Shohei Ohtani (left) and Lionel Messi (right) will both be in the NYC area this weekend.
It’s not often that the circles of a Major League Baseball team and a Major League Soccer club intertwine on the Venn Diagram but this weekend will see the New York Mets and New York Red Bulls do just that.
In one weekend, two of the greatest athletes on the planet — two transcendental superstars who have children already preparing the stories that they’ll tell their grandchildren about seeing them play live — will ply their trade for a limited time only in the New York City area.
Los Angeles Angels two-way star, Shohei Ohtani, a player whom the game of baseball has not seen since Babe Ruth, makes his Citi Field debut for a three-game set beginning Friday as the Mets host the AL West side beginning Friday night.
Just over 20 miles west on Saturday night in Harrison, NJ, Lionel Messi — arguably the greatest soccer player of all time — makes his MLS debut with Inter Miami against the Red Bulls where he’ll set the American soccer world ablaze.
Even members of the Red Bulls will have to compose themselves so as to not dawdle in being starstruck.
“It’ll be pretty crazy looking across the field and seeing Messi,” Red Bulls All-Star defender and US international John Tolkin said. “I don’t care how hard it is. That’s just a dream come true. I’m super excited, and I can’t wait. It’s going be super cool.”
Experience aside, the Mets and Red Bulls certainly won’t mind taking in the gate receipts and some of the attention that comes with hosting such monumental talents. But both teams appear to be at a crossroads.
The Mets with their billionaire owner Steve Cohen were once considered the hands-down favorites to sign Ohtani when he hits free agency this winter; his Angels career is all but likely over after another late-summer nosedive that took them out of playoff contention.
But New York’s spectacular failure that was the four months…
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