The Subway Series: My Baseball Tradition That Could’ve Been

When I was compiling my list of annual baseball traditions, I had to decide whether or not to include a subway series game. It ultimately didn’t make the cut — I knew that I wouldn’t be able to attend a subway series game in 2023, and it felt lame including a tradition that I wouldn’t actually be able to carry out this year. With this season’s subway series coming to an end last night, I was reminded of a tradition that might have existed but that would have only been broken in year 3.

The very first baseball game I attended was a subway series game on July 3, 2021. I went with Elizabeth, a good friend from college who had known me for years and who had only learned a few months earlier that I am a Rays fan. We really wanted to go to a baseball game together, but as a Mets fan, Elizabeth obviously has no interest in attending a Rays-Yankees game at Yankee Stadium. It’s tough when a friend supports a team that doesn’t play in the same league as yours! Still, as a New Yorker, I thought seeing the subway series could be fun.

Elizabeth and I went to subway series games both in 2021 and 2022. We were stuck in the nosebleeds the first time in 2021 because we bought our tickets just a couple of weeks ahead of the game (the key with the subway series is to buy WAY in advance). There was also the threat of rain — and we did get rained on for a couple of innings — but they were still able to play the entire game. Apart from that, I can’t really recall much about either subway series game, but I do know that I didn’t have the typical New Yorker experience of riding the subway before and after the games with both Mets and Yankee fans. We went to the games both years by car (Elizabeth’s friend, who went to the game with us in 2021, was also the one who drove, and let me tell you — his driving is absolutely HORRENDOUS).

The point of this post is to talk about a tradition that could’ve been, so it goes without saying that Elizabeth and I were unable to make the subway series happen this year. It’s tough with Elizabeth living in Virginia now — she actually drove back up to New York specifically for the 2021 and 2022 subway series games. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come back to New York for the subway series this year, and it’s not exactly a tradition I would do with anyone else. Not even because this was supposed to be *our* thing, but I literally don’t know any other Mets or Yankee fans who would be willing to pay subway series ticket prices.

We’ll see if I ever resurrect going to a subway series game as one of my yearly traditions. In the meantime, I won’t mind sparing my wallet — you could probably get tickets to one subway series game for the same cost as three Rays-Yankees games (no, really!).