FOR THE RECORD

Maybe it's just us, but did the local media go a bit overboard on Rudy Giuliani declaring that he was rooting for the Red Sox last week?

It became front-page news in the tabloids and was featured prominently on the TV news, which might simply mean that not much was going on and the story filled the void between Joe Torre's firing and the selection of the Yankees' new manager.

But why would so many people draw the conclusion that Mr. Giuliani backing the Red Sox against the Colorado Rockies was treasonous to the Yankee faithful, or at the least a blatant attempt to curry favor with Massachusetts voters and their neighbors in New Hampshire, where our former Mayor is pinning his early primary hopes?

Much as we enjoy skewering Mr. Giuliani for pandering - and we thank him for giving us so many opportunities to do so - it's entirely possible that his choice here had nothing to do with politics - or his penchant for deference to the powerful, which the World Champs subsequently reaffirmed they were. There are more than a few fans who, when their favorite team is not involved, root for the participant from the same league, as Rudy said he was doing. The notion of never cheering for a historic enemy is downright quaint in an era when fantasy leagues and betting pools lead many fans to routinely defy their basic loyalties to root for their money.

If New Yorkers and the opinion-shapers in the media wanted to get upset with Our Boy Rudy, a much stronger case could be advanced based on his campaign speeches in which he depicts New York before he ran it as an out-of-control car speeding down the Highway to Hell.

Most residents, especially those who didn't live in the neighborhoods that accounted for the bulk of crime in the city, had a more measured view of the town in the early 1990s; many even liked it despite its problems. If life was as wild and wooly as Mr. Giuliani (and an infamous 1990 Time Magazine story) contended, it's tough to explain why the Disney Corporation agreed to become a pivotal presence on Times Square during David Dinkins's mayoralty.

New Yorkers might also wonder why, if our behavior and thinking at the time was such a cause for alarm, Mr. Giuliani took so many positions - on matters from gun control to social issues - that were in tune with his constituents rather than those embraced by the national Republican Party then and now.

But perhaps residents have grown so accustomed to the former Mayor's skills at embroidery that they don't pay attention anymore. It may impress out-of-towners to hear that he walked on water during his City Hall tenure, but we don't bat an eye, since Rudy long ago informed us that he invented the liquid.

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Another episode in the Giuliani canon emerged last week during the Federal trial of Lindley DeVecchio, a former FBI agent accused of feeding information to a cooperating Colombo Crime Family leader that led to the murders of numerous rivals.

One of the mob witnesses testified that when Mr. Giuliani was the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, his prosecutions became vexing enough that the leaders of the Five Families in 1986 took a vote on whether to assassinate him. The measure, according to the witness, failed to carry by a 3-2 margin, with Colombo boss Carmine Persico and John Gotti the mob leaders in favor of bumping off Rudy.

Several organized-crime experts have questioned the veracity of the story, noting that, "The Godfather" notwithstanding, the Mafia has refrained from murdering law-enforcement officials for fear of triggering major crackdowns in response.

Our own skepticism is fueled by memories of how Mr. Gotti gained mob office: he engineered the murder of his predecessor as head of the Gambino Family, Paul Castellano, less than a year before this contract vote supposedly took place.

That history offered Mr. Gotti some powerful leverage if he was determined to convince his fellow bosses to vote his way. As Newsday political reporter Dan Janison put it last week, "He could have threatened them with a primary."