But the big guy admitted Thursdaythat in September he felt an emotion more commonly associated with the athletes he critiques over 50,000 clear-channel watts.

"Did I feel pressure? Yes,'' he said, recalling the weeks after his breakup with Chris Russo last summer, when the continued success of WFAN's post- Don Imus pillar was uncertain.

"Did I feel like I had the station on my shoulders? Yes, I did . . . I knew I had a leadership role there, so yes, I felt the pressure. I knew that if I didn't succeed I'd get really ripped apart.''

Francesa spoke before the Mets' victory at Citi Field, where he took in five innings on his way to work on the last day of the spring ratings book, the final relevant day of a radio season that began Sept. 2.

And he was feeling pretty darn good, thanks for asking, both about his show and the station as a whole barely two years after Imus departed, followed by Russo, threatening the FAN's foundations. "WFAN right now is as strong as it has been in a really long time,'' Francesa said.

The morning show featuring Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason has gained a significant following, and the afternoon drive slot has maintained its long ratings edge over 1050 ESPN, even without Russo.

The official spring figures will not come out until mid-July, but the station is cautiously optimistic that Francesa's numbers will be strong in the key demographic of men ages 25-54.

"I didn't go into it thinking I would fail, but obviously I'm pleasantly pleased and very, very happy with what happened,'' he said.

Francesa insists he views all afternoon drive shows as his competition, not just 1050. But clearly he has been paying particular attention to them since he was told of some anticipatory celebrating there after Russo's departure. In February he unleashed a memorable on-air monologue during which he said of 1050, "You have never gotten close, and you never will, as long as I'm sitting here.''

Francesa evidently does not expect to be eating those words anytime soon. "What I will say is: You know what? Check the back of the baseball cards,'' he said yesterday, meaning that the statistics speak for themselves.

Still, the show has lost something without the chemistry Francesa and Russo mined, as Francesa has by necessity softened some of his old edges and admittedly been more "patient'' as a solo act.

Will he go solo for good? He initially expected to have a new cast in place Sept. 5, a goal he now says was "very silly on my part'' to set publicly.

But he insisted he still is open to adding new elements. "I will look into it a lot this summer,' he said. '

Francesa said getting through 5 1/2 hours alone has not been a problem. The trouble has been that he no longer takes as many days off as he used to, even when he is ill.

"I don't want to feel I can't miss a day, which is how I've felt since September,'' he said.

Russo now works for Sirius XM, just a few miles from WFAN's studios, but Francesa said the two haven't spoken in months. Yet he spoke warmly of his old partner, saying he still thinks of him as a friend.

He said outside forces have acted to "tug at us'' but that he hopes their relationship will endure as their breakup recedes into the past.

"I have no hard feelings,'' he said. "It's like being traded to another team. You come to a point where you have to, to be fair to the people who employ you and people you work with, put that behind you eventually.

"It's a different day and a different time and a different team and that's it.''