Horns, hurrahs: Jubilant fans head to the streets.

As the champagne sprayed inside the Phillies clubhouse yesterday afternoon, Steven Marcinkus hoisted his 3-year-old son and namesake onto his shoulders at the Corner.

If you're from Northeast Philadelphia, Frankford and Cottman Avenues is where you go to celebrate good sports news.

Just after the final out in the Phillies' 6-1 win over the Washington Nationals clinched the National League Eastern Division championship, the intersection was flooded with honking cars. Near Marcinkus and his son, young women leaped up on the traffic-signal control box, five feet off the ground, only to be ordered off by one of the dozens of police officers keeping the crowd of about 350 at bay.

The ambulance from Fire Rescue Medic 17 roared past, lights flashing, siren howling. A medic in the front seat beamed and raised her two gloved thumbs up. The Route 70 SEPTA bus thundered up, "Go Phillies" on its destination sign. The driver gave a thumbs-up, to wild cheers.

Throughout the region, the die-hards celebrated on the streets and in taprooms - loudly but peacefully, according to police. Perhaps the celebration was tempered by the realization that the Phils still have a long way to go, or maybe the fans simply wanted to conserve some energy for last night's nationally televised Eagles game.

Marcinkus, a tile finisher who has lived his whole life in Mayfair, was drawn to the corner, just as he had been in 1993, when the Phillies reached the World Series; in 2001, when the Sixers were in the NBA finals; and in 2004, when the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl.

Now little Steven would begin learning about the ritual.

"This is the bond that brings the whole city together, especially since we barely win anything," Marcinkus, 27, said.

The Phillies victory was one for the ages, however. On Sept. 12, they were seven games behind the Mets, and they rallied to match the biggest September comeback in major league history. The Mets, whom the Phils had been chasing all year, collapsed spectacularly at the same time.

Now, the Phillies advance to the postseason for only the 10th time in their history. They'll host Game 1 of the first round of the divisional series against the winner of Monday night's wild-card tiebreaker between Colorado and San Diego. The series will start Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park.

Success was especially sweet because it came in the same season the Phillies recorded the franchise's 10,000th loss, and many had written the team off. And the last two seasons had ended in heartbreak: In 2005, the Phillies were eliminated from contention on the final day of the season. Last year, they were KO'd on the next-to-last day.

With such history, the reaction at times bordered on disbelief.

"Pinch me - this is unbelievable!" cried a giddy Mayor Street last night, not long after leading his entire cabinet in a "Go Phillies" cheer on a phone call to club president David Montgomery. They then started talking parades. "We're all hoping we get to plan one," Street said.

No baseball fanatic, Street said he was taken with this team, loaded with role models - he honored Jimmy Rollins at City Hall this month - who make the whole city look good.

"The whole region will be floating," Street said. "Even those of us who are not die-hard fans are going to wake up tomorrow morning and feel good."

Indeed, this year's edition of the Phillies was filled with scrappers who captured the region's heart, much as the scruffy 1993 team did.

In lower Bucks County, the Phillies fans said they came to love this team for giving 100 percent effort even when things looked dire. Several credited manager Charlie Manuel with keeping the players loose yet focused. They even had good things to say about Pat Burrell, a frequent boo-bird target whose once-silent bat has come alive.

Greg Pezza, 29, and Jared Mead, 28, both of Bristol Borough, watched the game with about 30 other fans at the Just Sports Bar & Grill in Bristol Township. Pezza said that the last time the Phillies made a run for a championship, he was 15 years old and he watched the games in the Bishop Egan cafeteria on a big-screen television. Like that 1993 team, this year's Phillies are "likable," Pezza said. "Even the good teams have players that you don't like. But not these guys. They're tough."

Chimed in Mead: "You can't think of a guy who did not play hard."

"Loud" Ron Cochran, up at Sparky's on New Falls Road, agreed. "They never gave up," said Cochran, 50, of Penndel.

In South Philadelphia, about 100 people gathered at Broad and Jackson Streets, waving white towels at cars with blaring horns. One man walked on the center line of Broad Street, conducting the horns like an orchestra maestro. A large police presence - at least 19 officers at Broad and Snyder - was on hand.

Richard Cassetti, a grandfather of six, was wearing a gray thermal shirt and a pair of red flannel Phillies boxer shorts. "You lost a bet, right?" somebody asked him.

"No, this is how I celebrate," Cassetti, a 76-year-old retired driver for Abbott's Dairy. "I don't drink. Well, I might have a glass of champagne - we have it on ice. I've been a Phillies fan for 67 years."

His son, Nick Cassetti, said, "Everybody tonight is going to sit out on the steps and have a beer and celebrate."

Andrew Morgan, 15, did the Mummers strut in the middle of the street with a red-and-white umbrella over his head and red Mardi Gras beads draped around his neck.

"I was a baby last time they won," said Morgan, a Mummer in the Bryson New Year's Brigade. Three friends danced along with him - at least until a police officer told them to get out of the street.

"I don't know why," Morgan said. "The cars are going pretty slow."

The celebrations did not spill out into the streets in South Jersey, but sports bars were jammed with (mostly) delirious fans.

"It's a great day for the city - it makes the food taste better and the air smell sweeter," said Kevin Wallish, 40, wearing a Phillies shirt in Champps on Route 73 in Marlton. "It's a beautiful day."

Nearby, a group of friends from Stockton State College took in the storybook ending. The Phillies fans among them busted the chops of the Mets fans.

"This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me," said Tom Ganci, 26, a Wood-Ridge, N.J., police officer who was wearing a Mets jersey. "Today is my birthday. It's the worst thing in my entire life."

Ganci even had taken time off from work over the next three weeks to watch what he expected would be the Mets' march to the World Series.

Now, he said, "I'm going to be reading books and lifting weights."

Back at Frankford and Cottman, the driver of a black Honda Accord stopped in the middle of the intersection and sang: "I-I-I hate New York!"