Bronx

At some point tonight, a verbal tug of war between baseball fans will echo throughout Oriole Park. It won't be unique, nor will it be particularly clever, but it will perfectly illustrate the obvious reality: When baseball's 800-pound gorilla, the New York Yankees, come to town, home-field advantage ain't what it used to be. "Let's go, Yank-ees!" "Yank-ees suck!" It would be one thing if the Yankees' fans were simply a loud, vocal minority, and if their cheers and taunts were constantly drowned out by an enthusiastic, sometimes angry response from thousands of Orioles fans.

THE WORLD DOESN'T need another reason to despise the Yankees. There are already enough. But the new reason generated this week belongs in the top 10. Trying to finagle a forfeit victory out of Hurricane Frances is the mark of an organization proud of its hate wish. If this sorry episode is any indication, Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino didn't go far enough when he called the Yankees the "Evil Empire." The good news is the incident revealed the desperation the Yankees obviously are feeling as they try to hold off the Red Sox and win the American League East with their $183 million payroll.

NEW YORK - On the eve of baseball's non-waiver trade deadline, Orioles executive vice president Jim Beattie sat in the team's dugout at Yankee Stadium yesterday with an unapologetic look on his face. The chances of the Orioles making a move by today's 4 p.m. deadline are "very slight," Beattie said. And to understand why that wasn't bothering him so much, you had to see what happened last night in the Bronx. It wasn't spectacular. It wasn't even a win. But rookie pitcher Daniel Cabrera did enough to reinforce the Orioles' methods, as the New York Yankees squeaked out a 2-1 victory before a boisterous crowd of 51,551.

NEW YORK - The script has grown tired for the Orioles, like a failed production in its final days on Broadway. Much as they try to breathe new life into the story, it keeps playing out the same against the New York Yankees. They grab a lead, hang on valiantly for a few innings and then fritter it away in the end. Then the media come to ask the same questions, and everyone is too frustrated to speak. Yesterday, it looked like the Orioles were about to stage a major upset, with rookie Daniel Cabrera outpitching the well-polished Javier Vazquez.

NEW YORK - Two weeks ago, when the New York Yankees were struggling to get to .500, the amazing early-season performance of former teammate Roger Clemens must have been a painful two-edged topic in the clubhouse that Ruth built. Who would have blamed the Yankees for being a little put off by Clemens' decision to postpone retirement and join his hometown Houston Astros? They did, after all, give him an emotional sendoff - and a new Hummer - after he spent a year convincing everyone that 2003 would be the last season of his impressive career.

NEW ORLEANS - Still hurting after free-agent left-hander Andy Pettitte scorned them, the New York Yankees apparently have found another pitcher to accept their love - and their money. Former Oriole Kevin Brown gave his tentative approval yesterday to a proposed trade that will send him from the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Yankees for pitcher Jeff Weaver, two minor leaguers and $3 million. That's one way to get over Pettitte, who took less money Thursday to sign with the Houston Astros.

NEW YORK - There is no reason for Bill Gates, the world's richest man, to come to the center of the impoverished South Bronx, except to see a remarkable education experiment. Here, on streets littered with broken glass, in an old five-story building with security guards clustered around its main entrance, a dysfunctional high school is being rehabilitated. Morris High School was one of many failures in the Bronx School District, which serves some of the most disadvantaged urban areas in the United States.

NEW YORK -- Construction of New York City's third water tunnel -- the largest public works project in its history -- has entered a new phase with the start of work on an 8.5-mile, $750 million stretch linking lower Manhattan with sections in midtown and northern Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said the overall project, begun in 1970 and scheduled for completion in 2020, would cost $5.5 billion to $6 billion to bring the city more than 1.3 billion gallons of water a day from reservoirs in Westchester County and Connecticut, 60 miles to the north.

It had to have been a bittersweet moment when Calvin Klein recently watched his spring 2004 collection hit the runway during Fashion Week in New York. It wasn't his. Neither was the company that bears his name. Klein watched as the brand he built trotted out the first collection by Francisco Costa, an ex-Gucci designer who now heads Calvin Klein's women's collection. That's because last year Klein sold his company to Phillips-Van Heusen for $438 million, effectively ending the rags-to-rag-trade-riches story of a Bronx boy who became an icon of American fashion.

NEW YORK - Hatred is a pretty strong feeling. Hate is not a very nice word. So why was Derek Jeter smiling like a Cheshire cat as he recounted the way in which he's received in a great, old northeastern city he often visits on business? "They hate me in Boston!' the New York Yankees shortstop said. "Come with me sometime. Walk around with me for 30 minutes. What they say, you can't print." When is hatred a good thing? How about when the Yankees and Red Sox square off. Celtics-Lakers.