The subject cleared its throat early this time. This was a Sunday in the middle of March, and the Mets had just beaten the Yankees in Port St. Lucie, and the big stories of the day were about three players who had ended the 2014 season on the sidelines.

Matt Harvey had pitched perhaps his best outing of the spring to date, throwing easy gas and not allowing a run. CC Sabathia had ticked 94 on the radar gun, and while he had allowed three home runs, he was delighted with the way the ball came out of his hands.

David Wright had hit one of those homers. A crowd stood around his locker, and Wright answered the usual questions, his shoulder felt great, his swing was coming around, it was good to get some lift to the opposite field, as it seemed so many of his blasts in the old days had. The crowd was about to disperse. One last question.

“So,” a voice asked, “does this mean you guys own New York now?”

It was a joke, meant as a joke, Wright took it as a joke, smiled, said, “It’s March!”

To which someone asked: “What if you win Wednesday?”

Well, the Mets did win that Wednesday, and convincingly, and there wasn’t one soul who believed it affected the balance of power in New York one bit, not in March. But for the first time in at least nine years, maybe longer, Mets fans truly can engage in the subject with a straight face, at least as it pertains to the next few years, if not the next few months.

And that’s perhaps the best part about the hope that swirls around the Mets now, and the uncertainty that shadows the Yankees. The Mets have some work to do, of course. New York is a Yankees town, has been a Yankees town virtually unchallenged since 1993. A few wins in March won’t change that. Winning more games this year — if that happens — won’t change that.

But here’s the thing we know about baseball: It can change.

This isn’t football, where even when the Jets were Super Bowl champions, they were the No. 2 team in town in both perception and in fiscal reality, where in most years the margin isn’t even all that close. This isn’t hockey, where the Rangers have won one Stanley Cup since sharing the market starting in 1973 compared to seven for the other two teams, and yet never have been threatened by either the Devils or the Islanders as the No. 1 team. This isn’t basketball, where even in a year when the Knicks are laying down like tomato cans night after night, the Nets can’t eat into their popularity.

The Giants, Rangers and Knicks have run unchallenged their entire existences. It isn’t ever likely to change.

That’s simply not how it is in baseball in New York City — or was, anyway. The Mets out-drew the Yankees in every season from 1964 through 1975, even though the first five of those years, the Mets never rose above ninth place. The Yankees seized control in 1976, when a refurbished Yankee Stadium opened and the Mets toppled to the very fringes of credibility, and it stayed that way until 1983.

From 1984 through 1992, it was a Mets town again, as never before; by 1990, the Mets out-drew the Yankees by more than 700,000 fans. So there is history here: The Mets have owned the town before, and for significant stretches at a time. Just not in a long, long time. Not since ’93. They came close in 2006. Didn’t happen.

And it won’t happen in 2015, either. But if it is ever going to happen again, it will begin this year. If it is ever going to happen, it will be because Matt Harvey gives the Mets a serious Citi Field attendance bump every fifth day (the way Tom Seaver did in the ’70s, the way Dwight Gooden did in the ’80s, and in a way Matt Harvey didn’t do in 2013, despite the buzz he brought to the ballpark every day).

It will be because the Mets learn how to win early, because they stay in contention through Labor Day, because they learn, especially, how to win at Citi, which has been about as welcoming a home as the house in Amityville was for the Lutz family. It will be because Wright is a star again, and Granderson is a star again, and Michael Cuddyer becomes the kind of smart free-agent signing the Mets haven’t had since Carlos Beltran.

And, of course, it will mean the Yankees suffer a third straight season out of the playoffs. And that, of course, is where the Yankees can halt the momentum. Because it may be time for the Yankees to catch a break health-wise: That would mean 30 starts apiece from Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and Sabathia, with a summer return from a back-to-form Ivan Nova. It would mean the majors’ best bullpen acting the part, rather than the shaky way it’s looked in spring.

And it would mean some bounce-back performances up and down the batting order. Put it this way: If Alex Rodriguez is the Yankees’ third-best player this year, that might be a good sign for A-Rod. But it’ll mean another year got away from them.

Another year where we might step closer to a transfer of power. If you’re the Mets, you have to ask two things: Why not? And also: If not now, when?