Perhaps negative emotions like spite consume our love for sports too much. “Anyone but Philly” is the clean version of a reply I’ll give to anyone who might ask me, “If it’s not going to be the Mets, who’s it going to be?”

Maybe it’s part short memory, or maybe it’s just the sting that’s created from the Mets holding true to the chorus of one of my favorite songs; “you do it to yourself, just you, you and no one else.”

In other words, the self-inflicted agony that back to back meltdowns created was only amplified by the fact that another team took advantage twice and now have a ring and back to back league championships to show for it.

But then there’s the Braves—the other team that haunted the Mets for about a decade and a half. Yet, to me, they seem rather innocent. They’re not quite likable due to their uniform, but in reality it’s for the most part a young team that aside from their manager and injured third baseman has very little to do with “the old Braves.”

Perhaps you could argue that the Braves are still the Mets biggest rival due to the intensity of the rivalry in the late ’90s, but things certainly have switched towards Phillies/Mets, especially considering the Mets have won a division crown more recently than Atlanta.

So now, with 26 games left and one game separating the two, if you were to ask me what I’m rooting for the answer would be simple…

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