The New York Mets and New York Jets are linked together in history more than some of you might care to acknowledge.
Sure the final three letters of each teams name is -ets and more often than not they screw with their fans emotions with crushing losses or long stretches of ineptitude.
The other ways they are connected is that they shared Shea Stadium, both won championships in the calendar year 1969, made their league championship game/series in the calendar year 1999 (AFC, NL title game/series) and have to deal with the fact that outside of some stretches in the past, they are the second citizens in the New York sports world.
The final thing that connects these two franchises is that they are both in the process of rebuilding their teams with the hope that better days for each are ahead of them.
The hope for any team that is rebuilding is that it will lead to a long stretch of prosperity and some championships along the way.
With that in mind and both teams, already linked so much in their history, I was wondering which team is going to win a championship first.
The Case for the Jets
The team, now run by first year General Manager John Idzik and coached by the always entertaining Rex Ryan were thought to be the worst team in football history by some people in the pre-season.
But, with Geno Smith running the offense, getting better each week and a defense that is perhaps so underrated that it is borderline criminal, the Jets as of the writing of this article are 3-2 and are one of the surprises of the NFL.
With the team playing better than expected and a young core of players (especially on the defensive line), the Jets could be back among the AFC elite sooner than people think. The salary cap situation will be better this off-season and we all know that the NFL is such a league of parody that only a few changes can turn everything around for a team.
Now I don’t think they will be making the Super Bowl this year or make Super Bowl XLIX the next year either but Idzik has done a solid job to this point as GM and Rex Ryan is proving not only he is worth one more year, but maybe a few more years as coach of this franchise.
With the right moves in the draft and free agency along with the continued improvement of Geno Smith, the Jets are really not that far off from being a championship team.
The Case for the Mets
With the Mets, consistency is the key word for them when it comes to who is running the show. Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins have been in charge as GM and Manager since the 2010 off-season. The other thing that has been consistent has been losing seasons.
77, 74 and 74 wins have been what the Mets have done under Collins and Alderson with an amazing 122-121 record on the road but an abysmal 103-140 at home. Ownership has money issues and some of the young players that they were hoping to take a step forward has taken a step backward.
David Wright, Zack Wheeler and Matt Harvey (who is out for next year with Tommy John Surgery) are a core group that is something to build around as the team looks towards the future.
Noah Syndergaard and Rafeal Montero are closer and closer to making the big leagues and Niese and Gee are solid back end of the rotation players.
The key will be whether or not either free agents, or current players or minor leaguers can come up on the offensive side of things and help out what could be one of the strongest rotations in the National League.
Smart spending along with the maturation of young players in an improving minor league system could give the Mets a team that not only can compete for a title in the near future but could compete for multiple titles for years to come.
Verdict
The tipping point for both teams when it comes to which one is closer to a championship is the circumstances that surround them.
With the NFL being a league that has more parody and more playoffs teams (maybe 7 in the AFC as soon as 2015) the chances of the Jets reaching playoffs are better than the Mets on the odds alone.
The competition in the NL East is a bit tougher than the AFC East and while Tom Brady is closer to the end of his career than his prime the Braves and Nationals have a group of young players that could make life for the Mets a lot tougher.
So for this, I think the Jets are bit closer to wining a championship than the Mets. Of course if you root for both teams, like I do, it doesn’t matter who wins it first as long as one of them does so soon.
