NEW YORK -- Chicago Cubs president Theo Epstein is used to intense baseball battles involving a New York team, but this time he’s in Queens, not the Bronx, as his Cubs and the New York Mets prepare for their best-of-seven NLCS showdown that begins here on Saturday night.

“I love that feeling of coming into New York as the visiting team, as the enemy, and walking around town,” Epstein said Friday at the end of his team’s workout. “In the past it was Yankee caps, now seeing the Mets caps. Maybe getting a few knowing glances, ‘it’s time to go to battle.’ I’m not a player so it’s not that big a deal, but you still get that feeling of being in enemy territory in one of the biggest, best cities in the world. It’s a good feeling. I’m glad to be back again doing that.”

Epstein’s former team, the Boston Red Sox, had some epic battles with the New York Yankees, finally breaking through in 2004 in an incredible come-from-behind series win. Coming to New York reminds Epstein of those games -- the good ones as well as the bad.

“It brings back some memories of having to go through New York to get to a World Series,” Epstein said. “On top of that someone reminded me it’s the 12-year anniversary of the Aaron Boone home run. That brought back a less-than-stellar memory.”

Boone homered for the Yankees to knock the Red Sox out of the playoffs in 2003 before they finally got past their arch-rivals the following season. Now it’s a different kind of rivalry Epstein is experiencing. He knows his players are “too young” to be worried or even aware of the Mets overtaking the Cubs for the pennant in the infamous regular-season collapse of 1969. The Cubs led the Mets by nine games in August but finished eight behind them.

“I was aware of the history when I got to Chicago, but it was a bigger deal in town than I realized,” Epstein said. “A lot of people remember the heartbreak of that pennant race and blame the Mets for it.”

Epstein has his own bad memories of the Mets, which he can erase over the next 7-10 days. It’s known as the (Bill) Buckner game.

“I have my own personal Mets heartbreak from 1986 as a 12-year-old Red Sox fan, so I’m looking forward to this series,” he said.