2001 To Present: The Rivalry Cools
Twice during the 2001 season, the rivalry saw peace. The Mets opened the 2001 season playing the Braves at Turner Field. When the Mets walked into their clubhouse prior to their workout before opening day, officials at the stadium greeted them by writing on the clubhouse message board: "Welcome to the National League champion New York Mets." A week later, the Mets hosted the Braves at Shea Stadium when they raised their 2000 National League Champions banner. During pre-game festivities on September 21, 2001 at Shea Stadium, both the Braves and Mets paused to remember the victims of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington ten days before. This was the first professional sporting event held in New York since the attacks. With the Mets down 2-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Piazza hit a two-run home run to help the Mets win. The significance of his spirit-lifting home run has been cited as one of the greatest moments in Major League Baseball history.
In 2003, the Mets signed legendary Braves pitcher Tom Glavine for four years, $42.5 million. Glavine had poor success in his first year with the team, but did help the Mets reach the 2006 NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals where they fell in the 7th game. Towards the end of his tenure with the Mets, Glavine started to make grumblings about signing with them and not staying in Atlanta. In his final appearance as a met on the last day of the 2007 New York Mets season, Glavine would give up 7 runs in the first inning of a loss to the Florida Marlins. This would cause the Mets to lose the game and the division to the Philadelphia Phillies, forcing them to miss a playoff spot despite being in first place by 7 games as late as September. Glavine would leave the Mets following that season back for the Braves. The Braves collapsed in a similar way in 2011, for the National League Wild Card, blowing a 8 1⁄2 lead for the National League Wild Card in September and losing the wild card by one game to the eventual champion St. Louis Cardinals.
In 2004, Chipper Jones named his child "Shea" after the Mets' home Shea Stadium, citing his great success and memories of playing there.
Read more about this topic: Braves–Mets Rivalry
Famous quotes containing the words rivalry and/or cools:
“It seems to me that we have to draw the line in sibling rivalry whenever rivalry goes out of bounds into destructive behavior of a physical or verbal kind. The principle needs to be this: Whatever the reasons for your feelings you will have to find civilized solutions.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“Genius is the naturalist or geographer of the supersensible regions, and draws their map; and, by acquainting us with new fields of activity, cools our affection for the old. These are at once accepted as the reality, of which the world we have conversed with is the show.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)