OUT WITH THE OLD

The evolution of NY sports

I’M STARTING my 20th year writing a column based in our fair city this month, and just typing that sentence out I am immediately curious what 24-yearold me would have thought about that. Actually, I know what he would have thought: “What the heck took you/me/us so long?”

(NOTE: 24-year-old me didn’t lack for self-confidence.)

There are many things that are remarkably different now than they were in August of 1998, when this journey of a lifetime commenced, things we used to take for granted as forever that now seem quaint, that seem to belong to a different time, a different place, a different planet.

Here are the biggies:

1. Baseball season in New York doesn’t begin until the day after the Knicks are eliminated

from the playoffs. Actually, sadly, this has lately been a non-truth only because the Knicks usually find themselves mathematically eliminated from the postseason sometime in early March — long before baseball season begins.

But back in the day? Forget it. The Knicks were king. The Yankees and the Mets would get their notice on Opening Day and then it was back to the grind, back to another Knicks playoff run that inevitably would absorb (and, always, disappoint) the city. This was an absolute truth in the ’90s. Heck, there were years the Yankees were defending champs and they wouldn’t sniff a back page until Michael Jordan/Reggie Miller/Tim Hardaway Sr. was done torturing the Knicks.

You wonder if it will ever be that way again, even if the Knicks ever do rise from the ashes.

2. “Who owns the town” was a legitimate, and not a laughable, argument between Yankees fans and Mets fans. This was based on history, and fact. Fact: the Jets, Nets, Devils and Islanders had never — ever — usurped the Giants, Knicks and Rangers in terms of sheer numbers and buzz-when-they’re-good. The Mets had done that to the Yankees. Twice, in fact: 1964 through 1975; then 1984 through 1991.

As Casey said: You could look it up.

What the past few years shows us, though, is that 20 years of relentless Yankees dominance paired with spasms of Mets mediocrity (and worse) has forged a permanent underclass in Queens. Yes, in a given year, the bandwagon fans will make enough noise to make you wonder if the Mets are ready to overtake the Yankees, but it’s mostly a mirage. The Yankees have the numbers. It’ll never be 1970 or 1987 again — at least not without something strange happening.

3. Any athlete worth his salt will seek out New York like the holy-grail city we all know it to be. Some athletes do still think that way: Carmelo Anthony craved New York (until Phil Jackson turned it into Siberia with Starbucks for him). Derek Jeter understood right away that New York was a perfect playpen to be young, successful, smart and rich. But athletes know now they don’t need New York. LeBron James became a cultural icon in Cleveland, for goodness’ sake. Bryce Harper may well play in New York soon but it’s not like he needs New York. Really, the modern athlete simply channels Reggie Jackson from back in the day: “I didn’t come to New York to become a star; I brought my star with me.” Though even Reggie eventually discovered that New York in the 1970s was still the only place to be as an athlete. In the 2010s? Not so much.

4. Devils-Rangers has overtaken Islanders-Rangers. In a vacuum — or the absence of even a shred of Islanders competence — this is true, especially since they competed for a conference title only five years ago. But even a relatively modest rise like the one the Isles have enjoyed the last three years has turned Islanders-Rangers games back into the loud, lively backyard brawls they used to be.

And has been enough to leave us wanting more. Much more. 5. St. John’s is a sleeping giant. There’s still time to revive this dusty old belief. But for much of the last 20 years, they’ve merely been fast asleep.