As a big fan of the New York Mets, I’m no stranger to disappointment. But I think I speak for plenty of Mets fans when I say that even though we weren’t close to the playoffs this year, we are experiencing a new type of disappointment and anger. The World Series is starting tomorrow night between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.

In other words, we’re going to see our hated division rivals versus our hated cross-town rivals. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for me, my ties as a baseball fan will stop me from turning away from the television all together, so I know I am going to watch the games, and I am going to need to have a team to root for.

As it seemed that our dreaded matchup was going to happen in the previous week, I began contemplating what to do.

How can I actually pick one of these teams to root for? It all comes down to which team I want to lose less.

Maybe I should root for the Yankees — although it’s painful to even type that. From a baseball standpoint, they have been the most complete team this season. They really are strong in every aspect of the game, and I can even respect that they have won so many games this post-season. And no matter how I feel about Alex Rodriguez, he has been nothing short of a star during this year’s playoffs with all of the big hits that he’s had in the two rounds so far. The Yankees really have been “the team” of 2009 and as much as I hate to say it, they probably deserve to be the last team standing. And after all, the Mets and Yankees don’t really play each other either, save for six interleague mid-season games that count the same as a game against the Pirates or Diamondbacks. It’s not like the Yankees really impact us, so why is it so bad to see them win?
While these are fair points, I keep thinking about if I could actually root for the Yankees. Could I really stand another New York media orgy over the Yankees’ winning again? Or having every newspaper, TV station and championship T-shirt shove that the heralded Yankees are champions into my face once again?

I don’t think I could take a winter of hearing it from all their extremely loud, arrogant, bandwagon-jumping (OK, fine, I’ll stop) fans. For the last nine years, there have probably been a million arguments between Yankees and Mets fans, or Yankees fans and any other team, that ended with a Yankee fan yelling, “26!” and smugly thinking that it seals their victory in the debate. I really don’t think I can handle “27!” being the new argument-stopper from arrogant Yankees fans for at least the next six months.

I would have to turn off ESPN for at least a week to avoid “A-Rod is now a true Yankee” and “The Yankees are back” stories every two seconds. Basically, I don’t know if I could stomach the whole thing.

Then there are the Phillies. The National League has gotten a lot of flack in the last few years as the inferior league, so I do root for the league’s representative whenever possible in the World Series. As a purist and hater of the designated hitter rule, I always feel a little better when a National League team takes out the American League representative. And as much as I also hate to admit it, they are good. They made a savvy trade by bringing in Cliff Lee, and their team seems to have a knack for stepping up in the spotlight. One has to look no further than Jimmy Rollins’ game-winning hit in Game 4 of NLCS to help the Phillies seize control of the series. A player such as Rollins, who had a sub-par regular season coming up big when it mattered most, is typical of how the Phillies have played the last two years, whether the players has been stars like Rollins or Cole Hamels or lesser-known players such as Jayson Werth or Shane Victorino. So OK, I do think they probably have been the most clutch team of the last two years and definitely know what it takes to win.

Plus, who doesn’t love to see the Yankees lose? I certainly do. Every non-Yankees fan in America loves to see the Yankees and their mega-payroll fall short of a World Championship once again. I would get to hear Yankees fans complaining on talk radio in New York and hear the YES analysts dissecting where Girardi went wrong and why A-Rod fell short once again. So how about the Philles?

I think about all this and it doesn’t seem so bad. But then I think about Jimmy Rollins and Cole Hamels publicly talking trash about the Mets and our propensity to, ahem, come up short. Without the Phillies, the Mets would have been in the playoffs in 2007 and 2008 and I would be more mentally stable. So how can I root for a team that takes so much pleasure in our heartbreak and directly benefits from it?

And there’s the whole thing with Philadelphia teams doing well. Whether it is the Phillies, Eagles, 76ers or Flyers, I have something against seeing Philly teams win and their fans being happy. I’m a New York guy, so how can I ever root for a team from Philly to win? If the Yankees won, at least it would be a “victory for New York.” I have been cursed at by Philly fans since I was eight years old and wearing Mets apparel to Veterans Stadium — I don’t know if I can be satisfied thinking of thousands of them having another victory parade.

So this has been the debate raging in my head for the last week. I have gone back and forth countless times on which potential champion I could accept more. And I think I have come to my decision. It comes down to this: The Yankees will always be shoved down our throats, Yankees fans will always talk trash and will think of themselves as superior to the Mets and every other professional team.

If the Phillies win, it will not be fun. But in the end, the Mets-Phillies rivalry has been too much of a recent event. If this was 10 years ago, every Mets fan on the planet would count the Braves as the team’s biggest rival.

Rewind a few more years and it was the Cardinals or the Dodgers.

If the Phillies win, it will bother me and other Mets fans for a few months, but the Mets will have another chance to beat the Phillies out of the NL East title in 2010. But a 2009 Yankee Championship won’t be forgotten for way too long.

So I’ve made my decision and I can’t believe I’m putting it in print to be saved for all eternity, but Go Phils.

— Contact Dan Ziment.