NEW YORK -- It seems like a generation ago that the Mets and Yankees were actually inner-city rivals -- so fierce in claiming New York's bragging rights, an on-field brawl wasn't just a possibility, it was actually being planned.

That was just three summers past, in 2000, when the Mets contemplated retaliation for Roger Clemens' beaning of Mike Piazza. The next night at Shea Stadium, up until the final moments before he took the mound, Mike Hampton discussed with then-manager Bobby Valentine which Yankee would be targeted for revenge.

	Having Jose Reyes around for a full season should be a huge positive for the Mets in 2004.

Derek Jeter? Bernie Williams? As Hampton reached the top step of the dugout, Valentine finally instructed his ace to avoid hitting anyone, figuring the Mets needed to win a game more than prevailing in the fistfights that would've surely ensued.

As it turned out, there was no stopping the Yankees in any arena that year. In fact, the Mets' greatest achievement in 2000, besides winning the National League pennant as the wild card, was doing what the Padres and Braves couldn't in 1998 and 1999 -- beating the Yankees in a single World Series game.

But that was then, this is now -- an era of diminished horizons for the Mets. Injuries to Piazza and Mo Vaughn harpooned the club in May, and general manager Steve Phillips' recent firing officially flipped the organization's calendar to 2004 and beyond.

With assistant GM Jim Duquette having replaced Phillips on an interim basis and rookie Jose Reyes taking over for the injured Rey Sanchez at shortstop, the Mets are playing better ball of late. But wisely, everyone's gaze remains fixed towards next season.

At first glance, the Mets' collapse has stripped this weekend's Subway Series of its luster. But the Yankees aren't naïve enough to think Shea Stadium will be any less hostile, or that the Mets will be any less thrilled at the chance to embarrass the Bombers.

In fact, the Mets could be even more dangerous now than in their mini-renaissance years, given that, in Todd Zeile's words, "they're in a no-lose situation." It's the Bombers who carry the greater burden, although it didn't show Friday in a 5-0 shutout of the Mets. That's seven wins in the last eight games for the Yankess.

Even so, all you have to do is listen to the running dialogue between manager Joe Torre and owner George Steinbrenner to understand the uneasy peace in the Bronx.

Steinbrenner alternates between jabbing his manager and then wondering what the tabloid hysteria is about. Thursday's mood swing came in the form of a written statement. In it, The Boss said, "I've tried to be a good owner and I consider Joe Torre to be a good friend. I support him totally and will not be critical of Joe in any way."

Torre, meanwhile, has been busy complaining that Steinbrenner hasn't given him enough credit for the Yankees' success since 1996. Public opinion -- not to mention the sentiment in his clubhouse -- is on the manager's side, but Torre is pushing it if he thinks he can win a bloodless war with Steinbrenner.

	“	What I like about New York fans is that you're either with the Mets or Yankees. You can't be both. There's no bandwagon-jumping. On the west coast, people say, 'I'm an Angels fan this year.' The next year, it's, 'I'm rooting for the Dodgers.' That doesn't happen here. I love it. ”
		— Jason Giambi, Yankees first baseman

Actually, that's where this series' real juice exists. If it's not in the individual matchups -- Clemens won't pitch this weekend, and Piazza's groin injury could keep him out for another six weeks -- then it's in the reality that the Yankees have little to gain, and much to lose.

As Jason Giambi put it, "I definitely take (the Mets) seriously, because you know the fans are going to be into it. It was great when we played them last year. I saw right away how intense this series is. Sort of like when we played the Giants when I was in Oakland, but more than that.

"What I like about New York fans is that you're either with the Mets or Yankees. You can't be both. There's no bandwagon-jumping. On the west coast, people say, 'I'm an Angels fan this year.' The next year, it's, 'I'm rooting for the Dodgers.' That doesn't happen here. I love it."

This year's twist on the mid-summer Subway Series is that the Mets and Yankees will face each other six times in 10 days -- which, depending on one's appetite for interleague play, means the city will be literally baseball-intoxicated, or else whatever novelty exists will quickly fade.

After all, this is hardly a new phenomenon: The Mets and Yankees have played each other 31 times in the regular season since 1997, with the Bombers holding an 19-12 advantage. The Yankees have won eight of the previous 10 series, and obviously have a good start this weekend.

Mariano Rivera has been around since the inception of this New York-only war, and says, no matter how much buzz there'll be in the stands, it won't faze him.

"Honestly, to me, it'll be like any other series," said the closer. "We're playing them twice, not just once, so it's like facing a team in our division. It's nothing special."

Robin Ventura, who played for the Mets from 1999-2001, maintains a lingering, bittersweet interest in his former team. He hit a 10th-inning home run against the Mets in the first game of last year's Subway Series, but insists there was little vengeance involved.

Even though Ventura was cast off as a player in full decline by the Mets in 2001 -- club officials were miffed that he became much more physically fit upon joining the Yankees -- Ventura still doesn't relish the unraveling that cost Phillips his job.

"Some of the moves they made, you just couldn't question on paper," Ventura said. "I mean, Robby (Alomar) ... that looked like a great trade. And getting (Tom) Glavine and (Cliff) Floyd, it looked like the Mets were going to have a good season. But it didn't work out that way."

Instead, the Mets will now spend a weekend learning if their neophytes can handle 18 more innings with the Bronx monolith -- training, perhaps, for 2004 or 2005. In the short term, no one has a clue. Torre spoke for an entire Yankees organization when he called the post-Piazza, post-Vaughn Mets, "a little bit of a mystery."

The manager's phrasing needed no translation: beware of the easy target.

Bob Klapisch of The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) covers baseball for ESPN.com.