NEW YORK, NY October 30, 2000 — For Mets and Yankees fans, the first subway World Series in 44 years lived up to all the talk on sports radio, to the 80-pages and more of daily, wraparound sections to the Post and the Daily News, and the ubiquitous boosterism of Mayor Giuliani. The teams were well-matched. Two games were one-run nail biters; the other three games were won by two runs. Stephanie Capuano, a Yankees fan from Long Island, summed up what many fans were feeling.

Stephanie Capuano: "I mean, this is phenominal, I'll never see it again in my whole life. A subway series?it was unusual that the Yankees made it this far? And the Mets. Were so good this year, they really were. I think they had an edge over the Yankees this year. And for both of us to make it this far, I think, was amazing."

The only thing missing -- and gladly -- was any outburst of violence between rabid fans. Police say only 27 arrests were made during all five World Series games. Compare that to Game Six in 1996, when the Yankees clinched the championship against the Atlanta Braves. Police arrested 58 people around Yankee Stadium alone. Earlier, in Game Two, fans interrupted the action seven times by running onto the field. No such antics were apparent at Shea Stadium, says Mets fans Ken Berenoff and Steve Feldman.

Ken Berenoff: "I was sitting behind a little kid about five years old who was a Yankee fan. It was hard to get mad at him. I did tell him to sit down a couple times, but that's about it."Steve Feldman: "But the nice thing was, you did see a difference between the fans. The Mets fans were screaming, the Yankees fans were screaming. It was nice, but people took their sides, and everyone was into it."

The only person who seemed to be spoiling for a fight was Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens. His Game Two toss of a broken bat toward Mets star slugger Mike Piazza overshadowed his brilliant, two hit, no run shutout of the Mets for eight innings. That's as it should be, says Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica.

Mike Lupica: "It will always be a part of this World Series. It will always be a blot on this World Series."

The bat incident generated so much buzz because it was preceeded this summer by the ball incident, when Roger Clemens hit Mike Piazza in the head with a fastball during interleague play. Mr. Lupica's outrage over the conduct of the five-time Cy Young Award-winning pitcher is palpable.

Mike Lupica: "Once you throw a fastball under somebody's chin, it's just luck and fate and the grace of God whether you get it in the helmet or the eye or the cheekbone, so I don't care about intent. I know he meant to buzz him, and I know he meant to throw the bat next to him. And I think he's a punk. So I don't want to hear that everybody's overreacting. I'm not the one who acted like a fool in front of the world the way Roger Clemens did the other night."

But, the players and managers are ready to move on. And fans like Melissa Doktovsky are ready to put it in the past, too?sort of.

Melissa Doktovsky: "I think it helped get people riled up during the series, but it's a dead issue. The players don't want to talk about it, the coaches don't want to talk about it?."Amy: "But what about next year? Interleague play?"Melissa: "Next year, forget it, watch out, we're gonna get him!"

Beyond the Hudson River, no one cares about New York versus New York on the green ballfields of October. Nationally, Fox's coverage is on pace to set a record ratings low for the Fall Classic. But here at home, it was a hit. Journalist Pete Hamill says the media could be criticized for putting too much emphasis on the Subway Series.

Pete Hamill: " We didn't give this kind of coverage to Rwanda, and there were real dead bodies there. This is a game. But I think that just because it is a game, and it's essentially nonpolitical, and it does not end up with dead bodies in the room, it's an alternative to the real world, in some crazy way, and therefore, people love to watch it and read about it, and write about it, for that matter."

New Yorkers will be watching and reading and writing about baseball for at least one more day. There's the ticker tape parade for the Yankees down the Canyon of Heroes. And for the Mets, there's next year. For WNYC, I'm Amy Eddings.

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