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A late night at work saw me driving for home at around eleven with 660 AM WFAN and the callers bringing out the Long knives for the Yankees. Who was to blame? Torre? A-Rod? Wang? Even Posada was a target. Apparently one person is not likely waiting around to find out:

A clubhouse attendant packed the belongings from Alex Rodriguez’s locker into cardboard boxes yesterday, in what may have been a sign that Rodriguez did not plan to visit Yankee Stadium anytime soon. He may never return as a member of the Yankees because he seems sure to exercise the opt-out clause in his contract. While the agent Scott Boras did not specifically say that Rodriguez would opt out with three years left on his 10-year, $252 million contract, he suggested that becoming a free agent again would be his client’s savviest choice.

“When the arbitrator gave free agency to baseball, is there anyone in baseball who the free-agent right meant more to than Alex Rodriguez?” Boras said yesterday. “Not with his last contract, but right now, now more than any point in history.”

You would think free agency value would coincide with actual on the game day value. Is that A-Rod? Sure he is great and has tthe stats but…umm…I’d prefer someone who plays well in the playoffs? I can think of four Red Sox right now who are more valuable than A-Rob and I don’t think I even need to mention them. Who else puts up lower numbers but is of more actual value? Byrd, Cleveland’s fourth pitcher the other night, the man who beat the Yanks, comes to mind with his literally throw-back style of pitching.

Anyway, A-Rod, good luck in your likely destination of Chicargo, as we called it as kids, making kissy-eyes with Lou. Likely you will disappoint there as well.

Was the first round of the MLB playoffs boring? With one game avoiding a four series sweep across the board, hard to argue otherwise. Frankly, I don’t care much about Arizona v. Colorado in the NL championships either. But The Sox and Cleveland starting Friday night could be amazing. Both teams are making runs happen but in very different ways. It certainly could be the most bunt friendly series in decades and a game with Wakefield pitching against Byrd with neither getting the ball above 90 mph would be wonderful if both were at their best.

But pause a moment for the Yankees who exited yesterday. There was an outpouring of tears after the game on 880 AM with Suzyn Waldman choking up, John saying he loved her, Damon (pittuie!) using the past tense in relation to the team and Joe Torre walking into an era where he can write a bigger cheque as any team’s manager or any station’s broadcaster. They out performed themselves in 2007 so should feel good about themselves as they now go off to play for other teams. Who shall they buy for next year?

I missed the champagne spraying. We were out, invited to eat dinner in a hotel restaurant – the sort of thing I rarely do. But we have a grand time and when we got home the Sox were winning and Papelbon put it to bed – and the Yanks were up 9-6 against Baltimore. So I didn’t pay any more attention. But then…the Yankees…decided to suck:

The Orioles, who are finishing their 10th consecutive losing season, battered Mussina for 6 runs and 11 hits in five innings. They still stood to lose because of Rodriguez, who reached 1,500 R.B.I. and 1,500 runs scored in the same game. But Rivera, who had allowed only one earned run over 15 1/3 innings in his last 15 games, allowed a leadoff single to Nick Markakis and hit Kevin Millar with one out in the ninth.

After Melvin Mora flied to right, Ramón Hernández singled to load the bases for Payton. In Game 2 of the 2000 World Series, when he played for the Mets, Payton sliced a ninth-inning homer against Rivera over the right-field fence at Yankee Stadium. This time, he lashed a triple to the wall in right center, clearing the bases to tie the score. “I just went out to get some work; it wasn’t good at all,” Rivera said. “I missed a lot of pitches. But I’m fine. You have to move forward.”

Fabulous. Thank you for sucking, New York. Thank you.

I like the Baseball Hall of Fame. It’s where it should be, in a small town that has a claim (however tenuous now) to being a place where baseball started. Though no one really believes Abner Doubleday invented the game in the 1840s in Cooperstown, NY, the fact that the myth survived is in itself part of the structure of the idea of baseball – it is a game that inordinately attracts belief.

That is why I love the asterisk ball, the ball that Barry Bonds hit out of the park to beat the home run record of Hank Aaron. It is going to Cooperstown and it is going to have a asterisk, that symbol of a questionable stat, stamped on it.

The baseball from Barry Bonds’s much-debated 756th home run will soon land in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. When it gets there, it will be branded with an asterisk. Marc Ecko, the fashion designer who bought the ball for $752,467, asked the fans to decide how he should treat the memento. After more than 10 million online votes, 47 percent of voters wanted the ball to be adorned with an asterisk, 34 percent said it should not be changed and 19 percent wanted it to be shot into space. The first two options included the addendum that the ball would be donated to the Hall of Fame.

Why do I like this? It expresses the moment of the home run, the lunacy of the price of memorabilia, the scandal surrounding steroids as well as the humble fragile nature of the ball itself. It also captures the internet era and the dislocation of authority – neither Bonds or the Hall of Fame are controlling the moment.