There is a new team on the backpages of the New York sports section, and thanks to Omar Minaya, the New York Mets have a chance to win their first World Series in 22 years. And maybe more importantly, Minaya has put the together a nucleus of players that are full of personality, talent, youthfulness, and has stolen the spotlight from the big bad Yankees.

How did this happen? It was just two years ago the Yankees were sent home in the fall by Josh Beckett and the Marlins. And while the Red Sox/Yankees exchanges are still extremely popular, the two need to matchup with each other to garner the attention the Yankees singled handedly used to get when matching up against any opponent.

The past several years have resulted in the Yankees coming close, but not getting over the top. And in that time, Brian Cashman, Yankee GM, has stockpiled older talent to win now, and has given up the farm system at just about any cost, except for young talents Wang and Robinson Cano. Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, the Mets have followed the Yankees blueprint of the ’90s, bringing talent up from within the organization, and then surrounding those young stars with free agent signings. And while the Yankees won with Jeter, Mariano, Bernie, Posada, and Petitte, they surrounded their young talent with free agents like Tino, Paulie O, Roger Clemens, and eventually Gary Sheffield and the Giambino to ensure that the window of winning rings would last as long as possible.

The Mets are on the road to the same 10 year run the Yankees had. They have three young stars in 3B David Wright and SS Jose Reyes, both homegrown. They gave $121 million to CF Carlos Beltran last year, who looks like he is finally gotten setlled nto playing in the Big Apple. These three young studs are locked up for 7 more years, and if the Minaya to put the correct pieces around them, the Shea Stadium fans will be very happy for a long time. Free agent signings Carlos Delgado, Billy Wagner, and Paul LoDuca have brought a sense of “win now” to the team, and with their top two starting pitchers over the age of 34, Perdo and the ageless Tommy Glavine, the time for the Mets to reach the World Series is this year and next, and then after that its up to Minaya to re-tool to continue to keep the Yankees off the backpages, and the New York Mets as the talk of the town.


A PimpWiz Exclusive By, Ryan Berger

Labels: RyanBerger, Sports