Sorry Mets Fans

This year's World Series matchup, the realization of every Mets fan's worst nightmare, gave me an idea for an interesting list. Since the teams involved include one of their biggest division rivals, and their hated crosstown rivals, fans of New York's junior team are left with nothing to root for except injuries.

So, the list, of course, is of World Series showdowns involving two teams so despised by the fans of a third team. I decided to only go back as far as the beginning of the division play era (1969), as we all know there would be a very familiar theme if I went back further. Here's what I came up with, in reverse chronological order:

2004 (Boston Red Sox vs. St. Louis Cardinals): OK, so they don't hate the Red Sox, but Cubs fans had nothing to gain when these two teams faced off. They were either going to lose their partners in misery, or see their least favorite team win it all. I have to say that I'm happy for Chicago's north-siders that there's never been a Cardinals-White Sox World Series.

2002 (Anaheim Angels vs. San Francisco Giants): The Giants-Dodgers rivalry was so strong that it traveled 3,000 miles with them as both teams moved across the country in the late '50s. So, it certainly couldn't have made Dodgers fans happy when the Giants matched up with the team they battle with for Southern California supremacy.

1999 & 1996 (Atlanta Braves vs. New York Yankees): Lately, it seems that the Phillies are the team most hated by the Mets, but it used to be the Braves. So, these two teams squaring off in the '90s had to be at least as bad, if not worse, for Mets fans as this year's Phillies-Yankees series.

1988 & 1974 (Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Oakland Athletics): Giants fans probably didn't watch a second of either World Series in which their Bay area rivals opposed the hated Dodgers.

1986 (Boston Red Sox vs. New York Mets): This was to Yankees fans what White Sox-Cardinals would be to Cubs fans. I know from personal experience that the former group wasn't too enthusiastic about this one.

1981, 1978 & 1977 (Los Angeles Dodgers vs. New York Yankees): Back in the days when there were three teams in New York, it seems that just about every year it was either Dodgers fans or Giants fans who were miserable. Thankfully for the Yankees, a Dodgers-Giants World Series matchup was an impossibility.

If I'm missing any, feel free to let me know via comments. Unconventional criteria are encouraged.