Mets, Knicks Revival Make New York America’s Sports Capital Once Again

New York sports is experiencing a revival harkening back to the glory days of teams past.

Today, the revitalized New York Mets and the always-contending New York Yankees play in their respective league championship series.

The Aaron Rodgers-led New York Jets also headline tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup. The 2-3 team may be off to a rocky start — it just replaced its head coach Robert Saleh — but it adds to the spectacle of what could be an epic October.

If the Mets and Yankees make it past this round, the two will face off in the World Series for the second time ever. The Subway Series would coincide with the start of the NBA regular season, with the New York Knicks as top contenders for a championship for the first time in decades.

The Knicks will have 34 nationally televised games this season, tied with the world Champion Boston Celtics for the third-most.

Mets fans may credit Grimace for their team’s hot streak, but the team’s path to victory has been paved by the uber-clutch shortstop and MVP candidate Carlos Lindor and a team leadership that’s in it to win it.

The same goes for the Knicks led by Jalen Brunson, whose breakout 2023-24 season has made him the team’s undisputed leader.

The ascent of the Mets and the Knicks — neither of which has won a championship in decades — has come through opposite ownership strategies.

Cohen completed a $2.4 billion acquisition of the Mets from the scandal-ridden Wilpon family in 2020. And then he poured his money into trying to get the Mets to win it all.

Early this season, it appeared that Cohen, who seeks to establish a casino in Flushing near Citi Field, had made a bad gamble as the Mets got off to an 0-5 start. But Cohen’s activist model of team ownership proved a success as Lindor, who batted .230 in his first season with the Mets in 2021, took off, along with a clutch supporting cast, including the second-year phenom Mark Vientos

By contrast, the Knicks’ fortunes turned for the better with longtime owner James Dolan getting out of the way and delegating full day-to-day authority to the stellar management of Leon Rose and William Wesley, also known as “World Wide Wes.”

Rose and Wesley have made bold moves, trading their top young core of RJ Barrett, Julius Randle, and Immanuel Quickley to strategically assemble pieces like Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby that can drive the team into finals.

The Yankees too have eschewed the conservative approach of owner Hal Steinbrenner, acquiring superstar Juan Soto in a seven-player trade last year. Steinbrenner met with Soto in September, likely as part of an effort to resign the outfielder to what will likely be a $500 million-plus contract.

The Garden could see a championship even before the NBA season kicks off with the WNBA’s New York Liberty currently tied 1-1 with the Minnesota Lynx in the Finals.

As the weather cools this fall, New York sports are heating up like never before this time of year. It could be an epic October.