One of the fun parlor games that accompanies the Juan Soto decision is this: Can the Mets take the town from the Yankees? And this is only fun because baseball is the one of the of the four major professional spots where that has ever even been a possibility because it’s happened — on three occasions.
We’ll save that for last.
Football was the other sport where this nearly happened. From the time the Giants were born in 1925, they were not only the pre-eminent franchise, they handily swatted away the Brooklyn Lions, Tigers and Dodgers in addition to the New York Yankees and Yanks. And even for the first seven years of the Jets’ history, they were little more than an annoying gnat out in Queens.
Then Joe Willie happened, and Super Bowl III happened, at the same time the Giants were going 18 years between playoff appearances. And it seemed like the Jets might just blow the Giants away.