BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : WORLD SERIES

Most of the Phillies take the courageous approach and watch erratic reliever Mitch Williams on the mound, but starter Curt Schilling can’t bear the sight of it.

Schilling covers his head with a towel and doesn’t come up for air until Williams is done. The approach, he says, is part superstition, part survival.

“He’s hard to watch,” Schilling said. “It’s as simple as that. I couldn’t manage him, I know that.”

Schilling, however, wore a large pin on his cap Wednesday that said, “I survived watching Mitch pitch in the 1993 World Series.”

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Although Williams has resisted all change and has developed into one of the premier closers in the game, he contends that Rob Dibble’s problems coincided with the Cincinnati Reds’ request that he see a psychiatrist.

“I thought Dibble would be one of the best closers there ever was,” Williams said. “But when Cincinnati wanted him to go to a psychiatrist, it changed him. The bottom line is that he was doing his job, just leave him alone.

“I told Dib that, too. I said, ‘Don’t let them change you. You do what you have to do to get the job done.’ ”

Williams speaks out of experience, he says, recalling that in 1987 the Texas Rangers sent him to see a hypnotist.

“I went and saw him three times,” Williams said. “And then he went on to see a psychiatrist.

“I’ll say this, though, it worked. I was calmer than ever. I could give up three-run homers and it was no big deal to me.”

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Blue Jay third base coach Nick Leyva, a former Phillie manager who lives in the Philadelphia area during the off-season, has been swamped with ticket requests. The trouble, Leyva said, is trying to figure out who among his friends will be cheering for the Blue Jays.

“My good friends will be on my side,” he said. “My so-so friends will want tickets, but will root the other way.”

One of Leyva’s best friends, Joe Genuardi, made a big mistake, telling Leyva in advance that he would be pulling for the Phillies.

“This is where honesty fails you sometimes,” Leyva said. “The other guys are thinking it, but are smarter than to say it. He’s got one of those seats next to Bob Uecker, now.”

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Schilling, when asked if he had picked up any tips from his Game 1 start against the Blue Jays when he yielded eight hits and seven runs in 6 1/3 innings: “Well, I think I’ve found all their strengths.”