Old Boss/New Boss: Mets vs. Phillies

Meaningless hype. Boring games. Inane off-field shenanigans. With every meeting, it looks more and more like the Red Sox-Yankee rivalry has jumped the shark. Old Boss/New Boss is FanHouse's look at some baseball rivalry alternatives.

Old Boss: Mets vs. Braves
New Boss: Mets vs. Phillies

The day that Steve Avery plunked Jose Vizcaino in 1996 after Vizcaino thrust his arms up on the basepaths after a Met home run was the day the Mets/Braves rivalry started to take shape. The rivalry reached new heights after Chipper Jones' "put on your Yankee gear" quote towards Mets fans after the 1999 NLCS where the Braves beat the Mets in six games. Throw in John Rocker and all he stood for, and you had what might have been the nastiest rivalry in sports at that time.

But Mets/Braves has been overtaken by Mets/Phillies, probably for good. Until last season, the Mets and the Phillies have never had a chance to develop a rivalry because the teams had never, ever, been good at the same time. During the times that the Phillies have been good, the Mets have been terrible ... and during the few pockets of time that the Mets have been competitive, the Phillies have been mired in mediocrity. The Mets rivalries have always been forged out of the standings at the time.

Then came Jimmy Rollins' "we're the team to beat" quote, followed by the Mets collapse and the Phillies division title, and Mets/Phillies has been cemented this as the rivalry in this division.

But it isn't so much the players that have created this rivalry as have the fans. Phillie fans now come to Shea Stadium in numbers that match the ones that Met fans reach when they go the other way ... and fights in the stands have reached numbers that are starting approach the number of fights in the stands during Dolphins/Jets game at the Meadowlands (and that's pretty high). And considering the fact that both teams feature fan bases from the robust and "in your face" northeast corridor, don't expect that number to wane ... and don't expect this rivalry to calm down anytime soon.

Mets/Braves will always be there, if perhaps not to the point it was around the turn of the century ... especially after Chipper retires. And Mets/Marlins could be a darkhorse candidate for a nasty rivalry, especially if Hanley Ramirez feels the same way about the Mets that he did last September (and if the rest of the Marlins share his sentiment). Plus, with the amount of transplanted New Yorkers in Miami, some of that envy could spill into the stands as well.

But when it comes to drama and sizzle, nothing tops Mets/Phillies in this division.