GET READY FOR SOME GENUINE BASEBALL.

Byline: Kevin Modesti

During the regular season a couple of Atlanta Braves pitchers - advertising pitch men for some product I've forgotten - told us that chicks dig the long ball.

Well, now it's World Series time, and we're about to find out how chicks feel about the hit-and-run grounder to right.

The Braves vs. the New York Yankees, beginning tonight at Turner Field, shapes up as the sort of baseball that isn't celebrated much any more in television commercials or the home run highlight shows that fill the time in between.

Since we're talking about Atlanta and New York, let's call it good ol' city hardball.

They're going to settle the question of who's the best team in baseball. They might forget to set any records in the process.

Maybe it's a coincidence, but the 60-home-run hitters with the trademark trots, the 10-strikeouts-a-night pitcher who can't afford a barber, the 3,000-hit man who kisses home plate and the rest of the game's preening superstars are watching the World Series on TV with the rest of us. They're just the sideshow, a six-month warmup act.

The Braves and Yankees are the real baseball.

Nobody on the Braves or Yankees hit 60 homers. Or 50, even. Nobody's going to rip one 500 feet.

Nobody struck out 300 batters. Or knocked in 150 runs. Or stole 70 bases.

Derek Jeter led the American League in hits (219) and Mariano Rivera led the league in saves (45). Chipper Jones will be the National League MVP for all-around production, but for individual titles, Jeter and Rivera are it among the 50 players astride the baselines during this evening's introductions.

All they do spectacularly is win.

Which is why it's funny the Braves and Yankees are supposedly playing for the title, ``Team of the Decade.'' You want to ask, Which decade?

They seem out of step with the 1990s, when winning with the starting rotation (Braves), the top of the order (Yankees), coaching (Braves) and chemistry (Yankees) is passe.

They're perfectly suited, though, to the style of baseball played in the postseason, when pitching and little things usually make the difference.

Check the scores of the playoff games so far. The losing team usually scores 0 to 3 runs, shut down by good pitching.

In 27 postseason games this year, the losers have scored five runs or more just four times. Each of those slugfests came late in the series when the pitchers are making their second starts.

I think the Braves' pitchers are more likely to survive those harder second starts. Tom Glavine (games 1 and 5) went 2-0 in the team's 1995 World Series victory over Cleveland. Greg Maddux (games 2 and 6) recorded low ERAs when he has started twice in a series. Kevin Millwood (games 3 and 7) kept the team in the decisive extra-inning game against the Mets in his second start.

The Yankees don't have a starter who has won twice in a series. David Cone (games 2 and 6) is better when he's well-rested. Andy Pettitte (games 3 and 7) has an 0-2 blotch on his record from the 1997 AL Championship Series loss to Cleveland.

The oddsmakers favor the Yankees, who beat the Braves in the 1996 World Series and San Diego in 1998.

But these are hardly the same teams that met in the World Series just three years ago. A more precise phrase for what's at stake here would be ``Franchise of the Decade.''

Since 1996 the Yankees have said goodbye to John Wetteland, Kenny Rogers, Jimmy Key, Charlie Hayes, Mariano Duncan and Cecil Fielder. They've brought in Roger Clemens, Chuck Knoblauch and Hideki Irabu.

Since '96 the Braves have lost Fred McGriff, Marquis Grissom, Denny Neagle, Mark Wohlers and Steve Avery. They've gained Millwood, Brian Jordan, John Rocker and Mike Remlinger.

Plusses and minuses on both sides. The point is, picking the Yankees because they beat the Braves three years ago makes as much sense as picking the Yankees because they won last year.

Or picking the Cubs because Sammy Sosa hit all those home runs.

Braves in seven.