Subway Series Interest Wanes In West

For many New Yorkers a Subway Series is a dream come true.

But it seems not everyone west of the Hudson River is reveling in that joy.

A new CBS News / New York Times poll found 20 percent of Americans questioned are rooting for the Yankees, another 20 percent are siding with the Mets.

However, the significant figure is the 58 percent who said they just "don't care."

In San Francisco, site of the last intracity World Series between the Giants and Oakland Athletics in 1989, people are "not interested" in the 2000 World Series, reports CBS News affiliate KPIX Correspondent Manny Ramos.

"I'm a huge baseball fan. If it's not the Giants, then, sorry, no interest," a Bay area resident said.

Despite what people are saying on the streets of San Francisco, television ratings for Friday's Game 1 in Yankee Stadium was watched by almost as many baseball fans nationally as the previous year.

"Here it's a tremendously intense interest. It's unique and strange," devoted Yankees fan and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Monday on the CBS News Early Show.

Still, central California fans had hoped for a World Series where residents traveled not underground, but over the Golden Gate Bridge.

It could have been an East Coast-West Coast final. But the Mets beat the Giants for the National League pennant.

Now Pac Bell stadium sits empty until opening game next spring.

So as the Yankees and the Mets battled it out more than 3,000 miles to the east, several San Francisco baseball fans turned their heads down from the sports bar televisions to concentrate on more exciting fare.

"I'm watching my onion rings and crab cakes," a Bay area restaurant patron said before digging in to his deep fried dinner.

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