YANKS-METS RAINED OUT WITH YANKS LEADING

By BEN WALKER The Associated Press

6/21/2003, 7:56 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- While lightning crackled, thunder boomed and rain poured down in buckets Saturday, a baseball suddenly shot out of the Yankees' dugout, skimming across the tarpaulin and skittering toward the Mets' bench.

There was a note on the ball, a message between good friends and former teammates Robin Ventura and Joe McEwing. Ventura wrote: "I don't think the hard stuff's coming down for a while."

"A little line from `Caddyshack,´" smiled McEwing, the Mets´ utilityman. Comedian Bill Murray made it popular in the movie, and Ventura picked a perfect time to reprise it after the field was cleared. Minutes later, the Subway Series game at Shea Stadium was rained out in the fourth inning with the Yankees leading 4-3. The game will be made up as part of a day-night, two-ballpark doubleheader next Saturday. The teams will play the regularly scheduled game at Yankee Stadium at 1:20 p.m. EDT, then bus over to Shea to meet at 8:10 p.m. The Yankees and Mets were forced to do something similar on July 8, 2000, because of a rainout. That time, they opened at Shea and finished up at Yankee Stadium — that was the first two-park doubleheader in the majors since Sept. 7, 1903, when games were held at Brooklyn's Washington Park and the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants. "I'll just go along for the ride," said Mike Mussina, who started for the Yankees and gave up home runs to Jeromy Burnitz and Ty Wigginton. Todd Zeile had a home run and a single wiped out for the Yankees. He began the day in an 0-for-20 rut and his two hits didn't count, as manager Joe Torre playfully reminded him. "After the game, Joe said, `I have bad news for you: You´re still in a slump,´" Zeile said.

The Yankees could afford to joke after seeing that Derek Jeter seemed to be OK. He was hit above the left wrist by a pitch from rookie Jeremy Griffiths in the second inning, but stayed in. Jeter said he would play Sunday.

"I don't like sitting out," the star shortstop said, his wrist and forearm wrapped. "It's not broken, so it's fine." Jeter dislocated his left shoulder on opening