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It's definitely a rivalry. Just asked the fans of each team. I wouldn't put it ahead of Yankees-Red Sox but it's pretty close to the level of the Giants-Dodgers rivalry.
Do you think you can just point to two teams and say "You're a rivalry"? It's getting very tiresome to have MLB and the media dictating these kinds of things. It's like the Mariners and Diamondbacks being appointed "rivalries" for interleague play, because they were left over after all the more natural "rivalries" had been paired off.
There's never been a rivalry between the Cubs and Cardinals, until the media whipped one up. In 1954, at Wrigley Field, the three smallest attendance figures for the season were all against the Cardinals. The first MLB game I ever saw was the Cubs in St. Louis in 1949, the attendance was 10,996, the ninth smallest gates of the season, and two more of those nine were against the Cubs. (By the way, the time of that game was 97 minutes.) In the 60 years since, there have only been a couple of seasons in which both the Cubs and the Cardinals were still contenders going into September.
Nobody in Chicago or St. Louis gave a crap about each other, until the media (for its own handsome profit) appointed them as a rivalry. Missouri doesn't even play Illinois in college football.
I am pretty sure people in Philly and NY (well at least the Mets fans in NYC) know there is a rivalry. These teams dont like each other and to me there is extra interest and pleasure when we beat them (down or up year for either side).
A lot has to do with proximity and many times comingling of fans in the middle.
Phily and NYC are kind of natural rival in any sports (cities seperated by 46 miles and suburbs overlapping)
Eagles vs Giants - - to me even more hatred than Phils/Mutts
Phillies vs Mets
Flyers vs Rangers (or Devil for that matter, not much Islanders)
Sixers vs Knicks (Nets to lessor extent)
There is a prett stong sports rivalry between NYC and Philly (similar to Boston in many ways
for me
I hate the Celtics (Prob more than the Knicks) and Bruins (less than the Rangers)
but these strong ruited division and proximity rivals. The same doesnt exist with DC for whatever reason. For example as much as I dislike the Skins; The Giants and Cowboys are far more hated in Philly. And the Nats, Caps, and Bullets (or whatever they are these days) are just not the same as NYC (or even Boston teams)
Short anser is there is a rivalry, at least in these markets, probably not the national draw
Plus remember that fans from the respective teams will many times flood the others stadium for non important games
Rivalries in sports are like nicknames in sports...they have to just sort of emerge on their own and capture the fancy of the public. Yankees-Red Sox, Giants -Dodgers and Cards-Cubs have been the rivalries which have caught on in the public's imagination, but not so Phillies-Mets.
You cannot manufacture that feeling, though sometimes it is attempted. After the 49ers won their first Superbowl, the San Francisco Chronicle got it into its head that Joe Montana needed a nickname. To that end they sponsored a contest and when it was completed, they announced that the winner was "Big Sky." So now the QB was Joe "Big Sky" Montana, except that absolutely no one ever called him that.
No, the rivalry is dead because both teams suck the last 2-3 years.
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