How To Get A Piece Of The Mets Yankees Rivalry

New Yorkers and baseball fans will be tuning in when the Mets face the Yankees this weekend. Want to own a piece of history? If you’re a New York sports fan, the upcoming 2008 off-season will be a bonanza for you.

With the Yankees and the Mets both moving to gleaming new homes adjacent to their current stadiums for the start of the 2009 season, there’ll be opportunities galore to buy up seats, bricks, dirt, and supposedly even urinals for that special home bar or lounge.

Both Shea and Yankee stadiums are owned by the city and will be auctioned off this winter, legendary piece by legendary piece. John Gallagher, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office said that plans are currently in the works for the auction.

“We’re working closely with both organizations to come up with a plan to sell items as memorabilia,” Gallagher said, but could offer no further details as the said plans are still being negotiated. Officials at both ball clubs referred questions about the auction back to City Hall.

Rumors that the Mets and Yankees were in secret talks with the city to buy their stadiums back in order to maximize on profits at auction, first reported by the NY Post last month, couldn’t be confirmed.

The vacuum of information about what exactly will be sold—and how and by whom—is likely the cause of the fervent speculation among fans of both teams. Two die hard Yankee fans insisted at a recent game that they had heard about the urinals were being sold. Neither, however, seemed interested in buying, regardless of the asking price. But how good an investment is snapping up bits of the venues where Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle or (for Mets fans) Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, and Keith Hernandez made their names?