Swarm Defense: The Subway Series is Coming… to town

For the second and final time this regular season, the Yankees and Mets are meeting in a cross-town battle. In British football they’d call this a derby, but since we’re talking about baseball in America, we call it an Interleague match-up. Regardless of the nomenclature, the meeting of the two teams for a four game set later this week – with the first game at Yankee Stadium and then three games in Queens – is important for both teams.

For the Yanks, they’ll be trying to continue their upward momentum despite the recent loss of pitcher Chien-Ming Wang; for the Mets (and new manager Jerry Manual), the set against their American League rivals serves as an opportunity to jumpstart a thus-far mediocre season, or perhaps hasten the beginning of the end for Omar Minaya and this iteration of the Amazin’s.

The series kicks off on Friday with a two-stadium double header. Necessitated by a rain-out during the first weekend of interleague play back in May, the teams will meet in the Bronx for a 2 p.m. start on Friday, followed by the scheduled 8:10 p.m. match-up that night at Shea.

This is the third time such a double-header has been played in New York, and the media traditionally spouts phrases like “for one day, the city belongs to the fans” and other such nonsense. In reality, we all know that New York ALWAYS belongs to the fans, though not necessarily the fans of either of these teams. For proof of this, look at how many bars, clubs, and restaurants – from high-end bottle service joints to the hole in the wall on the corner – have flat screen TVs with sports on at all hours of the day, regardless of the time of the year.

For those of you looking to go the games, all of them are “officially” sold out, though this being New York, there are naturally tickets to be had. For Shea, you can score some seats from the team by signing up for one of their remaining 7-pack ticket plans, each of which includes tickets to one of the games this weekend. For the more well-heeled among us (or for Yankees fans disinclined to go out and see the Mets another six times this season), there is always Stubhub or eBay. A quick search at the former shows tickets for the afternoon game at Yankee stadium starting around $30 for alcohol-free bleacher seats, heading towards around $500 for box and field level seats.

If you don’t feel like heading to the games (and paying $8 for a Miller Lite), it’s a safe bet that the games will be on almost every TV screen in the city. Though the weekend forecast calls for isolated and scattered thunderstorms, the league really wants to get all four games finished, and it’s a good bet they will. That might makes this the perfect weekend to invite yourself over to that apartment of your friend who has the (a) giant flat-screen TV he bought through work or (b) that fully equipped rooftop patio and bar, to take in a game (or maybe all of them). ‘Cause hey - nothing says overpaid New York sporting heroes like living off someone else’s largess while cheering those sporting heroes on towards victory.