YOU can’t be a champion of equality and play by two sets of rules. You can’t ignore in some folks what you’d loudly condemn in others.

Last week, Carlos Delgado claimed that he was turned off by the Mets when Dominican-born GM Omar Minaya and Minaya’s assistant, Puerto Rico native Tony Bernazard, attempted to play the race card. He said that they emphasized their shared Hispanic heritage as a selling point to sign with the Mets. Delgado, a Puerto Rican, said he resented such salesmanship.

That Minaya said he “won’t dignify” Delgado’s claim hardly matters.

That Minaya months ago made it clear that he’d stress his Dominican birth as a come-on to Hispanic stars to sign with the Mets – a team never short on Hispanics in the past – hardly matters.

Whether Delgado’s claim is true, partly true or a lie hardly matters.

What matters is that the story was neither a big story nor is it likely to become one. The story broke in Friday’s Toronto Star, then was buried in small boxes in Saturday’s sports sections. Sportscasters on the local news ignored it. By Sunday, it was no longer even a small story. Over and out.

But imagine if a white free-agent baseball star claimed that a white GM tried to sign him on racial grounds, that the GM told him “We white guys should stick together” or suggested that his team will be a haven for white stars.

That would be Page 1 – top-of-the-telecast stuff. Bud Selig would express his official dismay while announcing “a complete and thorough investigation.” Too late. That GM would already be through, kaput.

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Barry Bonds’ steroid rationalizations are beginning to sound like Vince McMahon’s. McMahon used to tell reporters that the steroids he used were not yet illegal. And the reporters would write that as fact.

But those reporters never asked why, if they were not illegal, he had them shipped from Pennsylvania to his office in Connecticut. Why didn’t he just run down to the corner pharmacy to get them? And, if they were not illegal, why was the doctor who shipped them sentenced to hard time in a federal prison?

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Lousiville-DePaul, on ESPN, Saturday, made for interesting fashion TV, not so much because the Louisville Cardinals wore black uniforms, but because the DePaul Blue Demons wore blue ones. What’s up with that? . . . And when did Michael Kay become so full of himself? When bites from his ESPN radio show are replayed, he calls the replays “Re-Kays.” Ugh.

If there was one person watching the end of Saturday’s third round of the Ford Doral who did not know that the next day’s Phil Mickelson-Tiger Woods pairing would be a very attractive one, NBC’s Dan Hicks explained it to him or her about six times. Yesterday, roughly three times per hole, an NBCer felt the need to remind us that what we’re watching is special.

Chuck Thompson, forever the beloved voice of the Orioles, died yesterday at 83. Oddly, Thompson might be best remembered by New Yorkers for an error. Calling Bill Mazersoki’s 1960 World Series-ending homer to a national audience, Thompson identified the Yankee pitcher as Art Ditmar instead of Ralph Terry.

What’s all this nonsense as to whether John Chaney should be fired? Heck, colleges indulge a lot worse – rapes, weapons, drugs – from their athletic programs. No way Chaney should be fired. He should, however, be arrested.

We’ve written it before, we’ll write it again: If Jim Spanarkel, who worked Kentucky-Florida with Ian Eagle on CBS, yesterday, were more self-promotional – if he hollered nutty expressions – he’d be widely recognized as one of TV’s best analysts. But Spanarkel gets by strictly on substance, which is only good for real basketball fans.

The Red Sox, having won their first World Series since Woodrow Wilson, will honor their devoted fans by charging $4.75 for a bottle of water. Given that home team fans will applaud a Jason Giambi as if he’s a war hero, perhaps they deserve to pay $4.75 for water.

Jerry Foley of Hightstown, N.J. asks how ESPN, in its Top 10 NFL Hits of the Year, could name a “cheap shot” – Eagle Jeremiah Trotter’s far-from-the-play wipeout of Giant punter Jeff Feagles – No. 1. Well, Jerry, it’s like this: Trotter’s shot was technically legal but morally unjustifiable. The same can be said of ESPN.