Looks like the Bronx Bombers are winning this early season version of the Subway Series.
A new Quinnipiac University Poll released Monday found 53 percent of adults surveyed are New York Yankees fans compared with just 34 percent who preferred the New York Mets.
Even when you break it down by borough, the Yankees come out on top. Not surprisingly, the largest number of fans — 73 percent of people surveyed — were in the Bronx.
The Mets, who had a less than an amazin year in 2017, grabbed 40 percent of the fans surveyed in Queens. But the Yankees still came out number one with 45 percent.
“This poll shows that, when it comes to baseball, the people of this city know that the Bronx is the place to be,” crowed Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. “I’m looking forward to a big year from the Yankees, as are the majority of baseball fans in every single borough including Queens!”
The results are a reversal of last year, when the Mets narrowly won the poll with 45 percent of people surveyed over 43 percent for the Yankees.
Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said the numbers are not surprising.
“The Yankees are always more popular,” said Malloy. “They have been around longer and they are sort of the gold standard of sports. The Yankees start on second base with everybody because everybody has known them longer.”
Malloy pointed out there is a lot of excitement surrounding the Yankees because of their newer and younger players and prospective “home run firepower,” from Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge.
The Yankees were scheduled to have their home opener on Monday, but it was delayed until Tuesday by the spring snowfall. The Mets’ Monday night home game was postponed as well.
Jose Gil, a 39-year-old bartender who grew up in Jackson Heights and watched his Mets win the World Series back in ’86, was skeptical of the poll numbers
“I think in areas like Flushing, Corona and even like Jackson Heights — areas around the ballpark — it’s all Mets,” said Gil, wearing a Mets cap as he traveled on the No. 7 train. “Maybe in the more gentrified areas like Astoria or Sunnyside you might see more Yankees fans. But I don’t see it.”
Gil conceded the Mets will always be seen as the underdogs to the Yankees and their 27 World Series wins.
“It was a wild feeling when the Mets won. It was Mets all the way in all of Queens,” he said. “I’d like to have that feeling again, hopefully soon.”
Emil Djukanovic, a Queens resident and Yankees fan, said New York City is a “Yankees town.”
He dismissed the idea that the Bronx Bombers’ blockbuster deal for Stanton has spurred a surge in Yankees fandom this year.
“We should be scoring runs consistently. I’d like to see another pitcher before the trade deadline and to see (Masahiro) Tanaka become what he’s supposed to be,” he said. “But I’m feeling great.”
Steve Johnson, a Mets fan from Woodside, said team popularity goes up and down like a seesaw.
“I know around 2006 or so there were lots of Mets fans when they were a really good team,” he said. “But where I live in Queens, I see lots of Mets fans.”
The Mets went into the 2017 season with lots of momentum but that was quickly hobbled by injuries to some of their most popular players, including pitching ace Noah Syndergaard.
“We have fewer injuries, a new [manager] who understands analytics and knows how to use them and has better bullpen management,” Johnson said.
Ron Daniels, a retired maintenance worker for the Port Authority who lives on the Lower East Side, said he grew up a Mets fan but now roots for both teams.
“I’m a New Yorker, buddy. I stick with the New York teams win or lose,” he said, adding that he had high expectations for both the Yanks and the Mets this year.
Of course, he wasn’t surprised that the Yankees rule as the more popular team in 2018.
“It’s always been that way, really,” said Daniels. “They’ve just been around for so much longer and have won so much since the days of the Babe.”
In Manhattan, 47 percent of people surveyed said they were Yankees fans compared to 36 percent who identified as Mets fans. The divide was even wider in Staten Island, where 61 percent of people said they were Yankees fans and 36 percent were Mets fans; and in Brooklyn, where 52 percent were Yankees fans and 35 percent were Mets fans.
The poll surveyed 1,230 New York City adults between March 22 and 27.
It also showed 3 percent of fans surveyed said they prefer the Red Sox over both teams. It wasn’t clear whether that included the city’s best-known Red Sox fan who works on the mayor’s side of City Hall.
