The New York Yankees will play the Kansas Royals in the postseason for the first time in 44 years when they meet in the ALDS. It's set to be such a big showdown, that it may cause a rift between the quarterback of the defending NFL champion Kansas City Chiefs and a teammate he once won a Super Bowl with.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes mocked his former teammate Gherig Dieter for his Yankees fandom on Thursday. Dieter played wide receiver for Kansas City from 2017-2021 and helped the Chiefs win Super Bowl LIV in February 2020. Mahomes, who is a part owner of the Royals, was asked if he would supply tickets for the games set to be played in Kansas City to Dieter, who is a known Yankees fan, during the Chiefs' team press conference on Thursday.
"I'll let him be there because when we hopefully win, I'll get to talk trash," Mahomes answered. "He's a big Yankees fan, I think if the Yankees lost this series, he might have to move cities. So let's see if we can do that for him."
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Mahomes purchased an ownership stake in the Royals in July 2020, just months after winning Super Bowl LIV with Dieter and signing a 10-year, $500 million contract extension with the Chiefs. Mahomes himself was once a pro baseball prospect before committing to football and his father, Patrick Mahomes Sr., played in the major leagues.
Mahomes Sr. famously had some of his best seasons in New York, but with the Mets in 1999 and 2000. He went 8–0 in the 1999 season during 39 relief appearances, and helped the Mets reach the playoffs. In 2000, he helped the Mets get back to the playoffs and eventually reach the World Series, where they lost to the Yankees 4-1. He did not play in that series, as he was left off the team's World Series roster.
The younger Mahomes was just 6 years old when his dad's team lost team lost to the Yankees in that World Series, and there are multiple photos of him as a child shagging balls and running around the Shea Stadium grass before games.
The 2000 Subway Series is considered one of the most painful losses in Mets history. Players on that year's roster have pubically spoken about the frustration of losing that series to the crosstown rival who had already won three championships in the past four years at that point. Those players include star catcher Mike Piazza and third baseman Todd Zeile.
"I really remember hating seeing the Yankees celebrate on our field," Zeile told the Bergen Record in October 2020.
That Yankees were also the last MLB team to win three straight championships. Since then, the Los Angeles Lakers are the only North American pro sports franchise to have won three straight titles, from 2000 to 2002. Now, Mahomes has the Chiefs in position to join that club and put the Yankees further behind in that category this year. The two-time defending champion Chiefs are undefeated as they look to win their third Super Bowl in a row and fourth under Mahomes. No NFL team in the Super Bowl era has ever won three straight.
One of the biggest reasons Mahomes is in position to do that for the Chiefs this year is because of advice he ignored from a former Yankees superstar as a young man. Before Mahomes reached football stardom, he has said baseball was his first love as a sport after watching his father play it. Former Yankees MVP Alex Rodriguez said he tried to strongly convince Mahomes to choose baseball over football in the past.
"I said, ‘Now listen to me, if you don’t hear one thing that I ever tell you, you better listen to this, 'There is no money, there is no future, there is no history in football. You have to play baseball!’ Well, he reminded me of that recently and, boy, am I glad he did not listen to me," Rodriguez said in an interview with Omnisport in November 2018, when Mahomes was in the midst of his first NFL MVP campaign.
However, Mahomes has taken positive influences from the Yankees as well.
A year after losing the World Series to the Yankees, Mahomes Sr. brought his son a signed photograph of former Yankees captain Derek Jeter when the father was playing for the Texas Rangers. Mahomes and Jeter spoke about this in an interview on FOX's NFL coverage last September.
But now, as the Yankees and Royals are set to renew their historic rivalry, Mahomes has taken a firm side.
The two teams will play their first game of the series on Saturday night at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx. The series will shift to Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City next Wednesday for Game 3.
Mahomes and Dieter may be there.
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