It is surprising to me that more attention hasn’t been paid by Mets fans to the announcement that Bobby Cox will be stepping down after the 2010 season. As I watched Atlanta put the finishing touches on a sweep of the Mets last night, I had ample time to reflect on the end of what has been one of the great rivalries in Mets history.

It was fun to root against Cox, a baseball man who made no secret of his disdain for the New York Mets. It was fun to head into his office after games, and see him puffing away at his postgame cigar. Whatever on’es feelings about Cox or his habits, it was like a window into the past. The game is changing, has changed, and I am not one to believe the past is automatically better by virtue of being the past. Still, there always should be some sadness over seeing the end of something with merit- and whatever else one can say about Bobby Cox, his teams won and his players adored him.

The end of the Chipper Jones era seems to be here as well. Watching Jones weakly pinch-hit, it was apparent he isn’t close to the player he once was. I had the uneasy experience of considering Jones for first base next season with the Braves for a recent column, and coming to the conclusion that he simply doesn’t hit enough to carry the position anymore. Chipper Jones!

Both were part of the ultimate nemesis the Mets ever faced. Year in, year out, Cox managed, Jones got the spirit-crushing hits, and the Braves triumphed. Atlanta was forever Lucy with the football. And that was fun- not the losing, of course, but the holding out of hope that they were rivals that could someday be vanquished, the way it was fun for Knicks fans to watch Patrick Ewing take on the Michael Jordan Bulls every year in the playoffs.

And it is sad to see that ending in part because the Mets never had that moment of triumph, that comeback from 3-0 down the Red Sox experienced against the Yankees in 2004. Instead, the Mets have Game 6 of the 1999 NLCS, a close loss with a heartbreaking ending, just as surely as Patrick Ewing’s Knicks have Charles Smith trying and failing to score over Scottie Pippen, and B.J. Armstrong racing the other way with a stolen victory.

Someday I’ll take my children to Springfield; we’ll pass Michael Jordan’s plaque, and I’ll say, “That’s the man that ruined Daddy’s childhood.” I’ll say the same thing in Cooperstown, when we pass Chipper Jones and Bobby Cox.

But they didn’t; not really. They provided a rivalry that even recent battles against the Phillies have yet to approach, that left the 1980s battles with the Cardinals and Cubs in the dust as well. So much of the fun in sporting passion is defined not only by who you root for, but who you root against, and seeing Bobby Cox retire and Chipper Jones age makes me feel inestimably older as well.

Tags: Bobby Cox, Chipper Jones, New York Mets