I’m a long-suffering New York Mets fan who, like Mets fans everywhere, has had to endure the slings and arrows of Yankees fans throughout the ages.

Year after year, my colleagues, almost ALL of whom are diehard Yankees’ fans, have taken great joy in dissing the Mets as the Bronx Bombers enjoyed one World Series win after another (while the lowly Metropolitans plodded their way through yet another last-place finish).

Now, though, these long-time Yankees lovers and Mets antagonists are not only eagerly reporting their attendance at memorable Mets play-off games, but crowing enthusiastically on the rare occasions when they have a first-hand sighting of a Mets player.

One die-hard Yankees fan is actually waxing poetic about “his” Mets.

I find the whole thing both disturbing and, sadly, unsurprising. We live in a world where winning is everything and loyalty is about as common as a horse-and-buggy.

Regardless of the Mets fate in the upcoming Series, I guarantee these 21st Century Sunshine Patriots will drop the Mets as soon as they turn in a poor season and “their” Yankees return to some semblance of their former glory.

One final note of transparency: As a dedicated devotee of the Mets I have, on many occasions, dissed the squad’s abysmal performance over the past decade. But, I never, ever switched allegiance to the hated Bombers or began referring to them as “My Yankees.”

I must say I find the whole thing a bit distasteful, and wonder what Thomas Paine would say were he alive today (actually, that’s a no-brainier since the odds are great he’d either be a Phillies or Bosox fan since New York was little more than a tiny seaport village in his day).