If we watched the Mets only when they were in a playoff race, there would have been prolonged blackout periods through the years for ol’ Gary, Keith and Ron.

If we only watched the Yankees when they had a winning team, well, that would be every season since 1992 — but you get the fair-or-foul-weather point.

These baseball teams are our birthrights, our civic pride, our smartphone notifications, our favorite TV shows, the soundtrack of sleepy summer nights.

The Mets let us down, they break our hearts — and still we tune in.

The Yankees drive us nuts, they turn hot Augusts into combustible Octobers — and we keep coming back.

So the doldrums of these past few weeks might depress ratings a bit, might incline us to toggle to the new “Justified” season instead of the middle innings of an odd Wednesday against the Cubs, but there’s still loads of baseball to consume in the coming weeks, regardless of how far the teams slide in the standings.

The main reason we’ll keep the games on is that diehard emotional habit: with-’em since Whitey, hooked since HoJo.

But there are more specific reasons to remain engaged during these dispiriting dog days of 2023. Let’s flip through a few:

The Yankees could make the playoffs. This one’s for the “so you’re telling me there’s a chance” crowd. Yes, Fangraphs projects the chance at a mere 9 percent, trailing in the wild-card race by five games with three teams to jump. Yes, the Yankees are 100-102 in their past 202 games, a definition of mediocrity. Yes, they’ve failed the eye test at every turn. But wilder things have happened for this franchise before. Bucky Dent has an expletive for a middle name because of it.

The final days of Boone and Buck? You figure someone’s losing his job over this Yankees mess, and a ring-less manager with little support among the fan base is a natural candidate. Aaron Boone seems wound miiiiighty tight these days. The September tantrums might be memorable. Buck Showalter’s case is less clear: Mets owner Steve Cohen recently made a point of noting Showalter, 67, has a contract through 2024. But, a new front-office boss (David Stearns is the assumption) could bring along a new manager.

Pete Alonso goes for 50. The Polar Bear is heating up, and is now on pace for 49.7 dingers. He already owns the only 50-homer season in Mets history (53 in 2019). Alonso’s 35 home runs also put him in range of the major league lead, shared by the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani and the Braves’ Matt Olson. The backdrop is Alonso’s free agency after the 2024 season — a power surge can add millions to a potential contract extension or winter arbitration award.

Gerrit Cole chases the Cy Young. Imagine this Yankees season without their ace’s every-fifth-day excellence. Better yet, don’t. Cole (10-3, 2.75 ERA, 160 strikeouts in a league-leading 150 ⅓ innings) can earn his first career Cy Young Award after a pair of runner-up finishes. Recent injuries to the Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi and the Rays’ Shane McClanahan make Cole a big favorite.

Aaron Judge is really good. Judge’s “quiet” 12 games back from a nearly two-month injury absence? He has a .904 OPS. All Rise for tape-measure homers and signs the Yankees captain’s toe is continuing to mend in Year 1 of his nine-year contract.

Francisco Lindor is really good. [“30 for 30” trailer voice] What if I told you … Lindor ranked ninth among MLB position players in bWAR? He’s tracking toward a 30-homer, 25-steal, 35-double season with top-five shortstop defense and 162 games played. He’s a dude.

How low can Luis Severino go? There’s a morbid, can’t-avert-your-eyes quality to Severino’s outings these days. What disastrous rock bottom can the one-time flamethrowing ace find next after posting a 8.06 ERA through 13 starts and one bullpen nightmare? Will he miraculously rebound? When do the Yankees cut bait?

Late-season cups of coffee. There’s no buzz like prospect buzz. Maybe Ronny Mauricio finally joins the rest of the Baby Mets in making his big league debut. Perhaps Mike Vasil gets promoted from Triple-A Syracuse to make a start down the stretch. In The Bronx, keep an eye on the potential arrival of Everson Pereira for a left-field audition.

The Mets’ lottery odds. The silver lining of every Mets loss — there could be four this weekend as the Braves come to town and play a day-night doubleheader on Saturday — is improved chances of landing a “protected” top-six pick in next year’s MLB draft via the newly instituted lottery. This would be a lot more fun if the average baseball fan had any pre-draft interest: Free month of Sports+ if you can name a projected top-ten pick in 2024 (not really).

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“Next up on the DraftKings Sports Minute, can you believe how much money Phil Mickelson bet?”

Mickelson’s reputational transformation from golf’s relatable, baby-kissing, “idiot”-error-making, jumping-for-Masters-joy everyman superstar into a creepy, problem-gambling Saudi client with the occasional magical sand wedge was completed Thursday — if it wasn’t already — with the reveal of the astronomical sums and shocking frequency of Mickelson’s alleged wagering.

According to a new tell-all book by former gambling partner and convicted insider trader Billy Walters, Mickelson:

• Tried to bet $400,000 on the 2012 U.S. Ryder Cup team on which he was playing.

• Bet more than $1 billion on sports over a 30-year period.

• Had an estimated $100 million in gambling losses.

• From 2010-14 alone, risked $110,000 to win $100,000 more than 1,110 times and $220,000 to win $200,000 nearly 900 times.

• Once made 43 baseball bets in one day.

Mickelson denied seeking to make the Ryder Cup bet.

“I never bet on the Ryder Cup. While it is well known that I always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, I would never undermine the integrity of the game,” he said in a statement.

“I have also been very open about my gambling addiction. I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, have gotten help, have been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me and I feel good about where I am now.”

The conversation around conference realignment in college sports has tended to focus on the messiness, the tackiness.

The greed for more and more TV money has silenced the better angels of scholastic sports and traditional regional rivalries.

And that’s all true, especially if something you cherished — say, a Syracuse-UConn basketball game, a Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia — is going by the wayside.

But what if you’re a more neutral sports fan, you like best-on-best games, and something like Oregon-Oregon State (the charmingly nicknamed Civil War) has no added nostalgia?

Don’t you prefer the best matchups, at the most accessible times?

In another (professional) context, the idea of having 50-60-odd teams at the highest level would be laughed away; consolidation would be in order.

Take USC, for example: This fall, the Trojans are set to feature the most interesting football player (Caleb Williams) and men’s basketball player (Bronny James, provided he recovers from a recent cardiac episode) in the country.

Instead of playing this season in the Zombie Pac-12 (or being eligible for the NFL, though that’s a conversation for another day), they could be in a coast-to-coast Big Ten, as USC will be starting in 2024, with more road games at Ohio State and fewer 10 p.m. ET dates with Wazzu.

Having long ago abandoned the pretense of Monday morning’s biology class, that’s not a good thing for most sports fans?

The US women’s national team is out of the World Cup — some of you might have stopped reading right there — on penalty kicks in the Round of 16, accompanied by a strange mixture of regret and delight.

(Surely the anthem-singing of the Giants and Jets is going to be tracked throughout this season…)

I am here to inform you: There’s still a great tournament going on!

Here are the six remaining teams in the field, ranked by their chances of raising the trophy after next Sunday’s final:

1. Spain: Became the first team to reach the semifinals with a thrilling 2-1 win Thursday night over the Netherlands after extra time. The Spaniards brought Alexia Putellas, who’s only the best player in the world, off the bench. Another sub, Salma Paralluelo, scored the winner in the 111th minute. She’s 19 years old.

2. Sweden: Followed up the by-a-millimeter victory over the USA by using every post of the goal to hang on for a 2-1 quarterfinal win over Japan. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, and all that.

3. France: Has the look of a team that’s really starting to put it together. Showed guts in a group-stage win over Brazil and firepower in hanging a combined 10 goals on Panama and Morocco, four of them by Kadidiatou Diani and two by Eugenie Le Sommer. Face host Australia in the next quarterfinal (Saturday, 3 a.m., Fox).

4. England: Gets bonus points for a favorable quarterfinal draw against Colombia (Saturday, 6:30 a.m., Fox), gets demerits for the two-game suspension handed down Thursday to Lauren James, who has been their most influential player to date. Sarina Wiegman is the coach you’d want on your side.

5. Australia: Don’t discount the home-field advantage for the Matildas. Not the most talented roster, but talented enough to win three more games — and they have a potential trump card in megastar striker Sam Kerr, who has been limited to just 11 minutes because of a calf injury.

6. Colombia: What a run so far. A 1-0 win over England via a Linda Caicedo wondergoal doesn’t feel out of the question.

More soccer? More soccer!

The English Premier League returns Friday — as do Spain’s La Liga and France’s Ligue 1; Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A kick off next weekend — with three-time defending champion Manchester City taking on Burnley (3 p.m., USA).

The major plotline figures to be the renewed attempts of Arsenal — fortified by several big-money summer additions — to dethrone City after topping the table for most of last season only to falter in the end.

Liverpool and Manchester United will look to crack that two-team race, and Chelsea — set to sign U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams after discarding U.S. forward Christian Pulisic — will try to rebound from a woeful 12th-place finish. And what will become of Tottenham, as captain Harry Kane has signaled he’s leaving?