Curt Schilling is ready.

He feels the fervor, comprehends the curse, watched from afar last year and, like much of baseball, was transfixed.

The cities challenge him. The fans don’t fluster him.

Yankees vs. Red Sox. There’s nothing else like it in baseball these days.

“There’s nothing like walking into a stadium where people call you things you’ve never heard before,” he said. “As an opposing player at Yankee Stadium, it’s very clear where you stand immediately. I would imagine it’s even more so when you play for this team.”

You got that right, Curt.

After playing a record 26 times last year, pushing each other to the 11th inning of Game 7 of the AL championship series, New York and Boston are ready to go at each other again 19 more times during the 2004 regular season.

They pushed their payrolls to record highs – about $184 million for the Yankees and $123 million for the Red Sox, easily the top two in baseball.

They tracked each other’s trade talks, competed for Alex Rodriguez and called each other names.

When the Yankees met the Red Sox for the first time since last October’s playoffs, a Red Sox fan walked around City of Palms Park holding a photograph of Rodriguez’s wife, Cynthia, in a swimsuit with Derek Jeter’s face superimposed on her body. On the sign were the words: ” ‘A-Rod has such soft hands’ – Derek.”

“I was hiding my head,” she said, “but I thought it was hilarious.”

When the Red Sox meet the Yankees these days, even in spring training, emotions are high.

Boston, of course, hasn’t won the World Series title since 1918, since before the Red Sox dealt Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

New York has had 26 since then – 26 too many for fans in Fenway and 68 too few for Yankees’ boosters in the Bronx. When the Yankees lost to Florida in the World Series last October, New York owner George Steinbrenner fumed, causing one-third of his roster to turn over.

Boston would just love the chance to get to the Series for the first time since 1986. On Thanksgiving weekend, they made a deal with Arizona to acquire Schilling, one of the pitchers who helped slay the Yankees in the 2001 World Series.

“Everybody is enamored with the curse and all of that stuff,” Schilling said. “I’m not saying that that’s a bad theory, but the fact of the matter is that it just hasn’t gotten done in recent history here and they brought me in to help get it done.”

Boston fans are excited about their team’s chances after the additions of Schilling and closer Keith Foulke. Two weeks before the start of the season, the Red Sox had sold 2.3 million tickets at an average price of about $40, according to team president Larry Lucchino. That translates to $92 million in ticket money before a pitch is thrown.

Already, the home opener on April 9 and the 10 Fenway games against the Yankees are sellouts, according to the Red Sox’s Web site.

At Yankee Stadium, New York has sold 2.8 million tickets – 400,000 ahead of last year’s pace, at an average price of $41.25, according to chief operating officer Lonn Trost.

New York’s acquisition of A-Rod added even more sparks to the feud. Boston nearly obtained the AL MVP from Texas in December for Manny Ramirez, but that deal fell through. The Yankees then got him just before spring training, persuading Rodriguez to switch to third.

That led to Boston owner John Henry calling for a salary cap. Steinbrenner shot back that the Red Sox had “sour grapes” and that Henry resembled the Scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz.”

When the teams meet for the first time on April 16 at Fenway Park – the first regular-season night game on national network TV in six years – Rodriguez will hear an offseason of rage, perhaps a few decades worth.

“The Boston fans, they boo you great. I share that same passion with them,” Rodriguez said. “The East Coast fan is the best in baseball. The passion is second to none.”

Lucchino, who labeled the Yankees the “Evil Empire” after the 2002 season, doesn’t regret that the Red Sox failed to offer more money to seal a deal for A-Rod in December. Even without him, Boston is favored by some to win the AL East after finishing second to the Yankees for six straight seasons. And the Red Sox figure to set an attendance record in Fenway, whose capacity of about 34,000 is the smallest in the major leagues

“We didn’t start this rivalry, we inherited it,” he said. “But we don’t mind stoking the flames from time to time to because it is a part of the marketing.”

He knows the pressure Steinbrenner has put on general manager Brian Cashman to beat Boston once again.

“Brian Cashman, I hope this doesn’t hurt his career, we bumped into each other and had a civil conversation,” Lucchino said during the first spring training meeting. “I joked that if someone snapped a picture of us, a civil conversation could be a bad career move.”

Only if the Yankees fail to get off to a good start.

In the Bronx, it’s always “win now.”

In Boston, it’s always “beat the Yankees” and “end the curse.”

Jeter, Rodriguez’s partner on the left side of the Yankees’ infield, is looking forward to another battle. For him, beating the Red Sox is just part of the equation. With the Yankees, anything less than World Series title No. 27 would be a failure.

“Hopefully,” Jeter said, “we’ll have another Game 7.”