There is so much more at stake for these Yankees — who are out of excuses

As Cam Schlittler wrapped up his pre-Game 1 news conference at Yankee Stadium, David Stearns took the microphone at Citi Field for a year-end meeting with reporters.

It was 10 miles and a world apart.

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The Mets’ humiliation these past two seasons is a reminder that you can have New York and a goliath payroll and still get it wrong. It accentuates that what the Yankees have done since the mid-1990s, even in this fallow period for championships, is remarkable. To be relentless, high-level contenders not only year after year but for decades is an achievement.

It is better to be the Patrick Ewing Knicks and get close than to experience the desert of the subsequent two decades. Of course, it is best to be the current Knicks, who last season maximized a return to prominence with a title.