Some "telling evidence points to trouble for the Yankees and a boon for the Mets, suggesting that New York might be turning into a Mets town for the first time" since their championship season of '86, according to Richard Sandomir of the N.Y. TIMES. By the measures of attendance and television viewership, the Mets are "surging while their crosstown rivals are sliding a bit," giving the impression that the Yankees' "seemingly unshakable hold on the city's baseball heart is loosening amid the sudden and stunning turnaround for the Mets." The Yankees’ paid attendance at home is "averaging 39,537 a game," down 5.6% from the average at this time last year. The team has "never averaged below 40,000 fans a game since moving to the new Yankee Stadium" in '09. The Mets are "averaging 31,257 a game this season," a 17.6% rise from last season. That is still "about 10,000 short of the capacity at Citi Field, but this season’s increase of 4,689 fans a game represents a drastic shift from a dispiriting trend." Yet perhaps a "more precise reflection of the passion of a fan base is viewership on a team’s cable television channel." The Yankees, who "averaged 454,000 viewers a game" in '07, are "drawing only 256,000 this season," a 10% decrease from '14 after a comparable number of games. The Mets’ average television audience, which reached a high of 314,171 in '07, "bottomed out at 138,627" in '13 before a "slight revival" to just over 144,000 last season. But viewership is up 62% so far this season "to 240,091 a game," and games since the Mets acquired LF Yoenis Cespedes on July 31 are "averaging 324,195 viewers." For the season, the Yankees’ lead over the Mets in average viewership is "a far cry from four years ago, when the difference was more than 200,000" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/15).
PEACE BE WITH YOU: The Yankees on Sunday honored DH Alex Rodriguez for his 3,000th career hit with a brief on-field ceremony, and the N.Y. Daily News’ John Harper said it was "kind of hard to believe, kind of surreal when you think back to how much they were fighting a couple of years ago." Harper: "You thought they would never get together. But you’ve got to give Hal Steinbrenner credit. He made the extra effort to go get that home run ball (when he passed Willie Mays earlier this year for 4th on the all-time list) ... and now they’ve given him this ring. They’ve made peace with him, and A-Rod has done all the right things this year." The N.Y. Daily News’ Bob Raissman added, “It makes sense also to reach out to him. You want him to feel wanted now, especially because he’s one of the few guys that has been hitting this year and he helped put him in this position (to compete for a playoff spot), so he kind of deserved it” (“Daily News Live,” SNY, 9/14).
