IF YOU know nothing about baseball, the New York Yankees playing in a World Series is a good place to start. If you know next to nothing about baseball you probably know about the Yankees and you probably know about the World Series. Babe Ruth. Joe Di Maggio. Lou Gehrig. Mickey Mantle. You guessed it. All Yankees. All with reputations forged in the heat of the Series.

It's been a surprisingly long time, 18 years to be precise, since the New York Yankees took a World Series home to the cathedral of baseball in the south Bronx. For the most storied team in the game's history that sort of wait is intolerable.

This year the Yankees have spent big in an attempt to put the pinstripe uniform back at the top of baseball. A $20 million re-signing contract with pitcher David Cone was followed by a series of big purchases from other clubs. This week is pay off time.

If the Big Apple is to be rechristened Title Town in the immediate future the Yankees must first invent some way of dealing with the best pitching rotation in baseball, that served up by the Atlanta Braves, who provide enough heat and smoke to keep anybody's eyes off the prize and on the pitching mound.

Chasing their second successive World Series the Atlanta Braves have based their success on brilliant pitching and some big hitting. Mainly pitching. In Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, Atlanta have perhaps the three best pitchers in baseball. Throw in the improving form of injury hit Steve Avery and Atlanta have the basis of victory right there on the pitching mound.

It was superior pitching which kept the Braves alive when they went three games to one down against St Louis in the play offs last week. Superior pitching which got them past the second best pitching team in baseball (the LA Dodgers) earlier in the play offs and vastly superior pitching which led to them breaking an old baseball record this season throwing 1,245 strikeouts in the regular season. If you are going to beat the Atlanta Braves you have to find a way of hitting the ball in between all that intimidating speed and optical illusion they throw at you.

In last year's World Series with the Cleveland Indians the focus was almost exclusively on the pitching duel between the peerless Maddux and the Indians' poker faced hero Orel Hershisher. This October John Smoltz is likely to share the lime light with team mate Maddux. Having played through the playoffs last year while recovering from an elbow injury Smoltz has pitched better then ever this summer winning 24 regular season games and adding a new pitch to his repertoire. He has pronounced himself fresh and well rested for the biggest test of his career.

It hasn't been a bad year for the Atlanta offence either, hitting home runs regularly to compensate for a lacklustre performance in the matter of stealing bases and pinching singles.

In fact, the past few days which have seen the Braves come back off the ropes against the St Louis Cardinals have been a purple patch for their offence. Needing to win the last three games of the series the Braves did so in great style outscoring the Cardinals by an unbelievable 32 runs to one.

Atlanta's most basic tactic has been to use their pitching to keep the opposition scoreless or nearly scoreless and then depend on somebody to produce the goods with the bat. This past week the goods have been produced in abundance. Most likely candidates to deliver over the next few days are Ryan Klesko (left field). Marquis Grissom (centre field), Javy Lopez (catcher) or the baby infielder Chipper Jones.

First baseman Fred McGriff does a lot of the donkey work while David Justice, who hit the World Series winning run in Game Six against the Indians last year has spend much of the season struggling with injury.

What hope then for the Yankees?

Well, if colourful characters counted for anything they would be champions already. This year they are fielding the enormously round and hugely deadly Cecil Fielder in a line up which includes no less than three drug rehabilitation cases (Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden and Tim Raines). They have the most autocratic owner in baseball, George Steinbrenner, and the fastest spinning revolving door in baseball management Joe Torres this year's incumbent, is the 21st manager Steinbrenner has appointed in his 23 years of owning the club.

Down on the field? They are well rested for starters having sat out the protracted Atlanta/St Louis play off series. Being well rested might just balance things slightly in the pitching department.

Not that the Yankees need too much help with pitching. Their gamble in signing perennial bad boy Dwight Doe Gooden to their pitching staff has paid off this year, although Gooden's form has tailed off lately and thus far he has seen no play off action. The Yankees signed Good en from their hapless neighbours the Mets and also beat off competition for the signature of left handed pitcher Kenny Rogers, another gamble and one that hasn't yet paid of.

However with the continuing excellence of David Cone, recently recovered from an aneurysm in his throwing shoulder to hurl the pitches which clinched the American League pennant the Yankees have a pitching rotation which has considerable strength in depth.

First there is the amazingly improved form of the Panamanian reliever, Mariano Rivera. Rivera, who was listed for a transfer out of the Bronx last summer, went away and added another five miles per hour and a bit of devil to his fast ball pitch and now closes out games for the Yankees, pitching dancing baseballs at 96 miles an hour and averaging a strikeout per game. That, along with the surprisingly dominant form of Andy Pettitte (20 wins this season) has turned the Yankees into a considerable pitching force. When Gooden and Rogers have their good days it is a bonus rather than a necessity.

In the matter of hitting the Yankees are cavalier and exciting to watch. Crowd favourites Paul O'Neill and Wade Boggs have acquired support this year through the signing of first baseman Tino Martinez and the continued blossoming of centre fielder Bernie Williams. Then there is the big boomer himself, Cecil Fielder, who has added some firepower since his mid season signing from Detroit.

Down the stretch in the regular season nobody did more for the offense than Tim Raines.

So a series filled with intrigue and good pitching duels to end a season which has brought many complaints about the thin spread of pitching talent throughout major league baseball. The Braves have the better starting pitchers. The Yankees have better relief and more exciting offence. A bad day for Maddux, Smoltz or Glavine could be enough to bring the title to New York. Game One takes place tonight in Yankee Stadium. Sit back and be beguiled by the most graceful of all field games.