BOSTON (AP) – A special education teacher from New Hampshire who moonlights on the Fenway Park grounds crew now finds himself in the middle of the oldest rivalry in baseball after a confrontation in the New York Yankees bullpen during Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.

Paul Williams, 24, of Derry, N.H., was hospitalized Saturday night after a dust-up with reliever Jeff Nelson, right fielder Karim Garcia and several other Yankees during the ninth inning of New York’s 4-3 win. Depending on which story you believe, Williams either taunted Nelson and his teammates until they had no choice but to defend themselves and their honor, or he was the innocent victim of a pack of New York bullies.

Friends describe Williams as a diehard Red Sox fan – but not the type to start a fight.

“He was a very hard worker,” said George Noucas, an assistant basketball coach at Rivier College in Nashua, N.H., where the 6-foot-5 Williams played center and forward before graduating in 2002.

“(Williams was) not the most talented player in the world, but he played about as hard as you could possibly play and gave you everything he had every night,” Noucas said.

Noucas said he and Williams, who began working at Fenway while still in college, used to kid each other because Noucas is a Yankees fan.

But, while Williams had been in verbal confrontations on the basketball court, “it never developed into a fight. … I’ve never seen him step over the line,” the coach said.

Williams now teaches special education to eighth-graders at the West Running Brook Middle School in Derry. His phone number is unlisted. A message left at his father’s house in Londonderry, N.H., was not immediately returned.

A report filed Saturday night by two Boston police officers posted in the bullpen seems to support Williams’ claim that Nelson attacked him for cheering for the Red Sox while on duty in their midst.

Other Yankee pitchers jumped in – some joining the fight, others trying to break it up – and Garcia jumped the right-field wall and starting punching Williams, according to the report.

Nelson said it was Williams who instigated the ninth-inning fracas, waving a towel and conspicuously cheering on the Red Sox from inside the Yankee bullpen.

Williams was briefly hospitalized, with cleat marks on his back and arm. Red Sox officials have said Williams will be welcomed back to his job as long as the police investigation doesn’t contradict his story.

Boston police have said assault charges may be filed against Nelson and Garcia, but no action had been taken by Monday evening.

“It’s an active investigation. I can’t tell you when it’s going to end,” Officer John Boyle, a department spokesman, said Monday on the progress of the investigation.

Principal MaryAnn Connors-Krikorian said Williams’ colleagues at West Running Brook Middle School are just hoping to see him back at work soon.

“I know we’re 100 percent behind Paul in his efforts to get healthy,” she said. “Our primary focus is to get Paul healthy enough to come back to work with our youngsters.”

AP-ES-10-13-03 1754EDT