What to know about the New York Yankees and New York Mets subway series

New York might be known as the City that Never Sleeps, but every so often the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple comes to a standstill for nine innings as the Mets and the Yankees square off in the Subway Series.

A city divided

New York is divided by the blue and orange part of the big city that roots for the Mets, and the pin stripe clad side of New York that supports the Yanks.

The Mets are coming off of a two game sweep over the Yankees this week after Starling Marte had a walk off single to secure the 3-2 win on Wednesday night.

History of the subway series

The Subway Series debuted in 1921 when the Yankees took on the New York Giants. Remember, there have been four different MLB teams in the Big Apple over the year. The Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers have since moved on, but the first Subway Series came in the World Series back in October of 1921.

The first meeting between the Yankees and the Mets didn’t come until 76 years later. The Mets won the opener in the new edition of the Subway Series 6-0, but the Yankees won the next two games at Yankee Stadium to take the regular season series.

The Subway is a synonymous with New York as the Empire State Building, or the Statue of Liberty and the yellow cabs and their crazy drivers are with the world’s biggest metropolis. The Subway opened in 1904 and by the 20′s it was a mainstream way of moving around the city, and there were stops located conveniently around three stadiums in the city. Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and Polo Grounds in upper Manhattan.

Mets and Yanks stadiums just 10 miles apar

News outlets coined the term Subway Series some time shortly after the 1921 series between the Giants and the Yankees and by 1927 it was universally known in the baseball world.

The Mets’ Citi Field and the New Yankee Stadium are less then 10 miles apart. If you are taking the subway form Yankee Stadium to Citi Field, then you would take the 4 train to Grand Central St. and grab the 7 towards Mets - Willets Point.

Because the two teams represent different leagues, the Yankees are a part of the American League and the Mets are a part of the National League, they don’t play too often. The matchups are limited to interleague play, which doesn’t happen all the time. The only postseason games they play would take place in the World Series, which happened back in 2000 when the Yankees defeated the Mets in five games.

Yanks dominate series despite two straight losses

With the Yankees story book history of World Series and legendary players that have passed through Yankee Stadium they are the big brothers of the Subway Series, and the Mets are the little brothers. And just like brothers, there are always times of tension between the two like when Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza almost came to blows after Piazza’s bat broke bouncing up to the Yanks pitcher, which he fired back at Piazza which almost ignited the Subway Series into a Subway Slugfest.

The Yankees not only hold the upper hand on the Mets with their 27 World Series versus the Mets’ two, but they hold the series lead over their cross town rivals Citi Park. The Yankees lead the regular series 76-59, and got the won the most important series, which was that fiery World Series in 2000.