New York Yankees fans were in unfamiliar territory when a superstar chose the crosstown rival Mets over their favorite team.
Juan Soto signed a 15-year, $765 million deal, the most lucrative in sports history, with the Mets this offseason after helping the Yankees to the World Series in his lone season with the club last year.
While some Yankees fans have favored Soto’s departure because it allowed the team to bring on more players with the money it saved, plenty of fans are still upset about it.
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During the Yankees’ game Thursday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, fans randomly began chanting, “F— Juan Soto.”
The Mets have long been called the Yankees’ little brother, but Michael Kay, the Yanks’ play-by-play announcer, said the roles were reversed with those chants.
“We hear this silly banter back and forth about big brother, little brother. You know what that was yesterday, everybody? I hate to say it, and you’re not gonna like it. That was little brother nonsense,” Kay said on his radio show Friday afternoon, which is broadcast on the Mets’ flagship radio station.
“Why are you chanting about Juan Soto? Your team is winning. And that’s what you’re coming up with? You kind of should be a little bit embarrassed.
“Shame on all of you. Really, shame on all of you. It’s such an awful tiny look. … You are still big brother. The Mets haven’t won anything. They won a bidding war for Juan Soto. They haven’t won a championship since 1986,” Kay added. “It’s been 39 years since they won a title, and you’re chanting ‘bleep Juan Soto?’ I don’t get it.
“Color me confused. I don’t get it, and it’s a bad look. It’s a bad, bad look. … I think it’s an awful, awful look by all of you. All of you! And I would have addressed it yesterday if I actually heard it through my headphones.”
Soto made his home debut with the Mets Friday and went 1-for-4 with an RBI double. It’s been a bit of a slower start for the outfielder, who’s hitting .240 in his first seven games.
It’s not uncommon for Yankees fans to also chant similarly against Jose Altuve, who has been public enemy No. 1 since the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal in 2017.
Altuve beat Aaron Judge, then a rookie, for the AL MVP, while the Astros beat the Yankees in the ALCS in seven games that year. Two years later, Altuve hit a walk-off homer against the Yanks to again win the pennant, but his hesitance to have his shirt taken off has led to unproven speculation he was wearing some sort of device during the at-bat.
Soto will return to the Bronx for a game between the Mets and Yankees May 16.
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