One of the problems, of course, with doing a post-mortem on a team that hasn't yet been eliminated, is that there is the chance that they will come back and win. Even if it has never been done before in the history of Major League Baseball, there is that chance.

I was thinking about reprinting the paragraphs I wrote on the 17th, word-for-word, but with "Alex Rodriguez" substituted for "Manny Ramirez". But that would be dishonest; A-Rod, despite the flaws he showed in this series, will be a Yankee for a long time. And though Ramirez also was unimpressive, the pressure to get rid of him is gone. Epstein's greatest task this offseason will be to resist the pressure to resign all of his free agents, and bring some new blood into the team.

Meanwhile, in the National League, there is still one game to go. The Rocket vs. Suppan matchup bodes well for Houston, but on the other hand, when the home team wins the first six games of a series, you have to respect the possibility that the trend will continue.

A few more thoughts:

1) Life imitates art: Curt Schilling set a new standard for "toughness" on the playing field, pitching a great game while his sutured tendon bled through his socks. It was, quite literally, a scene right out of The Natural.

2) Again, kudos to the fine ESPN Radio combos of Miller & Morgan and Schulman & Campbell. Dan still has another game to call tomorrow, I hope he didn't ruin his voice with his call of Edmonds' homer.

I hope someone at FOX will asks themselves why their announcers, working with a visual medium, feel the need to talk more often than the guys on the radio.

3a) As I write, about three hours have passed since the Sox won, and there is still no word from George Steinbrenner. At this point, we can only guess whether or not Torre and Cashman will be back, or whether one will be fired, or whether they both get canned. Strangely enough, I don't think George can go very wrong; the Yankees have a talented management team, but some changes might not be a bad thing.

But hopefuly, Yankee Nation now understands the reality of baseball's playoff system. It is unpredictable, and there is no magic formula for success. The Yankees were an all-time great team in 1998 and '99, but spoiled themselves with their wins in 1996 and 2000, which were just plain lucky. Now, the luck has evened out.

The Yankees will win again, and soon; they put a huge amount of resources into winning, and they'll get luck back on their side soon enough. Even Alex Rodriguez will redeem himself. But in any given postseason, the chances of even a great team winning is less than 50%, and no amount of Yankee intangibles can change those odds.

3b) Strangely, the interests of the Yankees and my Blue Jays now coincide. The Jays desperately need the playoffs expanded so they can have some hope of making the postseason; the most logical format, I believe, would be to add an extra wild card to each league. The two wild card teams then play a one-game playoff, with the winner moving on.

Using this system, Boston and Oakland would have played a one-game playoff; if Boston had won, then everything else would remain the same. The Sox would advance to face the Angels, while New York would still play Minnesota.

Thus, one extra team gets at least one playoff game, and the three division winners are rewarded as well. If the Yankees are going to win their division every year, it would surely be in their interest for the Red Sox to have to play a one-game playoff before moving on. Bud Selig seems determined to keep the status quo, and the Red Sox won't like the idea, but the Jays and Yankees need to start lobbying together.

4) Derek Jeter is a showboat. He's a master of physical exaggeration, can make any play look tougher than it is, or make any inside pitch look closer than it is.

Now, I don't really have too much of a problem with this. Jeter is entertaining in his own way, and I have no desire to turn baseball into the No Fun League. As Dizzy Dean said, "It ain't braggin' if you can do it." The Diz was a loudmouth who was unafraid to toot his own horn, both as player and broadcaster; he was perfectly suited for the new era of radio and sound film. Jeter is a throwback to the silent movie era, the Charlie Chaplin of baseball.

What I don't get is, why the media never call Jeter out for his antics. They don't have to be mean about it; just call a spade a spade. When Jeter runs halfway down the third base line to avoid an inside pitch, well, that's showboating. Blue-collar hockey commentator Don Cherry has made a career out of cutting down hotdogging on the ice; if Jeter were a hockey player, Cherry would be on his case very quickly, and would urge younger players not to follow the example.

The baseball media instead promotes Jeter's on-field behaviour as an example of how the game should be played, which is wrong. Jeter's skills and instincts are admirable; his penchant for grandstanding is something that a paid professional athlete, in the business of entertaining, can get away with, but is obviously not desirable at any other level of ball. A game in which everyone played like Derek Jeter would look less like baseball and more like the Cirque de Soleil.