President good luck to winning Yankees

NEW YORK, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Wearing a Fire Department of New York sweatshirt, President George W. Bush threw the ceremonial first pitch for a strike Tuesday night ahead of World Series Game 3 at New York's Yankee Stadium.

Bush then walked off the mound to the fans' cries of "U-S-A, U-S-A." The president and his wife, Laura, watched the game from the box of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.

The sellout crowd of 57,000 cheered the Yankees to a 2-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, who still lead the best-of-seven series 2-1.

Fans and players observed a moment of silence prior to the game to honor the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Max Von Essen, a singer and the son of Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, sang the national anthem.

While the World Series is always a high-security event, the attendance of the president coupled with the federal warning that another terrorist attack might occur this week almost doubled the normal usual of police officers to more than 1,500 at the ballpark. Bomb-sniffing dogs, hazardous-materials specialists and about 1,500 police officers were assigned the stadium for the game.

As is always the case at a New York City big event, the police presence was visible everywhere. Everyone had to pass through metal detectors and ticket-takers checked inside pockets and ran metal detector wands over fans and players, including Yankee infielder Derek Jeter. Brief cases, backpacks, backpack purses, coolers, umbrellas and bags were banned.

President Bush gets high marks from New Yorkers for his handling of the terrorist attacks according to a poll released Tuesday that questioned 669 New Yorkers statewide on Oct. 22 to 27 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The Siena College Research Institute in Loudonville, N.Y. found Bush favored over Reagan, 67 percent to 15 percent, when it came to who would have handled the attacks better. The younger Bush topped his father, 55 percent to 26 percent; and he was also favored over Clinton, 65 percent to 26 percent.

Meanwhile, the New York City Department of Health is trying to piece together the movements of a 61-year-old Bronx woman who is in serious condition with inhalation anthrax to help determine where she might have been exposed to the life-threatening infection.

The woman lived alone and has no family in New York. She is too ill to speak with investigators. The woman worked in a supply room of the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital accepting deliveries and assigning equipment so almost everyone working in the hospital was in contact with her. The hospital was closed Tuesday and personnel were given antibiotics.

The woman did not handle mail but Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said the basement room where she worked was near the mailroom. Ten of the 40 environmental samples for anthrax came back negative and the city is waiting for the results of the remaining 30. The woman's home was also tested for anthrax.

Dennis Rivera, the president of the powerful hospital workers union, said workers would not have to return until the building was tested and declared safe.

Also Tuesday, two New York City postal unions were in federal court on their lawsuit to close two mail sorting facilities in New York City where anthrax spores were found on four mail-sorting machines. The machines have been cordoned off but workers complain that they still have to work near them. The machines are believed to have been exposed to the anthrax from the anthrax-contaminated letters sent to NBC ad the New York Post.

U.S. District Judge John Keenan, who revealed he once sorted mail as a college student, said he would let lawyers submit written arguments and he would hear witnesses next week in a case he called "tremendously important to the United States as a nation."

The electron-beam irradiation machines purchased by the U.S. Postal Service, used to kill anthrax bacteria on mail, may ruin photographic film that is mailed. A spokesman for Rocherster-based Kodak said it is testing film products on electron beam machine in an independent lab. About 40 million rolls of film are mailed yearly through the U.S. Postal Service.

According to city officials:

-- 4,011 are declared missing by the police

-- 481 bodies have been identified

(Reporting by Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y.)