Turner Happy on the Bench

Yankee backup catcher Chris Turner has but one wish in this World Series: Please, please, please don’t let me catch.

“We’re a better team with Jorge Posada in there, and if I’m in the game, that means something bad has happened,” said Turner, a former Angel. “I don’t want that, even though it would be me who would play.”

Backing up Posada in the Bronx is something like backing up Met catcher Mike Piazza in Queens. The chances of playing, especially in a game of any magnitude, are minuscule.

But Turner has been getting some major air time during the World Series--he was the catcher (No. 25 on your screen) on that fateful July 8 evening in Yankee Stadium when Roger Clemens beaned Piazza, a clip that has been replayed over and over during the series.

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Timo Perez’s strikeout in the first inning Tuesday ended an odd but remarkable streak for the Mets. In Game 3 of each of the previous World Series the Mets had been in, the first batter had hit a home run, Tommie Agee in 1969, Wayne Garrett in 1973 and Lenny Dykstra in 1986.