If only that likely New York tabloid headline would refer to what happened on the field instead of in the Yankees' Shea Stadium clubhouse Wednesday.

Instead, as the Yankees edged the Mets 3-2 to move to within one game of another world championship, their reputation for survival only grew more luminous.

A broken water pipe badly flooded the Yankees' clubhouse in the late innings of Game 4, forcing Yankees' clubhouse personnel into scramble mode and forcing the Yankees themselves back onto the field for postgame interviews.

Initial reports were that there was no damage to any Yankees' equipment. And the players themselves were able to shower before leaving the stadium after clubhouse workers got the situation under control.

"The water was easily a foot high,'' said Patrick Courtney, major league baseball spokesman. "They got everything up high very quickly. They had water vacuums in there to try to suck it up quickly.''

The broken pipe was in the ceiling of the trainer's room. When it gave way, water immediately started gushing with enough force that several ceiling tiles and part of the roof of the trainer's room collapsed, according to Courtney.

Courtney, who was summoned to the clubhouse in the top of the eighth inning to help facilitate the postgame interviews because the clubhouse was unusable, said he was unaware of any major damage to the Yankees' equipment or to the players' clothing.

"It didn't appear that way,'' he said.

The pipe started leaking shortly after Yankees starter Denny Neagle finished icing his arm. Neagle was removed by manager Joe Torre with two out in the fifth inning and the Yankees ahead 3-2, and his teammates kidded him about starting the leak in anger after being lifted.

"Some guys were joking, "What did you do, bust a pipe in there?''' Neagle said. "It wasn't so bad until I got done icing and I came out. Then there was three feet of water in there.

"It wasn't me.''

The situation made for a bizarre and comical postgame session on the Yankees' side, with players conducting interviews on the field in front of their dugout while fans were still in the stands heckling.

"Denny, give us a train whistle!'' one fan shouted in reference to Neagle's hidden talent.

Meanwhile, right fielder Paul O'Neill was interrogated while a couple of fans behind the dugout were hollering that Bronx cheer of this generation, "Paul, you suck!''

Luckily for all, this flood was nothing close to Biblical proportions.

Only the Mets, trailing this best-of-7 series 3-1, are facing those kind of odds.