New York Mets

The New York Mets were created in 1962 to fill the National League void left when the Dodgers and Giants abandoned New York for California. Their inaugural season -- 40 wins and 120 losses under the lovably hapless Casey Stengel -- established the franchise's unlikely brand: a team that would be adored not despite its failures but because of them. The original Mets were so bad they became endearing, and the fan base that formed around them was defined by a scrappy, self-deprecating humor that stood in sharp contrast to the Yankees' imperial grandeur across town.

Then came the Miracle. The 1969 Mets, a team with no business competing, shocked the baseball world by winning 100 games and steamrolling the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. Tom Seaver, the franchise's greatest player, led a pitching staff that turned the lovable losers into legitimate champions. The 1986 championship -- featuring Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry, and the infamous Bill Buckner ground ball in Game 6 -- added another layer of legend, cementing the Mets as the team of miracles and dramatic reversals.

Citi Field, which replaced Shea Stadium in 2009, gives the Mets a modern home in Flushing, Queens, with architectural nods to the beloved Ebbets Field. The Steve Cohen ownership era, beginning in 2020, has transformed the franchise's financial profile, making the Mets one of baseball's biggest spenders and signaling a new era of ambition. The Mets' rivalry with the Yankees -- the Subway Series -- is one of baseball's great cultural divides, splitting New York along lines of class, geography, and temperament. To be a Mets fan is to choose the harder, more interesting path, and the franchise rewards that loyalty with moments of transcendent joy that are all the sweeter for the suffering that precedes them.