The last 6 outs--Jay Price, Staten Island Advance

"Three runs down with six outs to go in the Yankees' season, and maybe in his baseball life, Joe Torre went to the mound and summoned the great Mariano Rivera, a lame-duck manager calling on a lame-duck closer just to keep the Yankees close, the kind of call that's supposed to signal something else.

• They were all there now: Torre and Rivera, who have danced that dance a thousand times these last 12 years; Derek Jeter; Jorge Posada -- the pinstriped symbols of a team that once did nothing but win. And Alex Rodriguez, the unintentional symbol of everything that has gone wrong since, even on the nights when he hits one where it can't be caught.

Somewhere, you figure Bernie Williams was watching; one more pinstriped lifer wondering how it went so wrong.

• Torre handed the ball to Rivera, gave him an encouraging pat, or an affectionate one, and turned for the dugout, maybe the last time he makes that walk, while the sing-song "Tor-re ... Tor-re" drifted down from the upper deck.

"You can hear their heartbeat," he'd say of the fans when it was over.

• And everywhere you looked, Yankee fans were heading for the exits, emptying into the streets of the Bronx, having already made the emotional shift to the off-season, which said everything about how things have changed at the corner of 161st Street and River Avenue, once the home address for October baseball."

From Staten Island Advance article by Jay Price, "An Agonizing Exit in the Bronx," 10/9/07

• P.S. It ended for me when Jeter grounded into a double play with runners on 1st and 3rd. Note the writer's reference to Mariano as a "lame duck closer"---a few people seem to think he's gone.

One last thing, and this isn't Arod bashing. Part of his baggage is his wife, who chose the opening day of the post season to break the story she sold to People Magazine about their new baby. I didn't read it myself, but the article was obviously timed to conflict with the opening of the Yankee post season. This woman, Cynthia Rodriguez, would be nothing were she not married to a famous baseball player, yet she's done quite a bit to distract him and create problems for the team and its fans. Remember the "F---YOU" t-shirt she wore to a game while sitting in a special section reserved for team families--and children?

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