The Subway Series


		Series turns soggy for Yankees locker room

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- The Subway Series became the Submerged Series.

The New York Yankees' locker room at Shea Stadium was flooded during Wednesday night's game when a water pipe in its ceiling burst, leaving the players a bit bemused after their 3-2 World Series victory against the Mets.

"I was in there when it happened," Yankees reliever Jeff Nelson said. "All of a sudden the massage room and the weight area and the hot tub area -- it was like Niagara Falls. It was all of a sudden, the ceiling collapsed."

Nelson, like teammates Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill and Mariano Rivera, conducted his interviews on the field outside the Yankees' dugout rather than in the watery locker room.

The mess was blamed on a trash container fire on the third deck of the Queens stadium. When firefighters opened a standpipe to douse the smoky blaze, pressure built up in a pipe above the clubhouse, Sandy Alderson of the commissioner's office said.

When the pipe burst, according to Nelson, "There was water everywhere -- this green gunky water. ... Luckily, it doesn't smell in there."

Alderson said police were satisfied that the fire was not deliberately set and there would be no further investigation. The clubhouse will be ready for Thursday's Game 5.

"Hopefully," Jeter told reporters, "we got our clothes out of the way."

The field was packed with reporters circling players as the Fire Department attempted to handle the mess caused by the ruptured pipe.

Rich Levin, spokesman for major league baseball, said players were able to change in the locker room despite all the water.

The flood came a day after the Yankees brought in some of their furniture from the Bronx after deciding that Shea Stadium lacked some of their accustomed amenities.

Yankees manager Joe Torre said he was told about the flood during the game, but decided not to worry about it at the time.

"I didn't bother going in to check because I really didn't care," he said. "I was concerned more with what was on the field."

It wasn't the first time there was a flood in a locker room of the 36-year-old stadium. On Opening Day 1999, a malfunctioning pump spilled raw sewage all over the Mets' facilities, causing $200,000 worth of damage.