Opinion

His challenge arrived ever so quickly amid an epic duel unimaginably surprising at a time baseball extends to November, reducing our interest as we direct our full attention on football and basketball. 

Phil Hughes hasn't been his dominant self this postseason, as has been very well documented. So far, his line reads:

4.2 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 4 BB, 6 K.

That works out to a .557 BABIP, but it's not like he's been giving up weakly hit balls. Thirty-five percent of the batted balls against him have been line drives. Usually, I wouldn't be worried over a few bad innings. I mean, it happens to everyone.

If you have ever read Baseball Prospectus' Baseball Between the Numbers , or a similarly analytical baseball text, the argument against standard pitching statistics (wins and losses, ERA, and saves) is not new to you. By now, most educated baseball fans understand that all three of those statistics reflect myriad factors far beyond the pitcher's control (and, in fact, relatively few that fall within it).

If you're a veteran catcher, have your agent give the Houston Astros a phone call. The 'Stros just might need your services.

That's because 36-year-old Chris Coste, acquired by Houston earlier this year after the Philadelphia Phillies had placed him on waivers, has rejected the team's outright assignment to Triple-A Round Rock and is now a free agent.

In the minutes preceding the Yankees' miraculous, positively 2001-esque, one-run rally in the ninth inning last night against the Phillies, my friends and I attempted to glean any positive developments from a disheartening evening.

The conversation went something like this:

Dan: Um, CC battled through without his best stuff.

Howie: Yeah, definitely. 

(Awkward silence)

Howie: Marte did his job.

Dan: Oh yeah.

(Extended pause of sorrow)

Old glory never dies—it just repeats itself into oblivion.

The World Series isn’t what it was. It’s also, thankfully, still what it is. As America limps its way out of the Great Recession, there’s reason to doubt whether We the People will ever regain our position of global preeminence—which would be worse news if we couldn’t at least find peace in the praxis of our national pastime.

Habit is what you do without thought.

Ritual, on the other hand, is what you do to stop thinking.

For many years I wondered why so many people seem to have such a disgust for the Yankees.

You either like them or you don't. "They buy their players," people say, or, "They spend the most." Show-offs. Greedy.

I never believed it—until now.

I, myself, have been a Yankee fan since 1987. I watched them play through terrible seasons, paying over the hill sluggers until the mid '90s. They turned it around and eventually rode their core of players (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams) to a dynasty.

Right after game three and the sweep of the Boston Red Sox at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels, I watched Kevin Youkilis on NESN , answering questions about getting swept, and he says calmly "yes, it's frustrating, but it's time to look forward to next season."

While I'd like to see Youkilis be pissed...it is time to look forward to the offseason, because reflecting on the outcome of the playoffs is just gonna piss me off too.

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