Yankees blah blah blah

Blah blah blah Torre gone deserved better blah blah blah not actually fired his contract just ran out blah blah blah Steinbrenner wanted to fire but Cashman talked him out of it blah blah blah blah blah A-Rod choked never mind the actual numbers blah blah blah blah never mind Jeter's double plays blah blah blah A-Rod homer didn't count blah blah blah Old Yankees go bye-bye except the ones who won't blah blah blah.

And I think that sums up most of the writing on the Yankees' exit from the playoffs.

For my part, I'm impressed that Eric Wedge's gamble paid off, the only time a manager juggling his rotation for the next round/game actually paid off in the entire Division Series hootennany. Paul Byrd may in fact have pitched like his hair was on fire, and may have been one solid single from giving up about eighteen runs, but the fact is the Yankees never got that single, and he rope-a-doped his way through that lineup just long enough to turn it over to the bullpen.

As for Rodriguez, he had a decent series when nothing less than superhuman would have satisfied his critics. He actually outperformed most of his lineup-mates, but dogpiling on Hideki Matsui doesn't quite have the same ring as another "choker" column. The facts, well, they're inconvenient.

The real issue, as has been noted elsewhere, is that the Indians used Chien-Ming Wang as their personal speed bag, and once again Roger Clemens came up mysteriously lame in a big game once his team had fallen behind. No team, be it the Yankees, the Phillies, Babe Ruth's barnstorming squad or the Justice League's intramural softball team, is going to be able to overcome getting a shiv in the kidney from their starter in three out of four games.