In a state currently enamored with the New York Football Giants, Long Island native Jim Baumbach pledged his allegiances this past season to the J-E-T-S. And thanks to a gracious long-time Jets season ticket holder, Baumbach's memories may surpass those of the fans of the 2001 Super Bowl runner-ups.

So who was this mystery man?

For over two months, Baumbach knew him as "Larry." It made no difference. As long as he attended New York's 10 home games (including two preseason contests), Baumbach was content with his row 28, end zone seats. But after a random Internet search, Baumbach's curiosity peaked.

This story begins in July, when Baumbach, a 22-year-old assistant Internet news manager for Newsday.com, placed a bid on Ebay for five Jets season tickets. He lost the first auction but quickly found another eager seller — Larry. Baumbach, his brother and three friends won the tickets. July 29, the quintet drove to East Rutherford, New Jersey for the Jets-New Orleans pre-season tilt.

"When we got to the game, we were psyched," Baumbach said. "We were basically throwing out Larry's name left and right. We were like `This season's for Larry.'"

Around Sept. 11, when New York was 4-0, Kevin Baumbach (Jim's 19-year-old brother) searched the Internet and came across Notre Dame's 2000 football roster. He scrolled down and noticed a familiar name: LoVecchio. The Irish quarterback shared the same last name as Larry, of "This season's for Larry," fame. Baumbach clicked on a link and found that Matt was from Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, the same hometown as Larry.

On Oct. 7, while watching the Notre Dame-Stanford game, Kevin figured out the connection: Larry, the Ebay seller, was also Larry, Matt's father.

"All of a sudden Larry LoVecchio shows up on the TV (getting interviewed)," Jim Baumbach said. "That was the kicker right there. At the end of the game they were running the music and they showed Larry in slow-motion, chanting." The Baumbachs, who prefer the NFL, suddenly became Irish fans.

"It was neat, following the whole Notre Dame run and watching Matt on TV," Jim said. "When he first started, we would hear his name on SportsCenter and we were like, `Hey, Matt LoVecchio.' We knew nothing of him. We didn't know how long his run would last."

As the winning streak continued, the Baumbachs' hopes soared. If Notre Dame qualified for a Bowl Championship Series berth and the Jets hosted a Wild Card game, both contests would be on the same weekend. Larry could not pass up his son's game, the Baumbachs reasoned. Jim sent an e-mail to Larry in late November inquiring about the possible playoff game and also to see if he could have the tickets again in 2001. He waited a few weeks without getting a reply, then wrote a column for the Dec. 27 edition of Newsday (Long Island's newspaper of record), chronicling his unexpected Ebay encounter.

The next day, having read Jim's piece, Larry replied. "He was like, `Sorry I never got back to you about the playoffs,'" Jim recalled. "`But if you want the tickets for next year, that would be fine.' I called my friends up that day and was like `One more year of Jets tickets.'"

And another round of "This season's for Larry" chants.

• This season was for Larry