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SHEA IT AIN’T SO – * FIELD CRASHER GETS JAIL * BANNED FROM STADIUM * ORDERED TO PAY $2,000

The screwball who jumped onto the Shea Stadium turf waving a Howard Stern sign during a Mets game will get to watch some postseason games on TV – from Rikers Island.

In a plea deal yesterday, John McCarthy, 38, agreed to serve eight weekends in prison in September and October, pay a $2,000 fine and stay away from Shea for three years.

“I sure as hell did not deserve what went on, but I have to bite the bullet and move on from here,” said the Totowa, N.J., resident.

“The Mets in three years might have a better team when I go to see them. I’m definitely a Yankee fan.”

But earlier, in court, McCarthy apologized.

“I’m really sorry that this has taken up so much time,” he told Queens Judge Stephen Knopf.

“If I could take it back, I’d do it in a second.”

McCarthy’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said his clinet was genuinely contrite.

“He regrets his actions,” Aidala said.

Prosecutors say McCarthy had decided before the Mets’ May 4 game against the San Francisco Giants to run onto the field and when the opportunity arose he jumped from the right-field seats.

He then pulled out a sign reading, “Howard Stern Here’s Johnny” and ran around trying to elude security personnel.

McCarthy had maintained he simply fell from the stands reaching for a foul ball, but didn’t explain why he kept running.

It was the first such incident to be prosecuted under the city’s new “Calvin Klein” law, which provides penalties of up to a year in jail for civilians who jump onto the field of play.

The law takes its nickname from a March 2003 incident in which the famed fashion designer walked out onto the court during a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden and tried to speak to forward Latrell Sprewell.

Knopf had harsh words for the defendant yesterday.

“People pay good money to see these games,” the judge said. “And they don’t expect to have them disrupted . . . by someone whose actions could be best described as idiotic.”

McCarthy had faced up to a year in jail. In May he said he was offered a plea bargain that would have sent him to prison for 30 days but rejected it.

Mets Vice President for Security Robert Kasdon said he believed the sentence agreed to yesterday was the most severe penalty ever handed out for the disruption of a sporting event – an opinion shared by City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens), the architect of the law.

“Any knucklehead who wants to run on the field should be prepared to lose both his weekends and his drinking money,” Vallone said.

But McCarthy’s 61-year-old mother, Pat, held back tears following the sentencing.

“It just doesn’t seem right,” she said. “The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.”