Johnson cool to 'rivalry' talk

" Archrival? It's like we're making `Superman 4' or `Spiderman 4.' "

Someone reminded Johnson that Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino already had cast the Yankees as the Evil Empire.

"What does that make me, then?" Johnson asked.

Darth Vader.

He laughed. "Beautiful," he said. "Bring it on."

The Sox and Yankees played another spring game here yesterday, but Johnson's official introduction to the rivalry will come Sunday night in the Bronx, when he is scheduled to face Boston in the first game of the 2005 major league season. Yankees manager Joe Torre has set his rotation so that Johnson also will start against the Sox in Fenway Park April 14.

"That makes my day," Sox manager Terry Francona said when told that his club will get a double dose of the Big Unit in the season's first fortnight.

But the 41-year-old Johnson, winner of five Cy Young Awards and the oldest pitcher ever to throw a perfect game (against Atlanta last year), did his utmost yesterday to downplay the suggestion that the Yankees are looking to him the way the Sox did to Schilling when they traded for him after the 2003 season.

"In a sense, that's why I'm here, that's why Carl [Pavano] is here, that's why Jaret [Wright] is here," Johnson said, reciting the names of the other new imports to the Yankee rotation, one that Torre calls the deepest he has had in a decade of managing the Bombers.

"But to think one person won it last year in Boston, or one person will win it here, or one guy in Palooka, Miss., that's not going to be the case. You win the World Series because everyone plays well.

"For someone to say the Boston Red Sox won because Curt was there, that's nice stuff, but I don't think they win if Pedro [Martinez] isn't there or Derek [Lowe] isn't there, or Manny [Ramirez] and David Ortiz don't have good years.

"The bottom line is, I'm here to help be a part. But by no means am I -- what's the nickname for [Allen] Iverson? -- The Answer? By no means am I the answer."