yet another baseball season ends with a whimper instead of a bang

unless you count Scott Boras' attempt to upstage the World Series with the "look at me" exploits of a single player a bang.

(2007: Red Sox over the Rockies in four
2006: Cardinals over the Tigers in five
2005: White Sox over the Astros in four
2004: Red Sox over the Cardinals in four)

the reasoning for A-Rod's declared free agency?
according to Yahoo, "Boras said during a telephone interview that Rodriguez made his choice because he was uncertain whether Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte would return to the Yankees. Boras said it became clear that the others wouldn't make a decision by Rodriguez's deadline to opt out -- 10 days after the World Series.
"'Alex's decision was one based on not knowing what his closer, his catcher and one of his statured (?) pitchers was going to do," Boras said. 'He really didn't want to make any decisions until he knew what they were doing.'"

"his closer" and "his catcher," etc.

yeah, I'm sure that was the reason.

and the timing of the announcement (Boras couldn't reach Yankee GM Brian Cashman on the phone, so he left him a voice mail before alerting the media) couldn't wait either.

I really don't see more than the Angels, Red Sox and Mets making serious bids for A-Rod's services. and if the Red Sox re-sign Mike Lowell, that'd only leave two (though A-Rod could obviously move back to shortstop; goodbye Julio Lugo). and where would A-Rod play on the Mets with David Wright at third and Jose Reyes at short? if the Angels are the only team willing to part with $30 million a year on a long-term deal, that won't make much of a bidding war.

though I have no problem with A-Rod leaving the Yankees, I really hope the free agency route ends up costing him money (can you tell?).

an excerpt from Scott Plagenhoef's If You're Feeling Sinister (33 1/3), a.k.a the last book I ever read:

"With the loss of need for listeners to follow a narrative slowly over time comes a resistance to having previously learned and banked knowledge challenged. So, too, with consensus opinions on records catalogued and archived on sites across the internet there is less willingness for young fans to approach a group with fresh ears - every response and reaction to a band's artistic output can't help but be filtered through the opinions of others. Hearing a band for the first time without an idea of how one is meant to react to it and where it fits in the pantheon and lineage of rock history is difficult, if not impossible."

(feels particularly relevant after the recent post-mortems on this most recent CMJ, eh?)