#Subway Series between Yankees, Mets could get wacky

We’ve witnessed multi-stadium Subway Series and multi-nightmare Subway Series (looking at you, Luis Castillo), one-off Subway Series and a Subway World Series.

What they’re discussing for next weekend, and what wouldn’t surprise as long as the coronavirus doesn’t get in the way again, is something so very 2020.

A super-size Subway Series.

“[We] could end up having a couple of doubleheaders next weekend,” Aaron Boone said Sunday, as his Yankees worked out for a second straight day at Yankee Stadium thanks to the Mets’ two COVID cases postponing the weekend’s Yankees-Mets matchup at Citi Field. “[With Monday] out of the equation, that would’ve been nice to get one or even two of these games in [Monday]. … There could be at least one, if not two, doubleheaders potentially next weekend.”

Five games in three days. Wow. It would be labor-intensive. It should be fun. It could be highly impactful for both New York ball clubs.

Indications Sunday evening were that the Mets, having quarantined since Thursday when they learned of their misfortune while in Miami, had avoided further setbacks, their entire traveling party testing negative through three-plus days of intake, and there was talk of holding a workout Monday at Citi Field before returning to action Tuesday against the Marlins at home. With the Marlins in town for three days, one of those will feature a twin-bill to make up for the game they lost Thursday night in Miami; the Marlins would bat last in that additional contest.

Throw in two more double shifts against the Yankees — the series is scheduled to take place at Yankee Stadium, although the absence of paying customers means one day could be held at Citi with minimal adjustments — and that would give the Mets three doubleheaders in a week, quite a strain on their roster and pitching staff in particular. The counter to that is, it’s 2020. The Cardinals, who suffered a COVID outbreak that kept them out of action for over two weeks, played three doubleheaders in a span of five days Aug. 15-19 as they attempt to play the full, 60-game schedule. You have the rosters expanded to 28, plus a 29th guy activated for doubleheaders, to deal with this.

And the doubleheaders, as the Mets have yet to experience first-hand, feature seven-inning games, the best innovation to baseball since someone put the bases 90 feet apart. The Yankees have played in two of them, all four games lasting under three hours. Glorious. Manageable.

“I’m excited,” Aaron Judge, who expects to be activated for the Yankees’ next game Tuesday, said when asked about an action-packed weekend. “If you’re swinging the bat well, doubleheaders are the best thing to a ballplayer. … I’m looking forward first to getting through the games in Atlanta and then back home against the Mets.”

If the Subway Series has lost a great deal of its electricity since the early days of Roger Clemens, Derek Jeter and Joe Torre taking on Al Leiter, Mike Piazza and Bobby Valentine, it still serves as a meaningful stop on the baseball calendar, one that withstood the pandemic’s regionalization of the schedule only to take a hit from the actual disease. And in this abbreviated campaign, both teams aiming high while suffering their share of the industry’s injury epidemic while the Mets saw both Yoenis Cespedes and Marcus Stroman opt out.

So we’ll get just one weekend of it instead of two, the final makeup(s) likely to come during a mutual off day, barring more COVID turbulence. Sunday very well could bring us a matchup of new Yankee Gerrit Cole against old Met Jacob deGrom.

Here’s rooting for the super-sized event next weekend. Why not? Anything goes for this wacky campaign. This city has earned the right to gorge on the local rivalry for a few days.