Given the bad luck of the Mets' past two September collapses, Amazin' fans may have preferred to slide under the radar with all the new season's attention focused on the Shack Burgers arriving at Citi Field. But then Sports Illustrated has to show up and blow up their spot by making the team their preseason pick to win this year's Wold Series.

The problem with that of course is many people's belief in the "Sports Illustrated jinx" that accompanies many of the magazine's high praises for players and teams getting ready for a season. Mets GM Omar Minaya said he was caught off-guard by the pick, but doesn't believe in the "cover business." The team's manager Jerry Manuel laughed it off saying, "My kids and dogs and all the other folks, they picked me, too."

The magazine is putting a lot of stock in the off-season acquisitions of stoppers Francisco Rodriguez and JJ Putz. SI says, "Here's all you need to know about how the East was decided last year: The Mets lost seven times after taking a lead into the ninth, the first-place Phillies not once."

The weekly sports mag didn't predict another Subway Series, but did pick the Yankees to come up with the most wins in the American League this season. They think that the big guns brought in this off-season have put the Bombers at "their most October-ready roster since 2003."

The Daily News says that since SI has new Yankee ace CC Sabathia on the cover, "Perhaps it's not a full-scale jinx" for the Mets. The Post gets a laugh out of highlighting the year SI picked the Indians and the team ended the season with a 61-101 record. And jinx or not, the high bar set by SI is more than the News sees for the local ballclubs. In their extensive preview today, head baseball scribe Bill Madden predicted third place finishes in each of their respective divisions, which would make for another quiet October in town.