When it comes to rooting interests, New Yorkers can be a fickle bunch. “Which team is doing better?” many will ask before picking a favorite. While the Yankees currently rule the New York roost, it wasn’t always this way.

In the mid-to-late 1980s, this town was a Mets town. While the Yankees were unlovable also-rans, the Mets were lovable winners. The 1986 captured the hearts and minds of New Yorkers, and even Yankee fans could cheer over a Bill Buckner error and a Met victory over the Red Sox. Howard Johnson, Mookie Wilson, Darryl and Dwight, Lenny and Keith all ruled the city.

By the time the early 1990s rolled around, both teams were rather directionless. The 1991 Yankees finished in 7th, 71-91, 20 games out of first place. The 1993 Mets were even worse. They finished 59-103, their worst finish since 1965.

As the mid-1990s rolled on, the Yankees turned in one of baseball’s truly historic runs. They captured four World Series in five years, and the last came at the expense of the Mets in the first Queens-Bronx Subway Series. In 1997, the Yankees and Mets started to face each other during the regular season too, and those games have also served as something of a barometer of New York success.

For the first few years of Interleague Play, the Yankees dominated. They took two out of three from the Mets in both 1997 and 1998 before splitting the first six-game set in 1999. The Bombers took four out of six in both 2000 and 2001 before another split in 2002. In 2003, the Yankees swept all six games. In 2004, the Mets finally won the season series. Three straight splits followed that, and then last year, the Mets again won four of the six contests.

This year, though, saw the Yankees totally dominate the Mets. It was the first year that either team won five games, and outside of the 2003 sweep, this season marks the Yanks’ best Subway Series showing. While the Mets and Fernando Nieve managed one victory, the series wasn’t that close.

Offensively, the Yankees crushed a depleted Mets team. The Bombers hit .271/.378/.514 with 44 runs scored an 11 HR. In 249 plate appearances, they drew 34 walks and struck out just 29 times. Teams that walk more often than they strike out don’t lose. The Mets, meanwhile, hit .196/.291/.299 with just 17 runs scored — eight of those in the first game of the series — and just four home runs. They struck out 53 times in 222 plate appearances and walked just 23 times.

The pitching numbers stack up similarly. Yankee pitchers threw to the tune of a 2.83 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP; Mets hurlers allowed 6.84 earned runs a game and sported an ugly 1.74 WHIP. Ironically, Johan Santana’s effort in a game two weeks ago at Yankee Stadium was the worst of the series. His nine earned runs in three innings pretty much set the tone for the series.

I don’t like to gloat too much about baseball games in season. It’s bad karma, and it’s unsportsmanlike. After this weekend, though, Yankee fans are feeling pretty good about their team. In a city with two new stadiums, in a city with baseball fever as one team struggles with injuries and a poorly-constructed roster and the other battles a tough division, in a city in which both teams are within spitting distant of first place, it’s good to be king, even if just for a few months.

The 13th Annual Subway Series kicks off tonight, as the second place Mets come to the Bronx to take on the second place Yankees. The Yanks are 37-29 all-time against their crosstown rivals in interleague play, 20-13 at home. This year they bring a 34-26 season record into the series while the Mets come in at 31-27. Each team comes in limping, as the Yanks were just swept in heartbreaking fashion up in Fenway, while the Mets just lost two extra inning games at home to the Phillies.

In honor of this year’s renewal of the Subway Series, let’s take a look at how each squad compares to each other on a position by position basis.

Starting Pitchers this Weekend

Friday: Joba Chamberlain vs. Livan Hernandez
These two are sporting identical WHIPs (1.40) and similar ERA’s (3.79 vs. 3.88), but the difference is that Joba is still cutting his teeth at this level while Livan is enjoying his best year since 2004. Throw in Joba’s ability to actually strike guys out (8.3 K/9 vs. Livan’s 5.5), and I think we have a winner. Advantage: Yanks

Saturday: Andy Pettitte vs. TBA
With John Maine hitting the DL, the Mets aren’t sure who will start tomorrow. It could be prospect Jon Niese (6.57 ERA in 5 career starts), AAA starter Nelson Figueroa (5.15 ERA in 40 career starts), or swingman Fernando Nieve out of the pen (4.20 ERA in 11 career starts). Whoever they decide to throw out there will be inferior to Pettitte, despite his highwire act. Advantage: Yanks

Sunday: AJ Burnett vs. Johan Santana
Santana’s last five starts: 4.64 ERA, .848 OPS against. Burnett’s last five starts: 4.13 ERA, .839 OPS against. Just sayin’. Advantage: Mets

Everyday Lineup

Catcher: Jorge Posada vs. Omir Santos
Ex-Yankee farmhand Santos did a tremendous job filling in while the Mets’ other catchers were injured, and has yet to relinquish the starting job. Despite that, he’s got a .298 OBP and a 90 OPS+ Posada’s sitting at .380 and 151, respectively. Advantage: Yankees

First Base: Mark Teixera vs. Fernando Tatis
The Mets ran into some bad luck, as Carlos Delgado went down with hip surgery after putting up a .914 OPS in 26 games. After a brilliant comeback last season, Tatis has filled in for Delgado with a .732 OPS, 2 homers, 9 XBH and 12 RBI this year. Texiera has a .745 SLG with 4 homers, 11 XBH and 13 RBI. In his last 12 games. Next. Advantage: Yanks

Second Base: Robinson Cano vs. Luis Castillo
The poster child for ill-advised contracts, Castillo is actually having himself a nice season right in line with his career averages. Of course that constitutes a 91 OPS+ and a -10.7 UZR/150 at the keystone corner. Robbie Cano is also having a year in line with his career averages, putting up a 107 OPS+ with a 1.3 UZR/150. It would be nice if he weren’t hitting fifth, though. Advantage: Yanks

Shortstop: Derek Jeter vs. Alex Cora
Cora’s .286 AVG and .385 OBP are right there with Jeter’s .298 and .370 marks, but The Cap’n has more than a 50 point advantage in slugging. Jeter’s also got him beat on defense, with a 6.4 UZR/150 compared to Cora’s -35.7. I know Alex Cora wins games, but dude, it’s Derek Jeter. Maybe if Jose Reyes was heathy, this would be a different story. Advantage: Yanks

Third Base: Alex Rodriguez vs. David Wright
Finally, we have ourselves a bit of a competition. Wright leads the lead in AVG (.362) and OBP (.458), and his .984 OPS is top ten in the NL. He’s also sixth in the bigs with 17 steals. Show off. A-Rod’s been back from his hip injury for over a month now, and even though he hasn’t yet hit his stride, he’s still fashioned a .393 OBP and a .458 SLG. We know A-Rod will be great soon enough, but Wright is great right now. Advantage: Mets

Left Field: Johnny Damon vs. Danny Murphy/Fernando Martinez
The Metsies generally run old buddy Gary Sheffield out to left, but since the series will be played in the Bronx, I imagine he’ll be serving as DH. The Murphtinez Monster has managed a .234-.317-.341 line this year with Murphy doing most of the heavy lifting. Damon’s hit .286-.361-.537 and is in the midst of the best offensive season of his career. Neither contingent has been anything special defensively in 2009, so let’s call that part a draw. Advantage: Yanks

Center Field: Melky Cabrera vs. Carlos Beltran
Melky’s riding his now annual post-April swoon, while Beltran is simply one of the greatest players in the game today, regardless of what Steve Phillips thinks. .341-.431-.561 with Gold Glove defense in center? I’ll take two. Advantage: Mets

Right Field: Nick Swisher vs. Ryan Church
Boneheaded plays aside, Swisher has been tremendously productive at the plate this year, posting a .394 OBP with a .538 SLG. Church has been hampered by injuries as usual, but has a 1.103 OPS in an extremely small sample size since returning. Church is better than he’s been, Swisher isn’t as good as he’s been, but both are quality players. Let’s call this one … Advantage: Push

Designated Hitter: Hideki Matsui vs. Gary Sheffield
Matsui’s one of those guys that just when you think he’s dead, he goes on a tear. He’s hit .260-.350-.475 compared to Sheff’s .250-.380-.427 output, so they’re right in line with each other. Luckily for Godzilla, defense doesn’t count at DH. Advantage: Push

Reserves

Bench: Frankie Cervelli, Angel Berroa, Ramiro Pena, Brett Gardner vs. Brian Schneider, Wilson Valdez, Danny Murphy/Fernando Martinez, Jeremy Reed
The nature of the beast calls for the Mets to have a more usable bench than the Yanks, although Gardner’s proven to be somewhat useful as a reserve. But still … Advantage: Mets

Setup Crew: Al Aceves, Phil Coke, Phil Hughes, David Robertson, Brett Tomko, Jose Veras vs. Pedro Feliciano, Sean Green, Fernando Nieve, Bobby Parnell, Brian Stokes, Ken Takahashi
It’s pretty cool how the two pens are constructed in basically the same way, with a young phenom (Hughes & Parnell), veteran swingman (Tomko & Stokes), kinda low leverage but sometimes high leverage middle guy (Robertson & Green), pitchability multi-inning guy (Aceves & Takahashi), hard throwing wildcard (Veras & Nieve) and, of course, the LOOGY (Coke & Feliciano). The Mets’ non-closer bullpen ERA is 3.44, but the Yanks’ is 4.87. Just imagine if JJ Putz wasn’t so craptactular/hurt. Advantage: Mets

Closer: Mariano Rivera vs. Francisco Rodriguez
K-Rod’s been everything the Mets could have hoped for and more, nailing down every save and pitching to a 0.61 ERA. Mo’s struggles have been well documented, but he’s still the man and gets the job done. Call me biased, but I’m not willing to declare Mo dead yet. I’m not going any lower than … Advantage: Push

* * *

So I have the final tally at seven for the Yanks, five for the Mets, and three draws. Given all the Mets’ injuries this year, I don’t think there’s any question that the Yankees are the best team in town right now. Everything lines up nicely for them, so hopefully they can pull out a pair of wins, assuming Santana is an automatic loss.

Photo Credit: CNYcentral.com

Quinnipiac University spent precious budget dollars polled New Yorkers recently and it turns out that yes, New Yorkers still love the Yankees more than the Mets. From Oren Yaniv (h/t BTF):

Among the New Yorkers who expressed interest in big-league baseball, more than half - 56% - pledged alliance to the Bronx Bombers and only a third said they root for the Mets, a Quinnipiac poll found.

In a theoretical Subway Series, the Yanks are fan favorites, 55% to 42%, holding an edge in every borough but Queens, where the Amazin’s play.

“Except for Queens, New York City still is the home of the Bronx Bombers,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

The poll also showed that the most popular Yankee is (surprise surprise) Derek Jeter, who picked up a staggering 48% of the vote. A-Rod came in second with just 9% of the vote, down from 15% last year. Man, it’s going to be a PR nightmare when Jeter’s contract is up, unless of course they re-up for huge money and keep him at short.

David Wright was the most popular Met at 27%, followed by Jose Reyes at 17%. Just about an equal amount of fans (~30%) said they would visit the New Yankee Stadium as they would CitiField. Heh, remember all that talk last year about how the Mets were NY’s team after landing teh Johan?