Todd Pratt was only halfway between third and home, running and floating at the same time, when he was swallowed up by an army of delirious Mets. There they were, sudden conquerors of the Diamondbacks, too overwhelmed to be coherent, ready for the next -- and last -- stop before the World Series.

Welcome to the growing miracle at Shea. Meet the re-born Mets, who say they're not only ready for the League Championship Series with the Braves, but actually relishing the challenge.

	Contrary to the prediction by Chipper Jones of the Braves, Mets fans have far from deserted their team.

"I think it'll be even more special when we beat the Braves," said reliever Turk Wendell. "Just because of everything that we've gone through this year."

"I heard the Braves were surprised that we beat the Reds (in a one-game playoff to determine the wild-card berth," said Al Leiter. "I bet they're real surprised now."

All around the clubhouse on Saturday, there were similar bring-on-the-Braves sentiments. Even though Atlanta beat the Mets in five of six games in a 10-day span in September -- and have flogged them 19 of 24 times since 1998 -- the Mets consider themselves new and improved, bigger and better, bolder and ... well, the perfect team to stun the Braves, just as they did the Diamondbacks.

There was no misinterpreting the love-riot that followed Pratt's dramatic, 10th-inning home run in Game 4 of the Division Series on Saturday, propelling the Mets to a 4-3 win and snuffing out Arizona's 100-win season. The sold-out crowd thundered for almost 30 minutes after Pratt finally crossed home plate, fans hugging fans, ushers high-fiving each other, even cops pumping their fists into the air.

On the field, the Mets went just as crazy, intoxicated by the scent of October success. Afterwards, Buck Showalter spoke of the Mets' special "karma," knowing he'd been beaten by a team that, indeed, feels it has been touched by destiny.

"We're starting to feel like there's something special going on here," said John Franco, who earned the Game 4 victory. "I mean, our best hitter (Mike Piazza) is out, and that guy who backs him up (Pratt) hits the home run to win the Series."

No wonder the Mets are entertaining delicious thoughts of a Subway Series. New Yorkers already are inflamed by the images: Leiter throwing his cut-fastball to Paul O'Neill, Rey Ordonez and Derek Jeter going one-on-one in a defensive beauty pageant, and, of course, Tino Martinez getting another chance at Armando Benitez, who, as an Oriole in 1998, sparked a vicious, bench-clearing brawl at the Stadium by hitting the Yankee first baseman on the back with a 98-mph fastball.

But for all their intracity rivalries, the Mets and Yankees don't dislike each other. Many of them are friends, in fact, and would welcome an all-New York World Series just for its great theater.

However, there's no such warmth between the Mets and Braves, especially after comments made last month between the two clubs. First, the Mets wondered out loud if Chipper Jones was getting help from Braves' base runners in stealing signs from Piazza.

Then, Bobby Valentine said he voted for Bobby Cox in the Sporting News' Manager of the Year poll, but tweaked his counterpart by saying, "He's had to manage this year." The implication, of course, is that Cox has been on auto-pilot during the 1990s, winning eight division titles only because of the team's surplus of on-field talent.

The Braves retaliated by predicting the Mets' fans would convert into Yankee loyalists during the World Series -- after the Mets had been vanquished one more time.

Following a 4-3, 11-inning Braves win on Sept. 30 at Shea, which dropped the Mets into a virtual disaster in the wild-card race, Chipper Jones said Mets fans could "go home and put their Yankee stuff on. You know they're all going to convert. It's amazing how fast you hear Yankee talk around the dugout, yet, they're wearing Mets stuff.

"It's like they are conceding the loss and saying the Yankees were going to beat us. First of all, we've still got to get there, and second, they shouldn't be traitors."

Those comments haven't been forgotten in the Met clubhouse, certainly not by Valentine, who issued his strongest on-the-record challenge so far to Atlanta.

"I guess I'm the guy with the big mouth, but they're the ones playing against the ghosts," Valentine said. "I don't know if (the Braves) have ever played against a team of ghosts. We're dead, right? Our fans are supposed to change their gear ... go rooting for the Yankees. It's our fans that are going to be in the stands, I'll guarantee you that."

So it starts Tuesday night at Turner Field, where Masato Yoshii will be followed by Kenny Rogers in Game 2, then Leiter and Rick Reed in Games 3 and 4 at Shea. By then, we'll know if the Mets really are destiny's creation, or just a product of October hype.

Either way, we relish a week of real-life trash talk. The first pitch hasn't even been thrown, and already the insults are flying overhead like bullets.

What's not to love about October?

Bob Klapisch of the Bergen (N.J.) Record writes his baseball column every Monday for ESPN.com.