The playoffs started just two days ago and the Brewers and Cubs look like they may already be done.

The AL just has one game each in their series.  The Rays got off to a nice start and the Red Sox continued their mastery of the Angels.

The Nationals went 1-9 down the stretch to 'win' the first pick in next year's draft over the Mariners and Padres.

The Jays bring back all the coaches for 2 more years and the White Sox force a one game playoff with the Twins to be played at 7:30 tonight in Chicago.

Sportsnet.ca is reporting Paul Godrey is stepping down as president and CEO at the end of the year, ending his eight year association with the club.

There are supposed to be eight teams still standing. There's nine for the moment. The White Sox have a makeup game later today with the mighty ("they could score 1000 runs!") Detroit Tigers, favoured by many pundits to win The Whole Darn Thing. If the Sox win that, the Twins come to Chicago on Tuesday to play a tiebreaker to settle the AL Central title. But the Tigers will be motivated today - after all, if they win they will catch up to the Kansas City Royals and finish tied for fourth.

Anyway - can I actually cheer for any of these outfits?

Ron lets us in on how he made it to Yankee Stadium before the wrecking ball swings.

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Yankee Stadium generated a lot of headlines recently when it hosted its last game. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of visiting the House that Ruth Built.

The season comes to a close with Litsch vs Baltimore. A win today and they reach Cito's stated goal of 10 games over 500.

In the more than four years that Baseball's Hall of Names has been around Batter's Box, we've seen more than 300 entries into the pantheon, including the top 25 North American family (last) names -- and a number of other surnames -- as well as the top 25 North American given (first) names, and more than 50 other less common given names ranging from Harold, Murray and Gus to Jake, Corey and Alf.

So I found myself thinking, what's a common name we haven't graced with HoN treatment? And, with apologies to my high school best friend, college roommate and about 15 guys I worked with at American Airlines some time back, I realized ... we've never done an All-Tim Team (say that three times fast).

You know, come to think of it, there aren't all that many iconic Tims. Actors like Robbins, Curry and Conway, okay, but none is exactly a Bob DeNiro; a computer wiz like Berners-Lee, still not as well-known as a Bill Gates or Steves Wozniak and Jobs; the late great Tim Russert was a fine newsman, but the first names in news are Walter and Dan; Tim McGraw's daddy was a fine ballplayer, but Tug's first name was Frank. So, now what?

What the hell ... let's give Tim a try, shall we? As always, a few clarifying rules ...

Todd Barton Givin Jones came up to the Houston Astros in 1993 at the age of 25, posting a win and two saves in 37.1 innings of 124 ERA+ baseball.

Would anybody have guessed at the time that Jones would still be around 15 seasons later, having amassed 58 wins and 319 saves in 982 appearances (all but one of those in relief)?

So fourth place it is.

Six games to go.  Two games back of the Yankees with a 3 game set starting today.

Catch the third place fever!

The New York Mets and the Buffalo Bisons will be joined at the hip for the next two years, the Syracuse Chiefs officially said good-bye to the Jays by signing a two year deal with Washington and the New Orleans Zephyrs will hook up with the Florida Marlins for the next two seasons.  Where does that leave the Jays?  It's the place where Molly Sims, Nikki Cox and Vanessa Marcil used to work.  Sing it now, "A little less conversation, a little more action........"

Update:  The Blue Jays director of player development Dick Scott was at the home of the team's new AAA affiliate to announce their new deal.

The Yankees played their final game at the old Stadium last night, because the Yankees won't be in the World Series this year.

It is expected to be confirmed today that Shaun Marcum will need to undergo Tommy John surgery, which would put him out of the lineup for approximately a year (which would really mean 17 months, until March 2010). Thanks to various posters for the heads up.

Even though it appears that the New York Mets will sign an affiliation agreement with the Buffalo Bisons shortly, Syracuse.com reports the Syracuse Chiefs stockholders are now willing to sell part of the club to the Metropolitans in an effort to change the Mets mind to come to Syracuse instead.  Even though a Toronto-Buffalo affiliation looks like a pipe dream at this point, is there a tiny sliver of hope it could still happen?