NEW YORK -- Bobby Abreu began to tell a small crowd at Mickey Mantle's restaurant exactly what he thought of the Subway Series.

"It's going to be ..." Abreu said, then stopped.

He looked behind him, where Mets catcher Brian Schneider was staring at him, listening to every word.

"It's going to be interesting," Abreu said, laughing.

Schneider burst out into a grin.

Only in this city can two baseball players from different teams and different boroughs meet on such a contentious day -- and do so much good. Abreu and Schneider, along with Yankees catcher Jorge Posada, were at Mickey Mantle's on Friday afternoon to help launch their new brands of wine, the proceeds from which will go to charity.

The event was in partnership with Charity Wines, which began producing namesake wines for Major League players last year. This year's crop included "Abreu's Finest," "Schneider Schardonnay," Posada's "Jorge Cabernet," Johan Santana's "Santana's Select" and Jose Reyes' "Caber-Reyes."

Each wine retails for $13.99 at New York, New Jersey and Connecticut liquor stores, and comes with the players' likenesses on the bottles. Proceeds from the wine sales go toward the players' charities, from Abreu's Police Athletic League of New York City, to Posada's Jorge Posada Foundation, to Schneider's fledgling Catching for Kids Foundation.

"The Jorge Posada Foundation is going to get a lot of money because of this wine," Posada said. "It's going for a good cause, and I'm very excited about it. Charity Wine called us, and I thought it was a great idea."

Boston entrepreneur John Corcoran co-founded the program last year as a new way for athletes to give back to their communities. He began by recruiting three Red Sox players -- Manny Ramirez, Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield -- to debut their wines, and by the time the year was through, he had helped raise approximately $400,000 for charity.

This season, athletes began calling Corcoran asking to get involved, and the company has signed on with stars such as Ken Griffey Jr., David Ortiz and Chipper Jones. Corcoran said Charity Wines expected to raise over $1 million this season with relative ease.

"I'm really excited to have my face on the bottle," Schneider said, "and to help a good cause."

Even if that means mingling with a couple of Yankees on the day of the Subway Series opener, which ended up being rained out. And so Schneider sat on a stage at Mickey Mantle's on Friday, joking with Abreu and Posada only hours before his Mets were scheduled to take on their Yankees.

Some quarrels, it seems, can certainly be set aside.

"When it comes to charity," Corcoran said, "you can't really pick sides."