SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 65 BLEACHER CREATURE

LENGTH: 582 words

HEADLINE: SAYING 'BOO' IS A SCARY THOUGHT

BYLINE: BY FILIP BONDY

BODY:
The debate before the game last night was a delicate one, a dilemma faced by fans, coaches and ringmasters everywhere in charge of sometimes wayward performers.

Namely, should we dabble in negative reinforcement, in punishment? Should we boo our beloved Yankees, if they misbehave in the field or at bat? What if they temporarily stink?

"Never," Tina Lewis declared. "Only Met fans boo their players. I'd never boo 'em in a 100 years." The Creatures had sat through a long bummer of an afternoon on Saturday during Game 3, an 11-run loss, while trying hard to hold our razor-sharp tongues. As usual in Section 39, we were dignified, supportive, patient - to a degree.

We always stay until the bitter end. We don't always cheer. Not everybody shares Tina's benevolent edict.

"You have to boo 'em," Sheriff Tom Brown said. "When you go to the dolphin show and the dolphin drops the hoop, you boo the performance. You're not really booing the dolphin."

Little Mike complained long and loud that if only Chuck Knoblauch had held on to that Bret Boone bloop, everything would have been very different and there wouldn't have to be a Game 5 today.

Little Mike and Walkman John have never liked Knoblauch. And by Knoblauch, I am referring to the player, not the Bleacher Creature who looks like Knoblauch and whose name is Mike Marsh, but who is not Little Mike.

"Blah, blah, blah," Tina said, about Little Mike. "That shrimp. He keeps blaming Chuck for the whole thing, making me sick."

There was no sense in turning our backs on each other now, not when the rest of the world was doing that job for us.

The Creatures have come to realize we are no longer the media phenomenon we once were. All the Penny Crones of the world are no longer lurking on River Ave., behind the bleacher entrance, earnestly asking us our thoughts on the next series.

Not that this new-found privacy bothers us. We've had quite the run. A list of accomplishments runs longer than a game pitched by El Duque.

We've done backup on a Puff Daddy CD. We've been on the front page of the Washington Post, in a story that ran in the International Herald Tribune. People in the south of France were reading about us.

If you walk into the Yankee Clubhouse Store in Times Square, you'll still see our photo on a poster. We were featured in USA Today. We opened the broadcast by Fox 5 of the '98 victory parade. We have been ripped in print by Ken Griffey Jr. and the mayor of Baltimore.

If you go to Cooperstown, you can hear the soundtrack from Milton Ousland's cowbell. Kevin Costner asked Tina to co-star, sort of, in his movie.

Sheriff Tom was asked to sign autographs at a local diner. And when a cop nearly gave Brown a ticket for public drunkenness, Tony Capone only had to mention to him that this was the famous Sheriff Tom. The policeman ended up tearing up the ticket and apologizing Brown for the inconvenience.

You get the idea. We're more than almost famous.

"So we're not the flavor of the week," Anthony Griek said. "It's better this way. Maybe it'll go back to the old days."

By the way, Griek said his mother's visit to the Stadium this week went very well. There is now talk about inviting everybody's mother into the bleachers next season for a special day, just as long as they are sitting together and not necessarily next to us.

It is good to know our mothers still love us. They always will. And if they have to boo us, sometimes, we'll understand.

E-mail: fjbondy@netscape.net

GRAPHIC: KEITH TORRIE DAILY NEWS TURN THE KNOB Chuck Knoblauch (11) heads to first but is retired by John Olerud on fly out.

LOAD-DATE: October 22, 2001