Oh sure, the Yanks will still have more money than most small countries and they’ll still buy the highest-paid players, but they won’t be able to find another manager with the smarts to use all that talent to any effect. When their $200 million payroll can’t even buy them a ticket to the post-season for a couple years, the cracks that are showing now will only get bigger and soon enough the whole blackhearted regime will come crumbling down. Maybe it’ll happen just in time to open that new $800 million stadium that Torre’s dozen years of success helped build. There’s some fitting justice for you.

So baseball fans everywhere (except you front-runners in your Yankees caps) can rejoice and remember this day for the rest of your years. You can tell your children and your children’s children where you were when the new era of baseball — the Yankees-less age — all began.

Now if the Indians can just put away the Sox this might end up being a pretty good year for baseball.

Actually, the price tag for one year of the Rocket’s service will be about $26 million, $18.5 million in prorated salary for Clemens and another $7.5 million in luxury tax. By comparison, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have a total team payroll of $24 million. George Steinbrenner could have gotten an entire team for what he’s paying one guy who might possibly pitch in 20 games this year. I’m certainly no business major, but there seems to be something pretty wacked in that equation.