SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. D6

LENGTH: 1009 words

HEADLINE: ON THE HOT SEAT IN SECTION 43 A BOSTON FAN BRAVES THE BRONX BLEACHERS

BYLINE: By Stan Grossfeld, Globe Staff

BODY:
NEW YORK - The bartender at Stan's Sports Bar and Restaurant outside Yankee Stadium leans over and issues a stern warning to me.

"Do not wear a Red Sox jersey into the bleachers," says Joe Wattlesteen. "You are taking a chance. I've seen 'em rip 'em off people's bodies and light 'em on fire. At best, you're gonna hear the number '1918' a lot."     My sister, a New York City lawyer, also said it was a bad idea.

"Why not just crawl into a cave in Afghanistan?" she said.

I enter the stadium and head for the infamous right-field bleachers. Chris Hanley, 32, a radio and cellphone technician, is all over me in a New York minute.

"Is that shirt made of Kevlar," he says. "Are you crazy? Do you think you can enter the Roman Coliseum and pet the lions?"

It turned out to be all bluff. There were no fights and no arrests in the bleachers during yesterday's Red Sox-Yankees game, and only one Red Sox fan was tossed. A likely reason: No alcohol is served to bleacherites. It has been banned for two years, making The House That Ruth Built as dangerous as a Sunday flea market or a mah-jongg game in Brookline. And with post-9/11 security, nobody is sneaking it in, either.

Robert Tipa, a postal worker and bleacherite, promises that nobody would go postal, that this is just another game on the way to another Yankee championship.

"Up there it's a big deal," he says. "Not here."

A big dude in an oversized Jason Giambi shirt stops me and sarcastically asks, "Do you want to switch shirts? Then you can finally wear a winner."

I sat in Section 43, Row GG, Seat 15. To my right was the blocked-off center-field section. To my left, David Kersh, a 22-year-old college student, was acting sheepishly in the rain.

"I'm neutral," he says. "I'm really a disgruntled Mets fan in hiding."

But the bleacherites have clout with the team on the field. They chant "DER-EK JE-TER" during the infield toss, and the matinee shortstop turns and waves his glove.

Early in the game, Nomar Garciaparra steps to the plate, and the bleacherites chant, "Jeter's better," and other things that can't be printed in a family newspaper.

During the rain-soaked fifth inning, a sympathetic fan tells me the bleacher creatures are plotting. Between innings, he says, they will pull my Red Sox cap off my head during the song "YMCA," and sing "Why is he gay?"

Pretty tame, third-rate homophobia. After the plotters are foiled by the tipster, parts of Section 39 start a vulgar chant regarding the Globe.

The skies open and there is a long rain delay. Jerome Cunningham, 26, a pizza worker, has a question.

"What do the numbers 10, 8, 4, and not born yet have in common?" he says. "That's the ages of my grandparents the last time the Red Sox won a World Series."

Other Yankee fans say they hate the Red Sox because Boston management supported Carl Everett. They also thank me for giving up Babe Ruth and Sparky Lyle. Others chant, "95 North," after the Yankees score.

"Hey Red Sox guy," says Mike Petty. "What's up with Manny Ramirez? You'll never see a Yankee dogging it down the line. At least Torre makes 'em run. You've got a minor league manager."

Tianna Stein, 23, an analyst assistant, wears a Roger Clemens jersey. She takes one look at the Red Sox jersey and apologizes.

"You got lucky - the hard core people are not here," she says. "It's cold, it's rainy, and people here are tired 'cause most of them drove back from the Yankee games in Toronto. They're hung over. On a normal night, you'd have people screaming at you nonstop."

In Section 39, which has its own cultlike Web site, bleacher creature Joe D'Angelo has a Yankee tattoo on his biceps, which he likes to flex. He says the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox is that "we play in October."

D'Angelo says Yankee fans are tame compared with Red Sox fans.

"I went to Fenway Park last week wearing my Jimmy Key jersey and somebody wanted to fight me in the first inning," says the 22-year-old graphic designer. "I said, 'Dude, I just drove 3 1/2 hours and paid $18 for standing room. I'll meet you after the game.' I kicked the crap out of him in the parking lot."

Sergeant Edward Fackler of the New York City Police surveys the alcohol-free bleacher crowd and smiles.

"I went from being a bouncer to being a librarian," he says.

He's referring to May 26, 2000, when alcohol was banned in the bleachers to reduce fights and make the Yankee Stadium experience more family-oriented. The opponent that night was the Sox. Ironically, during the third inning a fan in the upper deck fell on the screen behind home plate, though no one was hurt.

"I saw the guy fall right into the netting," says Anthony Raemdonck, an Internet administrator and season ticket-holder. "They said he was extremely bombed. We called the Stadium and said, 'Hey, that's not us. Why can't we drink?'

"It's more an economic discrimination because these are the cheapest seats. Eight bucks. The higher-priced seats get served. Do you know we're not even allowed to go into Monument Park either before or after games? They just want us to watch the game and go home. That's wrong and we're gonna try to go to court. Their response is, 'Our house, our rules.' "

In the eighth inning, with the Red Sox well on the way to an 8-4 win, Boston fan Julio Miranda starts teasing the bleacherites, saying Pedro Martinez is the best.

They respond by chanting, "Where's your green card?"

Mark Maghakian of Riverdale, a season ticket-holder, stands up and screams, "This is the crap that comes from Boston. 1918. Then 1986. One strike away from beating the Mutts, and you blew it."

Miranda gets louder and more animated, but not physical. Security arrives and tosses Miranda - a questionable ejection - as Yankee fans scream obscenities at him.

Trude Raizen, 15, wears a Sox shirt but shows no fear. As Miranda disappears into the bowels of the bleachers, she complains loudly about a double standard. The bleacherites around her laugh.

"I feel safe," she says. "I don't think they'll hit a girl."

GRAPHIC: PHOTO, When Boston and New York fans clash in the Yankee Stadium bleachers, as they did yesterday, it's not a scene for the meek. / GLOBE STAFF PHOTO / STAN GROSSFELD

LOAD-DATE: September 4, 2002