MORE stupid – dishonest, even – TV tricks:

Monday’s Giants-Mets game found the presumably legitimate Little League World Series champs, the team from Tokyo, at Shea Stadium.

The kids were seen on ESPN frolicking before the game with countryman and Mets outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo. They were seen applauding from the stands in the top of the fourth, after Shinjo made a nice catch.

And, as the perfect ending to “SportsCenter’s” recurring story – it appeared in Monday’s and Tuesday’s editions – they were seen applauding from the stands in the bottom of the eighth, after Shinjo tied the game with a home run. “The kids love him!” exclaimed anchor Steve Berthiaume.

Storybook stuff!

And a crock.

The Little Leaguers left Shea Stadium well before Shinjo batted in the eighth. The clip of the kids applauding Shinjo’s homer, although presented to a national audience as the kicker in a chronological sequence, did not occur as reported by SportsCenter. The kids had already left.

In fact, the clip shown of the kids applauding Shinjo’s eighth inning homer seemed to be the same clip of the kids applauding his fourth inning catch, only it was blown up a bit to make it appear slightly different.

“We shouldn’t have done it,” said Norby Williamson, VP for SportsCenter production. “It was a mistake, not one representative of the work we do, day in and day out, but that doesn’t change anything – it shouldn’t have happened.”

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A sharp TV or film producer could have, in one day – this past Sunday – made a quick, easy and important documentary about the state of big time sports.

All he or she had to do was show up with a crew at Shea, shortly after noon, to capture all the people who had arrived with their kids for an afternoon Giants-Mets game – a 1:10 start, as printed on their tickets – only to learn that the game had been switched to an 8:05 start on orders from MLB, which had sold ESPN the right to turn day into night.

According to a Shea employee, “lots” of people began to arrive after noon, unaware that the game had been pushed back seven hours to 8:05, an hour later than the Mets’ home games normally begin.

Then the producer could’ve captured the scene in the Shea parking lot, at 10:30 p.m., after the sixth inning, when the lot filled with people and their kids. They were heading home. The score was 3-3 at the time.

Finally, the producer could’ve presented the scene outside of Shea at 11:33 p.m. on a Sunday night, when the 6-5, 8 1/2-inning game ended.

The theme would’ve spoken for itself: If you showed up for a 1:10 start, MLB had made a fool of you. If you showed up for an 8:05 start, MLB made a fool of you. And if you didn’t show up at all – if you were forced to eat the tickets because of the change in starting time – MLB made a fool of you.

Would’ve made for a heck of a piece.

*

What a pity that the Danny Almonte proof-of-age issue has become an issue of political correctness and/or an issue of racism instead of an issue of right from wrong.

We’re left to wonder whether Mayor Giuliani would’ve been as eager to present the Bronx Little League team the Key to the City had his son’s team, presuming it played by the rules, lost to the team from The Bronx.

What was the rush in presenting the team with the Key or throwing it a parade? With disturbing details about the team’s star pitcher coming with a rush, couldn’t the festivities have been tabled? The kids live here, right? They’re not going anywhere, are they?

And what a shame that minorities who are otherwise sensitive to the stacked deck of racism would so aggressively ignore, dismiss or even support a stacked deck because it aided a team of their race and stoked their sense of nationalism, absurdly attached to baseball games played by children.

The same see-no-evil revelers on behalf of the Bronx Little Leaguers would not have easily suffered a loss from a team that succeeded on the arm of a pitcher who is likely two years over the age limit. And they’d correctly remind us that this sets a terrible example for all kids.

Wrong is wrong – here, there, everywhere. Wrong has no particular color or religion, no particular facial features and no exclusive accent or language. Wrong is wrong.