I have a sports related question for the New York junkies

[Steve]

Do most fans in NY pick one team (Yankees or Mets), (Giants or Jets) to root for or do they root for both teams as long as they aren't playing each other.

I guess what I'm saying is are most Yankee fans also Mets fans to a degree (and vice versa) or do Yankee fans generally hate the Mets?

[billbuckner]

Just about everyone picks a team. Mets fans hate the Yankees and Yankees fans are indifferent towards the Mets. The reason for that should be obvious.

[Trautdiggity]

There tend to be two camps. Though what BB says is generally more true than the opposite, I don't think it's that cut-and-dry. Yes fans pick one team, but there are some who will root for the other team to do well absent facing their team, and others who hate the other team. I generally fall in the latter camp.

What's more interesting is the typical alignment. There is a specific combination of team interests that seems normal and anything outside of it seems odds. It's Yankees-Giants and Mets-Jets. Off the top of my head Fly is a weirdo (ok he's not a weirdo just an exception to the rule) but more often than not, those combos hold true.

[BuckyBuckner]

There is a specific combination of team interests that seems normal and anything outside of it seems odds. It's Yankees-Giants and Mets-Jets. Off the top of my head Fly is a weirdo (ok he's not a weirdo just an exception to the rule) but more often than not, those combos hold true.

I like the Yanks and Jets too. But to be fair football is my least favorite of the major four sports so I will root for the Giants too but in the NFC the Packers are my favorite team. So I guess it goes Jets, Packers and then Giants. Just call me Carey Pont (was that his name? The guy that has like ten favorite baseball teams?).

[joncarlos]

Geographically it would be Mets/Jets/Islanders (Long Island) and Yankees/Giants/Rangers (NYC) but the Jets/Giants have been in Jersey so long that it doesn't hold as strongly as it used to. But originally the Giants played in Yankee Stadium and the Jets played in Shea.

Now you see a lot of switched allegiances based on the teams that were good when you grew up (late 80s - Mets/Giants, early 80s/late 70s - Yankees/Islanders/Jets, mid 90s Yankees/Rangers, etc)

Did the Nets used to be on LI? I am not sure where the NBA teams fit into the alignment.

[BuckyBuckner]

Geographically it would be Mets/Jets/Islanders (Long Island) and Yankees/Giants/Rangers (NYC) but the Jets/Giants have been in Jersey so long that it doesn't hold as strongly as it used to. But originally the Giants played in Yankee Stadium and the Jets played in Shea.

Now you see a lot of switched allegiances based on the teams that were good when you grew up (late 80s - Mets/Giants, early 80s/late 70s - Yankees/Islanders/Jets, mid 90s Yankees/Rangers, etc)

Did the Nets used to be on LI? I am not sure where the NBA teams fit into the alignment.

Do you think people from Queens and Brooklyn root for the Islanders? I always assumed they would root for the Rangers since they live in one of the five borrows even though they are technically on the same island as Long Island. Maybe they are divided between the two based on where they are in Queens or Brooklyn.

What do people from Staten Island do? Oh right, no one cares.

[ironfist]

The Mets/Yankees rivalry is definitely the strongest one (and Rangers/Devils or Rangers/Islanders depending where you live) and you almost have to choose a side. I never felt like the Jets-Giants rivalry is all that fierce, so I can see someone kind of rooting for both, though it is rare to find someone who hasn't chosen a side there either.

[Hammer]

Geographically it would be Mets/Jets/Islanders (Long Island) and Yankees/Giants/Rangers (NYC) but the Jets/Giants have been in Jersey so long that it doesn't hold as strongly as it used to. But originally the Giants played in Yankee Stadium and the Jets played in Shea.

Now you see a lot of switched allegiances based on the teams that were good when you grew up (late 80s - Mets/Giants, early 80s/late 70s - Yankees/Islanders/Jets, mid 90s Yankees/Rangers, etc)

Did the Nets used to be on LI? I am not sure where the NBA teams fit into the alignment.

Nets used to share the building with the Isles before moving to NJ....

[Hammer]

Jets-Giants have no rivalry because they play once every 4 years. Please dont tell me about the pre-season game every year as its meaningless

[Bob Kohm]

Yeah, there's no Giants-Jets rivalry other than what the inkstained monkeys can whip up when they do play each other. That being said, I think most "hardcore" Giants fans consider the Jet fans obnoxious and lower class while "hardcore" Jet fans think Giants fans are snobby and less knowledgeable about football. The whole Fireman Ed thing is very much a reflection of the Jets portraying themselves as the "workingman's team" whereas the old money Mara family gives the Giants the "upper brackets" persona.

[schlesinj]

I will agree growing up in North Jersey that most of my friends were Yankee/Giant fans or Met/Jet fans. We did have a nice Devil/Ranger rivarly and the cheer of 1940 was always fun.

[joncarlos]

Nets used to share the building with the Isles before moving to NJ....

I didn't know that ... it was before my time (apparently in 77, the year I was born)

I grew up rooting for the Islanders and hating the Rangers, rooting for the Jets and sort of disliking the Giants, preferring the Mets but also enjoying the Yankees, liking the Knicks and ignoring the Nets. In the 90s the Mets were so distasteful that I stopped rooting for them. I still feel about the same about the Jets and Giants.

[B-Fly]

I don't root against any NYC area teams unless their success would negatively impact my favorite teams, although I occasionally enjoy teasing my friends who are passionate fans of the Mets or Knicks. I much prefer MLB and the NBA to the NFL, though, and I barely even take notice of the NHL. So my lack of passion for the NFL makes it real easy to root for the Giants as well as the Jets, although the Jets rank higher in my heart than the Giants. The Knicks used to be #2 for me, but the Isiah Thomas era really upset me and I still haven't recovered from it, in part because I know he's still got pull in the organization. So in terms of my current rooting interests, I'd rank it:

1. Yankees
2. Nets
3. Jets
4. Giants
5. Knicks
6. Mets
7. Devils
8. Rangers
9. Islanders

I'd certainly root for any of those NY-area teams against a non-NY-area foe, though, particularly if any of those teams have a shot at a championship.

[Hammer]

I didn't know that ... it was before my time (apparently in 77, the year I was born)

I grew up rooting for the Islanders and hating the Rangers, rooting for the Jets and sort of disliking the Giants, preferring the Mets but also enjoying the Yankees, liking the Knicks and ignoring the Nets. In the 90s the Mets were so distasteful that I stopped rooting for them. I still feel about the same about the Jets and Giants.

Yea, I think the Nets were in the ABA when they used the Mausoleum. I am a long time Islander sufferer as well. I keep hoping and hoping and hoping.....