Yankees feeling just dandy

That the series was a contest between the two New York teams in itself was history - it was the first time a so-called ''Subway Series'' had been contested in 44 years. And it fired up the citizenry like no other time in recent years. Yet there was none of the sectarian rivalry that has marred Celtic v Rangers or London derbies in the past. Mets and Yankees fans mingled in the bars and on the streets. Their ribbing was good natured.

Many of the players grew up in the area declaring at an early age an allegiance to one team or the other. But since the Mets entered the National League only in 1962 it's not a lengthy history. The respective managers, Joe Torre of the Yankees and the Mets' Bobby Valentine, played in the same line-up with the Mets back in 1977.

Along the streets of New York, stockbrokers wore their Mets or Yankees caps with their pin-stripe suits. Families were split. Entre-preneurs were at work too. At a vacant building site on 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, a man sold Subway Series memorabilia having apparently leased the site for two weeks.

The significance of the Subway Series was the topic of conversation at Manhattan office buildings and factories in the Bronx. The New York Times ran a banner announcing each game result on top of the masthead which is unprecedented in the paper's history.

''My wife is cheering for the Yankees seeing as she is from the Bronx,'' my friend Phil told me a few hours before the fifth and final game was played, ''and I am rooting for the Mets just to make things interesting around the dinner table. I think the Mets will win another game or two though.''

Sorry Phil, the Yankees were a team destined to make history with their key plays in critical situations. Luis Sojo, Derek Jeter, who was selected as the series' Most Valuable Player, and the 37-year-old Paul O'Neill hit when they were most needed, lifting the spirits of the Yankees who to a man admitted this was by far the toughest post-season series they have ever been involved in. With upwards of 55,000 New Yorkers screaming at them each night they came through under pressure.

Of course, most New Yorkers could only watch the games on television. Tickets to both Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium were less than scarce. Half of the available tickets were sold to season ticket holders - both Yankees and Mets fans - with a great number allotted for corporate sponsors who used them as leverage with clients or to a lesser extent as employee rewards.

Then there was the celebrity factor. Celebrities seem to always get their hands on tickets ahead of the fans who have been with the team all season. As suspected, an allotment is put aside for these people. There was Billy Crystal, Alec Baldwin, Richard Gere, Smokin' Joe Frazier and many others seated in the front row night after night providing Fox Television with great pictures.

The Americans know how to put on a show. Their habit of choosing celebrity national anthem singers continued with the boy band n-Sync, Marc Anthony and Sheryl Crow all having a go. To add to the patriotism as if to underscore the significance of baseball to the American psyche, five sailors from the USS Cole were paraded before the crowd before Game 4 to a cacophony of cheers.

Outside the stadium touts worked the crowd. Four tickets sold for up to $5200 a game according to newspaper reports. Others found more cunning means to enter the stadium. Three men were arrested at Shea Stadium after they tried to sell two undercover policemen fake press passes. They were charging $100 per person, escorting them inside the stadium, then taking back the passes and approaching some other desperate fan all over again. Police recovered a pile of fake passes and more than $1500 in cash inside their vehicle.

From a television perspective, the Fox Television Network seemed pleased with their investment although the ratings - 12% of the American population were watching - were down 25% from last year. The fact it was an all New York affair had nothing to do with that according to Dan Bell, director of communications for the network.

Bell said: ''I just think that this time the platform leading into the World Series wasn't as strong as in years past. We saw that with our division series games - they were not up to our expectations. With the Olympics being on for 17 days people were maybe being more interested in seeing their season premieres than they were sports. Saying that, it is a terrific number for us - 129% higher than what we normally do in prime time. We knew that this year was going to be an aberration for us because of the Olympics and because of the season premieres.''

It didn't hurt the advertising sales however. Thirty-second spots sold for a reported #250,000 each. (The same slot over the the whole ITV network in Britain for Rangers' last Champions League game would have cost up roughly the same. In Scotland alone it would cost up to #14,000).

The only expression of pessimism had to do with Fox's decision to start their programming at 8.0pm with the first pitch going closer to 8:30pm. That's too late, many parents declared, sending their kids off to bed. Critics say that a generation of kids are missing out on seeing world series action, which can only hurt Major League Baseball as it battles with basketball, football and hockey for fan support.