She's a fan, not a hooker

FOR SUSAN Finkelstein, sex and baseball have been intertwined in "dark and wonderful ways" since she knew they both existed.

Finkelstein was soaking in the bathtub years ago. Pitcher Larry Christenson was on her mind. Things happened, OK?

"I'm kind of an open person," she admits.

But she's not a hooker.

Yesterday, the state Superior Court overturned her March 2010 attempted prostitution conviction for allegedly offering sex to an undercover cop for tickets to the 2009 Phillies-Yankees World Series following her ill-conceived Craigslist post.

"Where are the flowers? Where's the candy?" Finkelstein, 45, snickered in response to a wish of congratulations.

The arrest and international notoriety cost Finkelstein her job at the Wistar Institute. She hasn't been able to get a new one.

In September, a fire ripped through her West Philadelphia home. Her three cats died. The place needs to be rebuilt.

So, you'll have to excuse Finkelstein for not jumping for joy just because a judge decided that she's not a prostitute.

"It's a bittersweet vindication for me," Finkelstein told the Daily News yesterday, as she read through the Superior Court ruling at the office of her attorney, William Brennan. "Professionally, financially and emotionally, the past couple of years have been very costly, just to find out in the end what we knew all along - that I was not guilty of a crime."

Brennan said that Finkelstein isn't in the business of selling her body and, therefore, was not attempting to engage in prostitution under Pennsylvania law.

"I don't think she should have ever been charged in the first place," Brennan said. "It must be well into six figures of taxpayer dollars they've spent on this misdemeanor."

It is unclear whether the Bucks County District Attorney's Office will appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. Calls to the office were not returned yesterday.