This might be something sappy to write about, but I am pretty sure there are many other guys out there with the same issues as me. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and am passionate about my Mets, Jets and Islanders. I grew up in Holtsville, and watched the Mets with my dad, was a fixture at the Nassau Coliseum watching Bossy, Trottier, and Nystrom, and had matching “NY Sack Exchange” tee shirts with my old man. Those were special times, and memories that will be embedded in my heart forever.

Fast forward twenty five years to present day where I now get to relive those special memories with my child. She’s just a few months old, but I remember my dad telling me that I watched my first Mets game in diapers. My daughter will be a tremendous sports fan through and through, because that’s just the way of life in my home. I am a middle school coach year round, the only two buttons on the channel return on the remote are ESPN, and FOX Sports, and weekends in this household consist of lying on the couch watching the games from morning until evening. I am a fanatic.

My wonderful wife loves her sports too. I think I actually fell in love with her the moment she mentioned some of the players on her favorite hockey team “were eligible for arbitration.” We constantly go the hockey games, and make occasional trips to see the “so-called professional baseball” team. But now we are parents.

I am a Mets fan, and bleed the orange and blue. My jersey hangs in the front of the closet, no matter the wins or losses.

She is a Yankees fan, and her pinstripes have been banished to the back of the closet.

Just like me, she is a transplant, only instead of growing up on Long Island; she made her home in New Jersey. She is the ultimate sports wife. She follows her baseball team, constantly checks up on her hockey news, and has no problem checking in on the fantasy football team of mine (especially when it brings her new jewelry). But now there is a pressing dilemma.

You just can’t root for the Yankees and Mets. You can be a daddy’s girl, and just like mommy, but it is a prodigious no-no to cheer for both. You would be looked upon with scorn, bantered by many, and laughed at if your two favorite teams are rivals. My wife still gives me the ribbing of how the Yanks desecrated Shea Stadium in 2000 when they celebrated on the Mets mound. How the Mets are really the “Big Apples”. How they don’t deserve to wear pinstripes like the Yanks. The Mets are the unwanted child in New York, and all the city has room for is the twenty-six time World Champs. In her words, “our daughter WILL NOT be a Mets fan”. My wife said this to me, while my daughter was dressed in her New York Mets one-zy.

My wife really could care less about professional football, so the predominant issues are which baseball and hockey teams will the baby girl follow. She was once a Devils supporter, now moved on to the ‘Cats, so little Jilly will unfortunately have to deal with the mediocrity of the Isles and Panthers. But when it comes to America’s past time, how do you choose just one elite team? Will she cheer for Derek Jeter? Or fall in love with David Wright?

It’s daddy’s dilemma.

Tags: New York Islanders, New York Jets, New York Mets