The pain, the pain.

As if New York Mets fans haven’t suffered enough during their miserable season, now they now they face the real chance of seeing one - or  both - of their two more hated opponents in the World Series, with both the Philadelphia Phillies and the crosstown rival New York Yankees battling in the playoffs for trips to the Fall Classic.

So how are the Flushing Faithful handling this stomach-turning possibility? I asked some Met bloggers their thoughts on the Yankees, the Phillies, the Dodgers, and who they would root for in a Phillies-Yankees matchup.

I spoke with Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog, Greg Prince of Faith and Fear in Flushing, Shannon Shark of Mets Police, John Coppinger of The Musings and Prophecies of Metstradamus, Ed Leyro of  Studious Metsimus and Mets Merized Online,  Stephen Keane of The Eddie Kranepool Society, Matt Pignataro of Seven Train to Shea,  Tanya Mercado of CitiField of Dreams,  Denise Winter of  Miss Dee Just Being Me and Mets Merized Online, Dana Brand of Mets Fan Book and Jon Lewin of The Faster Times and Subway Squawkers about what’s happening in the 2009 postseason, and what it means for their own team.

* Are you watching Yankees-Angels and/or Phillies-Dodgers? If so, who are you rooting for?

Most of the baseball bloggers I interviewed are watching at least some of both series. And the vast majority, of course,would like to see a Freeway Series.

“I’m rooting for the Dodgers and Angels due to my hatred of both the Highlanders and Phinks,” is how Stephen Keane of the The Eddie Kranepool Society describes it. Seven Train to Shea blogger Matt Pignataro says, “I hate everything about the Phillies, whether it’s Cole Hamels or the Philly Phanatic, so I’m rooting for the Dodgers.”

Denise Winter of  Miss Dee Just Being Me and Mets Merized Online says, “as a Mets fan, it’s obvious why” she is “rooting for the Dodgers and the Angels.”

But Shannon Shark of Mets Police is “neutral” in the NLCS, and is cheering for the Yankees in the ALCS. “I know this upsets Mets fans, ” Shark says, “but to me the Yankees only affect the Mets 6 days a year and then every 50 years or so there is a Subway Series. On the other 156 days I root for the New York team but not with the passion I do the Mets.”

“The Angels are my favorite American League team, but the Yankees strike me as unstoppable, so not much to enjoy there,” says Faith and Fear in Flushing blogger Greg Prince, and author of the book by the same name. “I can’t stand the Phillies and I don’t like the Dodgers. But baseball is baseball. If nothing more compelling is on, I look in.”

“Back in August I resigned myself to the inevitability that it’s going to be a Yankees/Phillies World Series, says John Coppinger, creator of The Musings and Prophecies of Metstradamus. “I’m braced for it and I’ve been expecting it.”

Dana Brand, Mets Fan Book blogger, and author of the books “The Last Days of Shea” and “Mets Fan,” notes Dodger manager Joe Torre’s Flushing connection. “Peculiarly enough, long-time Mets fans still think of Joe Torre as kind of a Met, because he played for us briefly and managed us unsuccessfully in the ’70s,” he says. “He is also a salt-of-the-earth New Yorker and not arrogant at all. So he fits into Mets’ fans mythology of what the Mets are supposed to be as opposed to the Yankees.”

MetsBlog’s Matthew Cerrone finds the Yankees-Angels games “unavoidable,” for a very good reason - his wife is a Yankee fan! But he’s skipping the NL series. “I’d be watching if it wasn’t the Phillies,” he says. “But just seeing them in uniform on field in October makes my blood pressure rise.”

* If the Yankees do make it to the World Series, who is a stronger matchup for them - the Dodgers or the Phillies? Why?

Seven Train to Shea blogger Pignataro, like most of the Met bloggers, thinks the Phillies would be tougher than the Dodgers.

“The Phillies match up position wise quite well [with the Yankees.] You got power first base bats in Howard and Teixeira, the team leaders at short in Jeter and Rollins, two star second basemen in Cano and Utley, the power hitting vets in Matsui and Ibanez, the loud mouths in Swisher and Victorino and both teams have frontline aces.”

But Ed Leyro of  Studious Metsimus and Mets Merized Online thinks the Dodgers, not the Phillies, are the team to beat. “The Dodgers have the better pitchers and the better bullpen. The Phillies might be able to outslug the Yankees in a game or two, but over a seven-game series, I’ll take pitching over hitting.”

Tanya Mercado of CitiField of Dreams thinks Torre’s Dodgers would be more successful against the Yankees because “Torre knows how some of the Yankee players play because he managed them. Advantage Torre.”

“The Phillies have an offense that can go toe-to-toe with the Yankees, MetsBlog author Cerrone says, “but in any case, the Yankees will be the favorite.”

* If there is a Yankees-Phillies World Series, who would you root for? Why do you feel that way?

Most Met bloggers are appalled by the very thought of such a series; Eddie Kranepool Society blogger Keane calls it “the Sodom and Gomorrah of baseball match ups.” Brand of Mets Fan Book says “a Yankees-Phillies series would be a Mets fan’s nightmare.”

But some fear such a matchup is inevitable. Prince of Faith and Fear in Flushing says, “I think we’re headed for a Yankee-Phillie series, or as the Bible calls it, Armageddon.” He says he would “root for the end of time, of course. Seriously, I’d root for the Phillies not to lose; but not for them to win.”

Metstradamus author Coppinger says,  ”There’s a part of me that wants a Yankees/Phillies Series. It sounds weird coming from a Mets fan, but as bad as this season has been, a Yankees/Phillies World Series is really the only way it could be topped off.”

Coppinger says there is “one outcome that I, as a Mets fan, absolutely cannot deal with, is the Phillies winning in six or seven games. Why? Because it would be in New York, so you know that the Phillies would take that World Series trophy for a lap around the old Shea Stadium parking lot out of spite. Plus, if it’s seven games, you know YES would re-edit the highlights of the series to make it seem like the Yankees won, so it would be like both teams won.”

“Asking who I would root for in a Yankees-Phillies World Series is like asking me which did I enjoy seeing more - Luis Castillo dropping the popup against the Yankees or Jeff Francoeur hitting into an unassisted triple play against the Phillies,” says Jon Lewin, my Subway Squawkers compadre.

Shark of MetsPolice, who is rooting for the Yankees all the way through, says that “if the World Series is Angels-Phillies I won’t watch…Angels-Dodgers I might get into, depending on how full the DVR is.”

If a Phillies-Yankees World Series does come to pass, some of the Met bloggers will root, root, root for the home team - at least this time around.

CitiField of Dreams author Mercado says, ” I’d rather hear Yank fans talk than Phils fans. At least the Yankees earned the right to talk. Phillies haven’t. The Phillies were always the last team anybody thought about in Philly. The Eagles were always the #1 team followed by the Flyers and the Sixers. Even their arena soccer team got more respect. Now all of a sudden the Phils are the big dogs? Give me a break. I want to see a Phillies smackdown.”

Winter of  Miss Dee Just Being Me says, “I think the Yanks may be the only ones who CAN beat the Phillies. And I hate to admit this, but, I am a New Yorker and I guess a very small part of me, way deep down inside, does hope the Yankees bring it home! I don’t hate the Yankees. They are a good team, just doing their job, like anyone else. It’s the arrogant Yankee fans that give the rest of the fan-base and the team a bad rep.”

At least one fan is already resigned to what he thinks the outcome will be. “As Jimmy Rollins once said about the Phillies as compared to the Mets,” Lewin, my partner in Subway Squawkers, notes, “the Yankees are the team to beat this year. So let them win and get it over with already. Besides, I’d rather see my blogging partner celebrate than Shane Victorino.”

Photo by Michael Mase

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