The ball that had flown off Josh Willingham’s bat and nestled in Cliff Floyd’s glove, the game ball from the Mets’ NL East-clinching win, is going to find its way to Floyd’s Florida home. In a year in which he suffered injury and illness and family tragedy, it’ll be a tiny, 5-ounce memento of the good in a tough year.

And Floyd can’t wait to give it away to the team.

“I’m gonna put it in a case, unless we win the World Series. Then I’ll have to give it up. But that’s the only way somebody’s going to get it,” said Floyd, who already has a spot picked out in his new house in Plantation.

He’s hoping it won’t stay there for long.

“I’m going to get Willingham to sign it, and [Billy Wagner] and [Paul Lo Duca] and put it in my case. I’m having my new house built and I’ll have it onmy desk . . .

But my mom already told me I have to give it up [if we win]. I might tell them they’ve got to give me a new contract if they want it back.” The 33-year-old free-agenttobe was joking, saying, if healthy, he wants to play next year, but that he’d never hold up the Mets as Doug Mientkiewicz did Boston.

For now, the ball will serve as a good memory in what’s been at times a tough year on and off the field.

Separate stints on the disabled list for ankle and Achilles tendon injuries held him to 311 at-bats. In spring training, he underwent tests for a possible kidney disorder, and last month he lost 21-year-old sister Shanta to cancer.

“What I’ve been through has made me better as a person,” Floyd said. “Given the opportunity from the man upstairs, I’m just going to go out and play. I’m still able to do this physically, regardless of what’s going on with my ankle.” He made the easy play Monday, catching Willingham’s fly ball, holding it aloft and bounding up and down like a pogo stick.

“A few of my coaches suggested taking him out for defense. I said no,” Willie Randolph said of Floyd, who was hitting just .241 with 11 homers and 42 RBIs. “He should be on the field. He should enjoy it. He should be a part of it.”