IT wasn’t when Mike Hampton got the strike call on the 27th out of yesterday’s 5-1 win over the Marlins that the crowd was most animated. It wasn’t even when he walked back to the dugout after escaping a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the first.

Those ovations from the 36,162 who spent a sunny Mother’s Day at Shea were considerable, but didn’t come off nearly as personal as the one showered upon Hampton when he cut a shorter yet far more exhausting path to the dugout.

Running low to the

ground, covering ground in such a hurry, arms churning a bit like Smokin’ Joe Frazier’s in the midst of a body-punching flurry, Hampton slid into home plate ahead of left fielder Danny Bautista’s throw, which skidded to the backstop. Hampton popped up, turned around and waved to make sure Joe McEwing knew third base was his.

Hampton had just scored from first, which he had reached by dropping a bunt to third base side, fielded superbly by pitcher Brad Penny, whose throw wasn’t on time to retire the burning Hampton.

Using the speed that was part of the package that attracted major-college football coaches to the standout defensive back, Hampton had just scored the first run of a pitchers’ duel in the sixth inning.

All the bodies in the box seats near the Mets’ dugout were now standing. Their faces reached a shade of red normally reserved for washed-up pitchers walking to the showers. Beer was spilling everywhere. They lost it because they loved the moment. They could relate. This wasn’t a prima donna pitcher who takes a few feeble swings and walks back to the dugout.

This was a ballplayer who can’t get enough satisfaction out of just pitching, so he hits and runs and fields and does all the things the best player on your Little League team used to do because he was the best athlete in town and everyone else was just a necessary prop in a one-actor play.

Get a tape of the way the crowd cheered Hampton back into the dugout, play it backwards, and this is what it will say: “OK, you’re a Met now. The April shower of walks is forgiven. We see what the fuss is about. We want you to call this dump home until you call it quits.”

He had done this to the Mets while playing for the Astros, but all it made him was a respected enemy, a nice guy to avoid in a three-game series.

What he did yesterday, the way he did it, made him a Met in the eyes of a cynical crowd that made as superior a talent as Mike Piazza wait so long to get the home-town treatment. The Mets couldn’t get anything going against Penny, one of the legion of emerging young power arms collected by Marlins GM Dave Dombrowski after he was ordered to dismantle the 1997 World Champions.

Penny had faced 17 batters when Hampton walked to the plate with one out in the sixth. Sixteen of those batters had been retired, five by striking out.

Hampton is among the most skilled hitting pitchers in the game. He’s also realistic.

“He was throwing 93, 94 with movement and a good breaking ball,” Hampton said. “The third baseman was playing back. I thought maybe I could surprise them. Nobody had tried it.”

Hampton dropped down the bunt, beat it out, and Penny was never the same. The guess here is Hampton never will be looked at the same by the Shea regulars. Is he feeling the New York heat? Why can’t he throw strikes? How’s Octavio Dotel doing anyway? You think Roger Cedeno would be leading off here?

Those were last week’s questions.

Next week’s: Let’s see, he has about 25 starts left, think he can still win 20? Does he like it here? How much are those jerseys they sell in the souvenir shop? Will he want to sign a long-term deal? Think Bobby Valentine will ever use him as a pinch-runner?

Valentine answered the last question in the affirmative after yesterday’s game.

“I’ve had him with his spikes on a number of times this year,” said Valentine. “The situation hasn’t arisen yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it does.”

It wouldn’t be like Jose Canseco pitching for the fun of it, of course, it would happen because Hampton running would give the Mets the best chance of winning a game.

Not that his sprints on the bases yesterday were flawless. There was the brief stumble around third on McEwing’s double.

“That was sort of like when you seen a player running down a football field on a breakaway, flying too fast for his body, stumbling, taking a nose dive around the 2-yard line,” said Hampton, who did not walk a batter in his first complete game with the Mets. “You have to slow down a little, let your body catch up with your head.”

Hampton slowed down, gathered himself, quickly accelerated, and in the eyes of the audience joined the Mets. He let his body catch up with his head. As a pitcher, he has done just the opposite in righting himself. He has slowed down his head, made things simpler, let his natural athleticism take over.

Questions remain about whether the Mets have what it takes to get back into the playoffs. Just don’t count Hampton among your doubts any longer.