Who are our rivals?

Living in the Philly area, I’ll say that Philly fans really hate the Mets and view the Fish as more of a novelty. I think Marlins fans should go and steal the Braves mascot or something to start a rivalry with Atlanta

is that the two elite teams in the NL East over the next several years will be the Marlins and the Nationals so I predict the Nationals will become our main future rival.

Memories of all those obnoxious Mets and Phillies fans packing JR stadium will linger, of course.

I personally don’t feel much animosity with the Braves fans like I do with the Mets and Phillies. The Mets and Phillies fans always seem like grotesque subhuman toad like freaks while the Braves fans seem almost human.

In terms of Tampa Bay I wish we would start taking this rivalry more seriously because they took 5 out of 6 from us last year.

Otherwise the Cubs are a nice team to beat and the Dodgers fans seemed to be trying to stir something up against us last year. They both have their share of obnoxious fans when they come to play.

It’s kind of hard to hate the braves. Before the marlins all we had was the braves on what was that channel..TBS? I’d say the mets due to the fact their fans have invaded south florida like roaches.

Hear me out.

I like to say that Miami has a rivalry with New York. If you look at it, it is easy to argue the rivalry between the Dolphins and Jets (AFC East, prior to the Pats… man, just ask Marino about this one).

All you have to do is go back to the late 90s to see the rivalry between the Heat and Knicks. Has there been any better since?

And the past few years, knocking the Mets out of the playoffs has been great (and caused much anger from NYM fans).

This is from living in NYC for a few years and seeing it first hand as I always wore a Marlins hat or Dolphins jersey when watching games or walking around the city.

But I must say, the Phillies and Braves are equally as bad.

They aren’t fond of us. We aren’t fond of them. Sparks were flying all last year whenever the two teams faced each other.

But, it’s close.

This is coming from someone who lives surrounded by Phillies fans. While they are…well…Phillies fans, I agree with the person that said that they don’t really take us seriously and they don’t put us on the same level as the Mets and the Braves (despite the fact that we have the best record in the NL East against them over the past three years…)

The Mets certainly have the pains of 2007 and 2008, but they seem to blame it on the Phillies more than the Marlins. They would come in at a close second.

The Nationals are too busy trying to put together a winning season and are really too new to have a real rival. However, the Nationals fans that I know always seem especially keen to rub it in my face whenever they beat the Marlins, probably because we pound them to death on a consistent basis. If they return to respectability, I can see something happening here.

Outside the NL East, I’d say the team we have the biggest spats with are the Cubs. The goat thing this year did not help. Marlins fans constantly shouting “Steve Bartman!” at the Cubs does not help. Series against the Dodgers also seem to be pretty dramatic.

I don’t see anything significant happening with the Rays unless we meet in a World Series.