New York's No. 2 train rumbles over Jackson Avenue, offering an elevated view of the South Bronx's decaying, vacant homes, the Horizon juvenile detention center and a public-housing high-rise.

In the middle sits a graffiti-free space that's the pride of the community: South Bronx High School's $3 million, multisport playing field and track. Its name: the Merrill Lynch Field of Dreams.

South Bronx is one of 26 high schools whose mostly dirt-and- asphalt fields have been renovated through a partnership between the city and Take the Field, a nonprofit program created by Loews Corp. Co-Chairman Preston Robert Tisch. Another 19 will be rebuilt by August 2004. As New York's public schools seek private funds to keep programs alive, donors like Tisch are vital.

When Take the Field completes its mission a year from now, the city will have spent about $87 million on the program. Tisch's group will have raised another $33 million -- much of it from New York-bred executives such as former Merrill Lynch & Co. Co- Chairman David Komansky and money manager Mario Gabelli.

``This used to be a dirt spot with broken glass and open sewage drains in the middle of the field,'' said South Bronx High principal Santiago Taveras. ``Today, sports participation is almost double, and the kids have something in their community that they can point to and be proud of.''

Tisch's daughter, Laurie Tisch Sussman, urged her father to get involved after she read a New York Times article in January 1999 that detailed the city's rundown high school fields. Mixing the city grants with private and corporate contributions, Take the Field has replaced glass-strewn grounds and warped asphalt tracks with low-maintenance artificial turf over a soft cushion of rubber.

Komansky, 64, grew up on 168th Street in the Bronx and attended Taft High School, where he played baseball and swam.

``If you slid into second base, you had a good chance of getting glass into you,'' he recalled of the South Bronx field. ``The fields were in horrible shape all over the city, and the druggies would hang around at night.''

Merrill Lynch received naming rights to the renovated South Bronx field in exchange for its $500,000 gift.

Tisch and partners Richard Kahan, chairman of the Urban Assembly, and Tony Kiser, president of the William and Mary Greve Foundation, received $12 million in city funds from then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and raised another $4 million to modernize the first seven fields.

``The city of New York has a huge deficit,'' Tisch said in an interview, referring to a $6.6 billion budget gap that city officials have closed with spending cuts and tax increases. ``I'm sure they're not going to put additional money in education. These programs build character and keep (kids) in school and off the street.''

In addition to his co-chairman's role at New York-based Loews, a holding company with interests in insurance, cigarette manufacturing and hotels, Tisch is co-owner of the New York Giants football team.

When Take the Field ends, 45 of New York City's 60 public high school fields will have been renovated. Using artificial turf over rubber allows the schools to save the cost of grass replacement, irrigation and chemical fertilizers.

The Board of Education selected the athletic fields that needed the most work and submitted the list to Take the Field.

``This program made up for years of disinvestment by the city,'' said Adrian Benepe, commissioner of the New York City Parks and Recreation department.

New York will spend about $12.2 billion to educate the city's 1.1 million students in the fiscal year that began Tuesday. That's down $398 million from fiscal 2003. Non-education costs, including pensions and debt service, brings the total schools budget to $13.7 billion this year.

The school system is looking for outside help. In October 2002, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein appointed Caroline Kennedy- Schlossberg to head an office that encourages public-private partnerships like Take the Field. Since January, the Office of Strategic Partnerships has raised $45 million, which doesn't include Take the Field funds.

Besides Komansky and Gabelli, Take the Field's donors include Charles Wang, founder of the Islandia, New York-based software maker Computer Associates International Inc., and Bob Catell, chief executive officer of Brooklyn-based natural gas supplier KeySpan Corp.

Wang, who also owns the New York Islanders National Hockey League team, said he faults the city for not giving more financial support to high school athletics as a way of curbing delinquency.

``I think it's the schools' responsibility,'' Wang said. ``As taxpayers, it's our right to expect that.''

Wang, who grew up in Queens and took a bus and a train to attend Brooklyn Tech, donated $500,000 to rebuild his alma mater's field.

Catell contributed to the renovation of New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, where he played baseball, football and ran track. He said the lessons he learned from sports also helped him in business.

``You have a better chance of being successful on a team than trying to do things on your own,'' Catell said. ``I also learned that you don't always win and how to pick yourself up off the ground and move forward.''

Gabelli, chairman and chief executive of Gabelli Asset Management Inc., had similar reasons for donating at least $500,000 to Evander Childs High School in the Bronx. He attended Fordham Prep but lived about a block from Evander Childs and played basketball, football and stickball on the school's fields.

``Sports are a vital part of the growth process,'' Gabelli said. ``You learn with a coach or without a coach, one-on-one or three-on-three.''

The 45 fields ``Take the Field'' is renovating are in all five New York boroughs and represent schools in communities with a variety of racial and economic backgrounds. High schools to be completed within the next few months include Alfred Smith and Evander Childs in the Bronx, Flushing and Forest Hills in Queens and Samuel Tilden in Brooklyn.

At South Bronx High, where the graduation rate is 46 percent and about 80 percent of students come from single-parent homes living under the government's poverty line, the new field is a haven for the community, Taveras, the principal, said.

``It's odd,'' he said. ``We had 25 kids get mugged on their way home from school last year, one beaten unconscious by middle school children, but the community has protected the field. It's spotless.''

For Take the Field's Web site, click http://www.takethefield.org.