Bryant Park became a bloodless battlefield for baseball boosters yesterday, as thousands of Met maniacs and Yankee yahoos revved up for the Subway Series at a rip-roaring rally.
It looked like someone had drawn an invisible line down the center of the Midtown green – with Amazin’s fans on one side, Bombers faithful on the other.
Feisty but friendly, they lobbed insults and Bronx cheers at each other – but managed to find a small patch of common ground in their predictions.
“This is going to be the greatest World Series of all time!” crowed Manhattan resident Linda Levine, 43, holding her Pinstriped-clad dog, Katie.
A giant subway sign – below an arc of balloons that started with splash of orange and royal blue and ended in a cascade of navy and white – urged New Yorkers to “pledge allegiance.”
“You root for the Yankees or you root for the Mets – that’s it!” Mayor Giuliani said, dubbing a baseball hat with both teams’ emblems “the coward’s cap.”
No one was shy about showing their colors.
Nine-year-old Marc Esposito and his 18-year-old brother Michael fashioned a Bronx-bound No. 4 train out of cardboard boxes and two scooters.
“The Yankees are going to kill the Mets,” the Queens youngster said.
Across the great divide, Brooklyn secretary Angela Barone, 23, was decked out in her Mets jersey and cap, hoisting a sign that invited Mike Piazza to hit a home run with her.
“The Mets are on such a hot streak right now. The Mets are going to win the Series and Piazza’s going to be the MVP,” she vowed.
Each team dispatched a few VIPs to rally.
Miracle Mets third baseman Ed Charles said: “The guys from the ’69 Mets told me to tell the mayor and the Yankees fans that the Mets are going to give the Yankees an amazin’, miraculous, affirmative whooping.”
Yankees GM Brian Cashman fired back, “You Yankee fans know we don’t talk the talk. We walk the walk.”
He was answered by a chorus of “Yankees [stink].”
The pumped-up crowd was treated to performances by the Rockettes, the cast of “Damn Yankees,” marching bands from Fordham and St. John’s, Yankees organist Eddie Layton and the surviving members of the Brooklyn Dodgers Sym-phony Band.
The fans lined up outside pitching and batting cages, clamored for giveaways and competed in a hot-dog eating contest.