Mets' Pete Alonso thinks ahead to possible Subway Series against Yankees, saying `It'd be sick'

NEW YORK (AP) — After listening to Yankees fans rail at Juan Soto for two days, New York Mets star Pete Alonso thought about the possibility of a Subway Series this October.

“It'd be electric," he said following the Mets' 3-2 win Saturday. “Any chance we can avoid the Van Wyck, that’d be great.”

Alonso would love the chance to play an environmentally friendly World Series entirely in New York and avoid the perpetually congested expressway leading to John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Subway Series spark memories of Don Larsen's perfect game, clutch catches by Al Gionfriddo and Sandy Amoros, and David Cone coming out of the bullpen to retire Mike Piazza. With the Mets and Yankees leading their divisions a quarter of the way through the regular season, there's a chance of the first Subway Series since 2000 but a long way to go.

Even for a regular-season meeting on a Saturday afternoon, the sellout crowd of 47,510 at Yankee Stadium was amped up — especially when booing Soto, who helped the Yankees reach the World Series last year and then bolted across town for a record $765 million, 15-year contract with the Mets.

“Typically I do a pretty good job of blocking the noise out,” Yankees pitcher Clarke Schmidt said. “There was a time where he was up I had to turn up the PitchCom because it was tough to hear.”

Winners of a record 27 titles but none since 2009, the Yankees lead the AL East at 26-19. The Mets, boosted by hedge fund owner Steve Cohen's fortune, top the NL East at 29-17 as they seek their third championship and first since 1986.

Last year, the Mets lost in the National League Championship Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who beat the Yankees in the World Series. While there were 13 Subway Series from 1921-56 — six between the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers and seven between Yankees and New York Giants — there has been only one since.

“It'd be sick,” Alonso said. “That’d be probably the best postseason matchup ever because you don’t have to go on the road. You have seven home games. ... You don’t have to worry about dealing with all the great wall of traffic out of JFK.”

A day after the Yankees won the opener of six regular-season meetings 6-2, Francisco Lindor's ninth-inning sacrifice fly off Fernando Cruz broke a 2-all tie and Edwin Díaz ended the game by getting Aaron Judge to swing over a 98.6 mph full-count fastball. A runner on each team was thrown at the plate, and an umpire interference call on himself by James Jean negated a Yankees double steal.

“That’s what you call a big league game, big league matchup. Every pitch was intense, every play," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “That's what you pay for, to come and watch a big league game when you got two teams with a lot of superstars.”

Soto went 1 for 4 with a walk and is 1 for 6 with four walks in his first two games back in the Bronx, booed noisily each time he walked to the plate or touched the ball defensively. He threw some shade two pitches into his first at-bat Saturday — he tossed his mirrored sunglasses on a perfect spring afternoon, deciding he'd see better without them.

Soto tipped his helmet to the crowd before his first plate appearance Friday and provided another moment of levity in the fifth inning Saturday when he shook a “no” to Schmidt after the pitcher started to the dugout following a 2-2 knuckle-curve at the low, outside corner. Jean called ball three, and Soto wound up walking.

“I thought out of the hand it was a ball and it was a ball,” Schmidt said.

Consistent throughout the season, the Mets are the only team that hasn't had a three-game losing streak. And while players and staff are focused on the next game, fans have the luxury to dream ahead to a 15th Subway Series.

“I’m sure,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, “it would be pretty cool.”

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New York Mets catcher Luis Torrens (13) and pitcher Edwin Díaz (39) celebrate after defeating the New York Yankees following a baseball game, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

New York Mets' Brett Baty (7) reacts after being tagged out by New York Yankees catcher J.C. Escarra at home plate during the seventh inning of a baseball game, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) scores a run against the New York Yankees during the fourth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

New York Mets' Pete Alonso (20) hits an RBI single scoring Francisco Lindor during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

New York Mets pitcher Edwin Díaz (39) reacts after striking out New York Yankees' Aaron Judge to close out the ninth inning of a baseball game, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has made an American takeover of Greenland a focus of his second term in the White House, calling it a national security priority while repeating false claims about the strategic Arctic island.

In recent comments, he has floated using military force as an option to take control of Greenland. He has said if the U.S. does not acquire the island, which is a self-governing territory of NATO ally Denmark, then it will fall into Chinese or Russian hands.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

TRUMP, discussing the security situation in the Arctic: “We need that because if you take a look outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place. We’re not gonna have Russia or China occupy Greenland, and that’s what they’re going to do if we don’t."

THE FACTS: Experts have repeatedly rebuffed Trump's claims of Chinese and Russian military forces lurking off Greenland's coastline. Experts say Russia instead operates in the Barents Sea, off the Scandinavian coast, and both China and Russia have a presence in the Bering Sea south of Alaska.

“That statement makes no sense in terms of facts,” said Andreas Østhagen, research director for Arctic and ocean politics at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo, Norway. “There are no Russian and Chinese ships all over the place around Greenland. Russia and/or China has no capacity to occupy Greenland or to take control over Greenland.”

“The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,” Lars Vintner, a heating engineer told The Associated Press in Greenland's capital Nuuk. He said he frequently goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships. Another Greenlander, Hans Nørgaard, told AP that Trump's claims are “fantasy.”

Lin Mortensgaard, an expert on the international politics of the Arctic at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said that while there are probably Russian submarines — as there are across the vast Arctic region — near Greenland, there are no surface vessels.

China has research vessels in the Central Arctic Ocean, and while the Chinese and Russian militaries have done joint exercises in the Arctic, they have taken place closer to Alaska, she said.

Asked about Trump’s claim that there are multiple Chinese and Russian ships and submarines around the island, Greenland business minister Naaja Nathanielsen responded Tuesday: "Not that we are aware of."

While Russia and China have an interest in the Arctic, “we don’t detect an actual threat," she said.

“America is still recognized as quite a big superpower,” Nathanielsen added, “and I don’t see any appetite from Russia or China to destabilize this.”

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TRUMP, discussing Denmark's defenses in Greenland: "You know what their defense is? Two dog sleds."

THE FACTS: The Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness, is stationed in Greenland.

It's a key part of the Danish military infrastructure in the inhospitable Arctic terrain, experts say.

“Remember, transportation of the area is either by sea or by air. There are no highways,” said Steven Lamy, an international relations professor and Arctic security expert at the University of Southern California. “You can't basically get in a car or a Bradley vehicle or tank or anything and go up there. So they have dog sleds.”

In addition to these special elite forces, Denmark has several surface patrol ships and surveillance aircraft and the kingdom is moving to further strengthen its military presence around Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic. Last year, the government announced a roughly 14.6 billion-kroner ($2.3 billion) agreement with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, another self-governing territory of Denmark, to “improve capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty in the region.”

The plan includes three new Arctic naval vessels, two additional long-range surveillance drones and satellite capacity.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command is headquartered in Nuuk, the capital, and tasked with the “surveillance, assertion of sovereignty and military defense of Greenland and the Faroe Islands,” according to its website. It has smaller satellite stations across the island. Greenland also guards part of what is known as the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) Gap, where NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic.

The U.S. Department of Defense also operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, which was built after the U.S. and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Treaty in 1951. It supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.

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TRUMP, discussing why Greenland is part of the Danish kingdom: “The fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land. I’m sure we had lots of boats go there also.”

THE FACTS: The first humans arrived in northern Greenland circa 2,500 B.C., traveling from what is now Canada after the narrow strait separating the island from North America froze over. The Norse explorer Erik the Red arrived circa A.D. 985 with a fleet of Viking ships, according to the medieval Icelandic sagas.

In 1721, Lutheran missionary Hans Egede arrived in Greenland and ultimately began efforts to convert the Indigenous people to Christianity, marking the start of Denmark’s modern colonization of Greenland, which formally became a Danish colony in 1814. The U.S. government recognized Denmark’s right to the whole of Greenland more than a century later.

“It’s the same logic about the U.S. and sovereignty, right? You have a couple of boats arriving from Europe and now you own the United States of America,” said Østhagen, of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute. “The Indigenous population was there before you guys."

In 2009, Greenland became a self-governing country within the Danish kingdom. The island has a right to independence when requested by local voters.

International law has developed over the centuries, pivoting from land-grabbing colonial powers to modern-day treaties honoring borders largely developed after World War II.

Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher and Arctic security expert at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said postwar it has remained important, especially to the U.S., for countries to refrain from exerting power over other territories.

“We shouldn’t just grab and go to war,” he said. “Rather, it should be peoples who have their self-determination.”

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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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Dazio reported from Berlin and Zhang reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

FILE - Coloured houses covered by snow are seen from the sea in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

FILE - Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance tour the U.S. military's Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, March 28, 2025. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP, File)

Pituffik Space Base is pictured as Vice President JD Vance visits, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Greenland. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP)

Houses covered by snow are seen on the coast of a sea inlet of Nuuk, Greenland, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)