets, by contrast, have only made the playoffs eight times in their entire 53-year history. But as the Mets prepare for their National League Division Series matchup with the Dodgers, their future is much clearer than that of the Yankees, who were ousted in a one-game playoff against the Houston Astros Tuesday night.

For the past few seasons, the Yankees have been nothing more than a year-to-year proposition, a club that struggled to find an identity outside of an aging Derek Jeter. Since their last playoff appearance in 2012, the Yankees’ lineup has been a turnstile for declining veterans past their prime and on their way out. Vernon Wells, Ichiro Suzuki, Brian Roberts and Chris Young, each an all star at the height of their careers, all came to the Yankees on a short-term contracts to fill empty space.

The Mets, on the other hand, are comprised of primarily young, homegrown talent. They feature one of the best starting pitching rotations in baseball. 26-year-old Matt Harvey and 27-year-old Jacob deGrom are already two of the most dominant pitchers in baseball, while 22-year-old Noah Syndergaard is a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate.

The arrival of superstar slugger Yoenis Cespedes undoubtedly sparked the Mets playoff surge, but players such as power-hitting first baseman Lucas Duda, consistent second baseman Daniel Murphy and promising young catcher Travis d’Arnaud provide the Mets with a solid foundation for the future regardless if Cespedes chooses to leave the team in free agency or not.

To Yankees’ General Manager Brian Cashman’s credit, despite Jeter’s decline, A-Rod’s performance enhancing drug suspension, and the inconsistencies of big market free agents C.C. Sabathia — who recently checked himself into rehab for alcoholism before the Yankees postseason began — and Mark Teixeira, the Yankees still have not finished a season with a sub-.500 record since 1992. Yet as a fan, I can’t help but feel detached and discontent with this team. Sure, the 2015 Yankees club has definitely overachieved; the lack of a clear-cut superstar or a dominant starting pitching staff makes what they’ve accomplished even more impressive. But unlike the dynamic in college sports, where fans root for their alma mater regardless of the players on the field, fans watch professional sports because of individual players. Not only do people root for superstars like Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, fans also gravitate towards quirky role players, who stay with a team so long that their names become synonymous with a franchise. It’s hard to grow attached to players like Young, Brendan Ryan and Stephen Drew, who are nothing more than veteran placeholders. The great Yankees of the late ‘90s and early 2000s boasted star-studded lineups featuring Jeter, Roger Clemens, Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams, but mainstay players like the fiery Paul O’Neil, the always cool David Cone and the scrappy Joe Girardi gave those teams grit and identity.

All the strategical advantages the Mets have over the Yankees is one thing, but the reason I’m jealous of Mets fans is because of a guy like Wilmer Flores — an average 23-year-old infielder who cried on the field believing he had been traded and then went on to hit a walk-off homerun 48-hours later to help the Mets beat the Washington Nationals. I’m jealous of the Mets because of David Wright, the third baseman who’s always embraced his role as the face of a perennially laughable franchise, the only holdover from the Mets last playoff team in 2006. I’m jealous because of Bartolo Colon, who, despite his advanced age and unathletic physique, always gives fans something to laugh about, whether he’s playing with his stomach fat in the dugout or nonchalantly flipping a ball behind his back to first base.

After watching so many successful Yankee teams, my expectations as a fan are so immeasurably high that anything short of a championship is a failed season. But regardless of how far the Mets advance in the playoffs, at the very least, fans will remember this team for its personality and charisma, not just as the club that turned around baseball in Flushing, Queens.
Email Charlie Lyttle at [email protected].