So now it's officially over, even though the outcome of this day had been certain for quite some time. The lights are still on here at Shea Stadium, roughly half an hour after LaTroy Hawkins threw the day's final pitch. Groundskeepers are watering down the infield with a hose. A few workers are in the stands picking up trash. Everyone is preparing to do it again.

Not two games, mind you, but one. This doubleheader was enough for everyone -- Mets and Yankees included. Indeed, Jerry Manuel was only three minutes into his postgame interview session when he jumped out of his chair and started toward the door. 

"I'm tired," Manuel said. "I'll see y'all tomorrow."

On the other side -- the winning side -- Joe Girardi was faced with roster decisions, given that Sidney Ponson pitched well enough to earn another start. 

But roster decisions are rarely fun at midnight.

"It's been kind of a long day," Girardi said. "I'm just going to go home and sleep, and we'll make some decisions from there." 

No free time, but no one's complaining. The Yankees and Mets both felt that something was missing from this day, because they both felt they could have played vastly better -- the Yankees in the afternoon, and the Mets at night.

But for the fans, this day couldn't be beat. Two games, one each in Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium. This was history. This will never happen again.

Let's talk baseball.

Let's talk about the Yankees, who are cruising to victory in this game and seem healthier than they have at any point this year. Despite their blowout loss in Friday's day game -- and we'll just forget about that one -- the Yankees have suddenly placed themselves in contention. They're doing it with Sidney Ponson, for goodness sake. It's going to take work to make the playoffs, but somehow, they're in a legitimate position to get there. 

Let's talk about the Mets, who won the day game in convincing fashion, and due to a string of Phillies losses and one minor miracle, also remain in playoff contention. They did it today with Carlos Delgado, whose bat they desperately need to rediscover. And a week from now they'll head to Philadelphia, perhaps to reclaim the division lead.

Seems this dual-stadium doubleheader is more than just a flashy gimmick, more than a way to get fans bantering back and forth at the ballpark. There was chanting, sure -- there still is up high in the stadium, even now with the second game all but decided. But these games are significant, and neither team distinguished itself today. 

One step forward for the Mets, and one step back.

One step back for the Yankees, and one step forward. 

So let's talk about the future for these teams, and most specifically, these next two games. The Yankees and Mets are pitting perhaps their hottest pitchers against each other on Saturday, with Andy Pettitte starting opposite Johan Santana. Then it's perhaps their coldest starters on Sunday, with Darrell Rasner countering Oliver Perez. Both games are evenly matched. A split seems plausible.

But each team desperately wants to win both.

There is something quite conspicuous at both ends of this doubleheader. In the Bronx, right next to the Subway, it's the hulking form of the new Yankee Stadium, looking nearly complete from the outside. Massive stone blocks rise up into the sky, dwarfing even the old Yankee Stadium across the street. Only some construction trucks and unfinished wood betray its incompleteness, and those too will disappear before long.

In Flushing, the first sight off the Subway is Citi Field, the nearly-complete future home of the Mets. Its brick exterior is humble in ways that the new Yankee Stadium is not, and homely in ways of which the old Shea Stadium could never dream. Modeled after Ebbets Field, former home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Citi Field is an upgrade from Shea in every way but size. And that's just how the Mets want it. 

Those two parks will house the Yankees and Mets, respectively, next year, and workers are continuing to prepare them throughout the summer. So this season has become something of a farewell tour for Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium, and this weekend's Subway Series has come to punctuate that farewell.

Never again will these two teams play at Yankee Stadium -- barring a World Series -- and after this weekend, never again will they play at Shea. So when Joe Girardi called this an "unusual" weekend, he wasn't kidding. 

It will never happen again. What a sobering thought.

The way the Yankees played during the first game of this doubleheader, Girardi might not want it to ever happen again. But both teams seem crisper in the nightcap, with the Yankees cracking a scoreless tie by touching Pedro Martinez for two runs in the fourth. I'm watching it all from the press box, just having polished off a roasted turkey sub from Mama's of Corona -- bar none the best concessions at Shea.

Twelve innings down, six innings to go. If not more.

Forty-seven minutes. From the back door of Yankee Stadium to the front door of Shea, forty-seven minutes were all I needed to prepare for this second leg of baseball. 

Of course, there were further complications. There always are underground, where I took the No. 4 train to Grand Central Station, then hooked up with the No. 7 train out to Flushing. The first leg wasn't bad -- it really wasn't -- but the second train was packed with people. Some of them commuting home from work, some heading out of town for the weekend, others still doing the same thing I was doing.

Luckily, there was relief at the end in a curious form: pudding. Kozy Shack pudding was handing out miniature cups of its product, and I made sure to swerve in line and get one. Not a bad reward for forty-seven minutes. Then again, neither is baseball.

The festive atmosphere has drained out of Yankee Stadium, and the fans are streaming toward the exits.

"Not a good start," one of them said. 

Not for the Yankees. Not after this nine-run blowout.

Good thing there's a whole game left to play. 

Idling just outside Yankee Stadium's player entrance is a small army of sleek white buses, waiting to transport this whole operation over the Triborough Bridge. A relatively speedy few innings helped to move this game along, and there's another police escort lying in wait. But to get to Shea Stadium in time for Friday's nightcap, the Yankees and Mets still must battle rush-hour traffic. On a Friday. In the summer.

Both teams are set to jump in those buses only 20 minutes after the final pitch, and get set for a (somewhat) fresh start at Shea.

We're four hours in, and we're not even half done. Time to strap in.

The area around Yankee Stadium, at least by New York standards, is barren. Aside from some stray bars and hot dog stands, there's not a whole lot to greet the No. 4 train as it rumbles above the street and past the stadium walls.

Good thing the park itself has its own fine selection of food. Besides the standard fare -- Nathan's hot dogs are among the best in the game -- Yankee Stadium boasts some unique sandwich shops, including a Goya stand that serves hot Cuban sandwiches and a Carl's Steaks shop that doles out fresh cheese steaks. There's an Arthur Avenue stand for those in need of a good Italian sub, and if all else fails, the chicken fingers rarely disappoint. 

The food runs a bit pricey -- $4 for a pretzel, $9.50 for a beer and $10 for a chicken finger basket add up -- but the portions are large.

So glancing at the scoreboard and realizing that the Yankees and Mets needed more than two hours to complete five innings, I thought some more food might be necessary. But then I remembered what Jerry Manuel said before the game -- fans (and apparently not food) create the energy. 

"There's no question that these people, these fans in this city -- regardless of who's tired, who's not tired, who's fatigued -- they don't care," Manuel said. "They're looking for a performance from both Yankees and Mets, and hopefully we can give it to them."

I'm not so sure this was the performance Manuel had in mind. More than two and a half hours in, the Yankees and Mets are still stuck in the top of the sixth inning. Tick, tock, tick, tock. Less than four hours until the scheduled first pitch at Shea Stadium -- at this rate, we might not make it in time.

Nothing says baseball like dark clouds and gray skies. Or something like that. 

The sun has yet to shine on Yankee Stadium this afternoon, which could spell bad news for Friday's dual-stadium doubleheader. Transporting thousands of fans, two teams and one media horde from the Bronx to Queens is no easy task. Doing it on the heels of a rain delay is something entirely different. 

Not that anybody's resigned to a delay just yet. Though forecasts call for scattered thunderstorms throughout this afternoon and evening, there's hope that both games will go off without a hitch. The first game started on time. Consider that an omen.

Nearly all of Friday afternoon's fans have already streamed into Yankee Stadium -- some of them cashing in rain checks from May's postponed game, some of them attending on the good graces of their friends, many of them discreetly skipping work. 

Some held umbrellas. Others didn't.

Some looked up to the gray sky and frowned. Others didn't. 

While all this was taking place, however, one particularly boisterous group of Yankee fans slowly began clapping, then humming and whooping in time. They taunted a Mets fan as he passed, then yelled louder as they tried to drown out his cries of "Go Mets!"

Forget the weather. The Subway Series had begun.

Fresh off their bus ride, rested and ready, here are the Mets. They were flanked by a police escort from Queens to the Bronx, and will have the same accommodations on the way back to Shea. It's high luxury, but for these two teams -- in this city -- it's expected. So much for those horror stories of traffic jams.

Mets interim manager Jerry Manuel knows all about rivalries like these, having managed the White Sox for six full seasons. Those years included quite a few trips to Wrigley Field, including one instance when he walked in through an outfield gate to face the full wrath of Cubs fans. 

Manuel laughed on Friday, recalling the scene.

Yet those games were different -- Chicago is not New York, after all -- and Manuel knows that this time, he's in for an entirely different experience. He's seen it in the past as a bench coach, and now he's prepared to see it as a manager. 

"The intensity is different to a degree," Manuel said. "This is probably a more visible stage. Chicago was kind of like a backyard deal."

Manuel said that perhaps the rivalry has softened between the players themselves, with so many of them shuffling between clubs in this era of free agency. But then again, among the current Yankees and Mets, only Andy Phillips has spent time on the rosters of both teams. And even he has never played a game for the Mets -- he just signed Wednesday.

But the fans -- now they care about this rivalry, even if the players don't. These New Yorkers grew up Yankees and Mets fans, and they'll remain so for the rest of their lives. All of which Manuel knows, causing him to offer a pointed warning before Friday's first game: 

"You have to perform in New York," he said. "Period."

On its own merits, this is a unique day in New York baseball. A fatiguing day, too. So consider how the Yankees feel, watching their Thursday night game get washed out in Pittsburgh, and then having to travel home for Friday's doubleheader. It's an awfully quick turnaround, necessitated by an inability to fiddle with Saturday's schedule and an unwillingness to tempt fate and wait until Sunday. "Unusual," is how Yankees manager Joe Girardi described it, speaking while the Mets -- who were off Thursday -- were all still gathering at Shea. 

"It's not going to change it," Girardi said, "but I don't understand it."

Perhaps most affected was Dan Giese, who may have been called upon to pitch in Thursday's game had play ever resumed. That would have created its own set of problems, but instead, the game was called. Giese remained the man for Friday. 

Problems, problems, problems. But even so, this whole atmosphere isn't lost on Girardi. Between his sleeplessness and his roster machinations -- is Hideki Matsui going to the DL or isn't he? -- Girardi knows that the fans who love him and the fans who hate him will all be coming out today. And that alone should help every Yankee and Met make it through this exhausting day.

"I think the energy level from the fans will be helpful," Girardi said. "There's a buzz around the series -- always."

Back in April, back when we were all unsure about how this season might unfold (and I know I still am), the Yankees and Mets both played games on the same day in Chicago. Due to a rare schedule quirk, the Mets were up at Wrigley Field playing the Cubs while the Yankees were a few miles away at U.S. Cellular Field, taking on the White Sox.

Peculiar? Yes. Contentious? Not quite. 

Now, these clubs are back in the same town on the same day -- but this time, it's in New York, and this time, these 47-year rivals will be battling each other. Precisely one week shy of the Fourth of July, fireworks sit ready to launch in Queens and the Bronx.

This latest doubleheader, the third dual-stadium doubleheader in this rivalry's history, came about when a Subway Series game was rained out back in May. To reschedule without conflict, the Yankees and Mets decided to play an afternoon game at Yankee Stadium, followed by the regularly scheduled night game at Shea. And so the city is set for another bi-borough doubleheader, following similar circumstances in 2000 and 2003. 

The Yankees, for history's sake, swept all four of those games. And they come into this series in markedly better shape than the Mets, who last week dismissed their manager and remain a game under .500.

But don't let any apparent lopsidedness fool you. Probable pitchers for the Mets include perhaps their hottest starter, Mike Pelfrey, and easily their most legendary starter, Pedro Martinez. For the Yankees, it's Dan Giese and Sidney Ponson, two right-handers who weren't even on the roster the last time these two teams met. 

So fiddle with the formulas, solve the equations, and try to figure this Subway Series -- one that's critical for both teams. The Mets need to find an edge. The Yankees need to keep their edge. And neither team can afford a sweep.

As for me, I'm jumping on the No. 4 train up to Yankee Stadium, where Giese and Pelfrey are set to kick things off just after 2 p.m. It's Friday, it's summertime and it's double the baseball. Tough to argue with a combination like that.