GET YOUR TOKENS READY

Starting with the first ever regular season matchup between the Mets and Yankees and ending with the last out of the 2000 Subway Series, Get Your Tokens Ready provides the most in-depth look ever published at both teams during the late 1990s and the 2000 season.

The 1996 season ended with the Yankees winning their first World Series championship in eighteen years and receiving a grand parade through the streets of the city. The Mets exited the season still struggling to maintain managers and quality players and battling controversy in the clubhouse and off-field.

By 2000, the Yankees, amid baseball’s first dynasty in a generation, appeared the undisputed kings of New York with three World Series titles in four seasons. The Mets, however, after years of irrelevance, had rebuilt their team not only to be competitive but to create one dramatic moment after another. Adding to the story were several people who had played or managed for both teams during their careers, most notably Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, David Cone, and Joe Torre. The result was a golden age of baseball for the city, culminating at long last in the two teams finally battling for New York’s baseball soul in the new millennium during the 2000 World Series.

Detailing the moments you remember and some you may have forgotten—from fake mustaches to all-out melees, from wild pitch endings to thrown bat insanity, from heartache to celebration—Get Your Tokens Ready covers it all.

Chris Donnelly is the author of two previous books that take a detailed look at New York City baseball in the late twentieth century: Doc, Donnie, the Kid, and Billy Brawl: How the 1985 Mets and Yankees Fought for New York’s Baseball Soul (Nebraska, 2019) and Road to Nowhere: The Early 1990s Collapse and Rebuild of New York City Baseball (Nebraska, 2023).