New York ? Be prepared to pay if your team makes it to the World Series.

The price of regular box seats will be $250, according to notices some teams have started sending to their season ticket holders.

That’s up from $185 last year, a 35 percent hike that is the steepest in nearly a decade, since Major League Baseball doubled the price from $75 to $150 in 1998. The cost rose to $160 in 2000, $175 in 2001 and $185 in 2004, where it stayed last year.

Premium seats, which include waiter service, cost even more.

Baseball’s ticket-price range for the Series will start at a low of $75, a $10 increase from last year.

Pavano mum on wreck

New York – Yankees pitcher Carl Pavano has a pair of broken ribs, sustained in a mid-August car accident that the oft-injured right-hander didn’t tell the team about until last weekend.

Pavano, who hasn’t played in the major leagues since June 27, 2005, due to shoulder, back, buttocks and elbow injuries, is scheduled for a medical checkup today and remains on track to make his final rehabilitation start Wednesday for Triple-A Columbus at Durham.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was unusually pointed in his remarks about Pavano, who signed a $39.95 million, four-year contract with the Yankees as a free agent before the 2005 season.

“Of course I’m angry. … I’ve got an army of people here that we provide to put our players in the best position possible to succeed, and I don’t want anybody to sabotage that by holding back,” Cashman said. “And clearly here, for a period of time, that took place.”

Pavano said he was hurt early Aug. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla., when on a rainy night his car hit a puddle, spun out of control and hit a truck that was at a stop sign.

BoSox, Reds swap hurlers

Cincinnati – The Cincinnati Reds sent right-hander Mike Burns to the Boston Red Sox on Monday, getting right-hander Tim Bausher and cash in a swap of relievers.

Also Monday, Reds catcher Javier Valentin agreed to a one-year contract extension through 2007, with a club option for one more season.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox placed rookie left-handed pitcher Jon Lester on the 15-day disabled list with a sore back.

Devil Rays recall Young

St. Petersburg, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Devil Rays recalled top prospect Delmon Young from Triple-A Durham and placed designated hitter Jonny Gomes on the 15-day disabled list due to a shoulder injury on Monday night.

Young, the first player selected in the 2003 amateur draft, served a 50-game suspension this season after throwing a bat at an umpire during a minor-league game. After returning to Durham’s lineup in June, he hit .318 with eight homers and 57 RBIs.

Cubs bring back Lee

Pittsburgh- The Chicago Cubs activated first baseman Derrek Lee from the 15-day disabled list Monday, and he was in the lineup against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Lee was on the disabled list since July 24 with post-traumatic inflammation of his right wrist. It was the second time on the DL this season for the defending National League batting champion. He was on the 15-day disabled list from April 21-June 25 after he fractured the distal radius and distal ulna bones in his right wrist on April 19 in Los Angeles.