If you can't beat 'em. . . . Back before the American Revolution, the natives of the 230-acre rock just off the East Bronx in Long Island Sound gave their turf the imposing name City Island and promoted it as a port that could rival New York's. In 1896, about 135 sleepy years later, the island's self-described clam-diggers seceded from Westchester County and cast their lot with the mussel-sucking Gothamites—two years before Brooklyn (and Queens) came aboard. These days, City Island is a ramshackle collection of marinas, fishing shacks, stray Victorian frame houses, and grandiose chowder joints. On a balmy summer afternoon, the traffic on the main drag, City Island Avenue, can be backed up all the way across the drawbridge to the Bruckner. But given the salt air and salty types, this is the one place in the Bronx where the populace might be assumed to root for the Sox (even if they don't).