Baseball mania grips New York

New York is king of the baseball jungle

By Jane Hughes in New York

Forget the Presidential race, forget the battle between Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio for the New York senate seat, forget the bloodshed in the Middle East. In the Big Apple at the moment, there is only one thing to talk about - baseball.

A grudge match decades in the making has become reality. New York begins a Subway Series on Saturday, so-called because fans can travel to all the games by train.

We haven't seen anything like this in our lifetimes

  Dino Bravaro

The two New York baseball teams, the Mets and the Yankees, are meeting for the first time ever in the World Series. In a few days, whichever of the two teams comes out on top will be declared the greatest in the nation.

The last time New York saw a Subway Series was in 1956 and the prospect of another has fans salivating.

"Heaven! This is going to be heaven!" roared Kip Demogenes. "Bring on the Mets."

"It doesn't get any better than this," added Dino Bravaro. "We haven't seen anything like this in our lifetimes."

In a place where baseball is a passion, civil war could be about to break out across the city.

Offices and homes are dividing over which team to cheer for - the Yankees, known as the Bronx Bombers, or the Queens-based Mets.

The Yankees won the last two World Series, but the Mets have not won since 1986.

'Very excited'

Even the Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, a die-hard Yankees fan, says meetings in City Hall are now degenerating into shouting matches about which team is better.

"I'm very, very excited," he told reporters. "There are going to be all kinds of arguments around the city about who's the best ball player and who are the best team, but it'll be terrific."

"Bring on the Mets," cheered Brett Phillips, a die-hard fan, as if to prove his point.

"Go Yankees - we're going to beat them," countered Larry Lengell.

Jeers

At T-shirt shops around the Big Apple, they are selling out faster than they can print new stock.

Fans with their faces painted in the trademark colours of the teams - blue and white for the Yankees, blue and orange for the Mets - are jeering at each other.

Sports bars are laying on extra beer and beefing up their security in case fights break out between opposing fans.

The only losers, it seems, are the senate race candidates, Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio. The one thing everyone agrees on is that unless they talk about baseball, no-one is going to listen to anything they say for the next few days.