It won’t have the drama of Alex Rodriguez circa 2007 versus Matt Harvey circa 2013. But make no mistake: This will be a High Noon showdown a little after 4 o’clock on Subway Series Saturday, the disgraced old gunslinger quicker on the draw than anyone could have imagined, digging in defiantly as if from memory against the young, remorseless, merciless Dark Knight of Gotham, who burns to own the soul of anyone who dares to wave a bat at him from a distance of 60 feet, six inches.
A-Rod, Comeback Codger following a year of anguished exile, versus Harvey, Comeback Kid following an anguished year with Tommy John.
Even now, it’s the closest thing we’ll get to Roger Clemens versus Mike Piazza.
And it comes at a time when the Mets, 6-1 losers Friday night to kiss their 11-game winning streak goodbye, are making a power grab for the hearts and minds of New York, when A-Rod could serve as a symbol of Yankee decline and Harvey could serve as a symbol of Met renaissance — two baseball ships passing in the night.
It would have been nice to hear from Harvey on the matter of making his first start at Yankee Stadium. But on the eve of Happy Harvey Day, he declined interviews inside the visiting clubhouse.
The Silent Knight.
Mute Harvey.
Which was music to Terry Collins’ ears.
To Collins, Harvey’s calm before the storm was an unmistakable sign The Silent Knight already has his game face on.
“I’ve been around this guy for a long time now, and I know one thing about him, and he laughs when he talks about it,” Collins told The Post, “but he talks about the 72-hour rule — 72 hours before he pitches, it’s game-time for him. And he gets it ready. So all of the things you read about him being out, and doing this, and going here, and being a part of that — when he’s working, he gets himself ready to go. Before his last start, he’s taking extra BP, because he wasn’t happy with the way he swung a bat the first time. That’s Matt Harvey, and that’s how he goes about things.”
It means nothing now that Harvey once rooted for the Yankees growing up in Mystic, Conn., and attended Subway Series games with his father, because they will be standing in the way of his grandiose plans to be a star brighter than Reggie Jackson’s old Magnitude of Me. When Harvey swaggers out of the treacherous shadows and off the mound, he will want to make certain The Bronx Is Burning.
Remember how amped-up Harvey was when he started the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field? Collins expects him to be similarly smoldering Saturday.
“The question was asked of me, ‘What’s wrong with his ankle?’ His ankle’s fine,” Collins said. “To be honest, I didn’t even know he sprained his ankle in spring training because he never talked about. He won’t feel a thing [Saturday], I can tell you.”
Collins was asked if he will have to rein him in.
“We try to, we try to,” Collins said. “But again, you can only control so much. When he goes out on that mound, and hears the roar of those fans, the way they’ve been chanting his name and stuff, he’s gonna get geeked up.”
But what if he’s too geeked up?
“Dan [Warthen] will see it in the bullpen, he’ll rein him in,” Collins said.
Here is how hot Harvey is: MLB’s THIS campaign features him on a video all weekend, the first Met to receive such an honor since David Wright in 2007. He joins a list that includes Giancarlo Stanton, Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, David Price and Yasiel Puig.
MLB also is hawking Happy Harvey Day T-shirts.
But not everyone has Happy Harvey Day Fever.
“I don’t get excited about facing other pitchers,” said CC Sabathia, the Yankees’ starter Saturday.
SNY’s Keith Hernandez is eager to watch Harvey versus A-Rod, the essence of hardball versus longball.
Star Wars.
“It’s a power pitcher, who really is getting a lot of hoopla, and has yet to prove himself, he’s got enormous potential, and you’ve got a guy that no matter how you feel about it, has had a pretty good career,” Hernandez said.
To the players, it is one of countless power pitcher versus power hitter matchups over the course of a long season.
“I think you see that kind of matchup every day,” Michael Cuddyer said.
But this one is Subway Series Star Wars.
“It’s all about celebrity,” Hernandez said, “and that’s good for baseball.”
The Silent Knight better hope his Yankee Stadium debut goes better than Cuddyer’s did.
“I remember it vividly,” Cuddyer said, laughing. “It was old Yankee Stadium, obviously. Running out to my position — I played right field that day, and the Bleacher Creatures waving to me. So I waved back, naive as I was, I waved back.
“And about 10,000 middle fingers were up at me: ‘WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?’ ”