The final week of the 2008 season has been one long requiem for all things Yankee. On Sunday, Yankee Stadium closed it doors after 85 years. Two days later, the second longest string of postseason appearances was officially snapped. The eulogies have been written, but the game presses on.

Five days from now, the Yankees will finish their final game of the season at Fenway Park and they hurtle headlong into an offseason of transition the likes of which hasn't been seen in the Bronx in more than a decade. Moving across the street might be one of the smaller changes.

It's clear that the Yankees have fallen a step behind their hated rivals to the north. But they've also fallen behind the Rays and the Blue Jays and Orioles are improving rapidly. A massive payroll just isn't good enough on its own anymore.

That's a lesson the Red Sox learned back in 2006. Boston wilted down the stretch under the weight of injuries to Jason Varitek, Manny Ramirez and Coco Crisp and a woeful pitching staff and ended up winning a disappointing 86 games. That Red Sox team let Mark Loretta, Alex Gonzalez and Trot Nixon walk and replaced them with a prospect named Dustin Pedroia and free agents Julio Lugo and J.D. Drew.

This Yankees team never really got going because of significant injuries to Jorge Posada and Chien-Ming Wang and a patchwork pitching staff. It will probably wind up with a win total in the high 80s. It will let Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi walk this winter, and possibly Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina as well.

So what now? Given all the similarities, can the Yankees get back to the playoffs and beyond in 2009 as the Red Sox did last year?

After spending much of his winter talking about the Mitchell Report, giving federal depositions and having awkward conversations with Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte almost retired. In the end, though, the Yankees gave him 16 million reasons to change his mind.

For most of the year, Pettitte rewarded the Yankees for their investment, putting up a respectable 12-7 record and 3.76 ERA in his first 22 starts. Unfortunately, the season doesn't end in July; in his last nine starts, Pettitte has gone 1-6 with a 6.50 ERA, losing his fourth start in a row last night to the Angels.

Considering Pettitte is known for finishing the season strong it's hard to figure what to make of his current struggles. Is he hurt? Is this just an anomaly? Or has he finally run out of gas? Unless he plays another season, we may never find out. He hasn't officially said one way or another, but from the sounds of it, playing in 2009 is a strong possibility. From Peter Abraham of the Journal News:

"I look at that ballpark next door, and it makes you want to play there. It's wonderful to look over there and think how special that would be," he said. "I came back here to try to help this team win and win in the playoffs."

Joel Sherman of the New York Post isn't sure the Yankees will even want Pettitte given his performance down the stretch. Considering the team's options to replace Pettitte in the rotation, I have to imagine they'll welcome him back with open arms, so long as he realizes the days of $16 million contracts are over. For that price, the Yankees would be better off jumping into the CC Sabathia sweepstakes. But $8 million? I could see both sides agreeing to that.

There's no more simple way to put it than by saying that Nolan Ryan articulates very well what I think everyone believes is killing/did kill Roger Clemens' reputation. (Via SbB):

Nolan Ryan appeared today on Dan Patrick's syndicated radio show and made it clear that he in no way supports the PED-denials of fellow Texan Roger Clemens (audio): "It's just a shame that Roger has gotten caught up in this situation and he took the stance that he did and that so many things have come out ... that have cast a bad light on his career.

If you look at what happened with some of the other players (who used PEDs), they stepped up and said 'hey, I did it, I knew it was wrong,' and they asked for forgiveness and have gone on about their business. I think it's just unfortunate Roger took the position that he did and that so much has come out about it."

Exactly.

Andy Pettitte made one simple, semi-humble admission to using steroids, took his single lash of the belt, cried a little and then shut his mouth and played baseball. No one cares about his mistakes anymore.

It wouldn't be the dog days of summer without a good old fashioned panic attack in the Northeast, where baseball fans live and die with the outcome of each night's game. In almost perfect symmetry, the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets all got bad news on the injury front Wednesday.

Considering where the big three sit in the standings, fans in New York and Boston have plenty to be concerned about. Let's look at each team's situation and try to assess how bad things are right now and how bleak they could get.

Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz has already missed almost two months this season with a torn tendon sheath in his wrist. Now the slugger is reporting that he's hearing a "clicking" sound in the wrist he injured back on May 31 in Baltimore. The good news for Boston fans is that, on its own, the clicking sound isn't a concern. Indeed, Ortiz was back in the lineup for Wednesday night's game against the Royals.

However, as injury guru Will Carroll points out, the problem could be more mental than anything. If Ortiz's swing gets less violent and vicious because he is afraid of getting injured, it could hurt his productivity -- a frightening proposition for Boston in the wake of the Manny Ramirez trade.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Oakland Athletics (51-46) at New York Yankees (52-45) - 1:05 PM ET

In case yesterday's Yankee starter Joba Chamberlain needs a role model to help him make a more seamless transition from reliever to starter, he need look no further than across the diamond at today's Oakland starter, Justin Duchscherer. "Duke" is 10-5 with a 1.82 ERA after making the transition, and has been keeping the Athletics in the race even after guys like Rich Harden and Joe Blanton were sent packing. But with Duchscherer looking for a long term deal, could he be the next to go? Just as Duchscherer would be looking to cash in on his best season, Billy Beane may be looking to cash in as well, as Duchscherer is a free agent after this season.

But in the meantime, Duchscherer will try like heck to prevent a Yankee sweep as he goes up against Andy Pettitte.

Andy Pettitte is angry. And you don't want to know what could happen because ... at any second ... he could fly ... INTO A RAGE!!!!1 Oh. I'm sorry. I forgot the steroids were a one time thing. My bad. Anyway, he's still upset.

And he called out his Yankee teammates following a loss to Toronto on Sunday, which probably hurt more as the Red Sox reclaimed the division lead.

"If we want to make the playoffs, we have to be better," said Pettitte, who took the loss Sunday. "We stink right now for the most part. As a team, we've kind of stunk it up here lately, so we need to play better."

[...]We've got to find a way to put it all together for an extended period of time with our pitching and our hitting combined," Pettitte said. "It seems like right now, we're feast or famine."

I'm tempted to lay into Pettitte, mainly because he admitted doing steroids yet no one seems to care about it at all. But he's pitched well -- one start against the Red Sox aside -- as the Yankees have started to make a comeback attempt in the East.

Besides, he's right. There's no excuse to go 1-2 on the Road in Toronto (remember how much they love that place) while scoring 10 runs (nine in the win). With the Rays stumbling and the Sox picking up the pace, either the Yankees need to listen to listen to Pettitte and grow up, or alternately, just all grow mustaches. That would be my solution to the issue.

Via BallHype

Nothing particularly new to report on the Brian McNamee-Roger Clemens end of things, other than what Watson covered yesterday (Pettitte may have to come into court). It is interesting though, that McNamee's lawyers have ramped up their talk about the DNA tests on the syringes they presented to the court and how said tests will prove that Clemens is fibbing.

Of course, none of that is as interesting as finding out that a) Roger Clemens stinks at spelling, and b) his email address is Rocket something-something at something dot com. My guess is "Rocketman22 at aol dot com". From the Smoking Gun (who, naturally has copies of the emails, which were attached to a brief filed yesterday):

The e-mails ... were sent in October 2006, following the publication of a Los Angeles Times story reporting that Clemens and teammate Andy Pettitte were identified as steroid users in a confidential federal affidavit (the Times story proved to be erroneous). In the first e-mail, Clemens tells McNamee that, "Pet and I talk about the BS coming out. What a crock of sh*t!"

The third-place Yankees are in no position to deal with yet another distraction (Hank said what?! A-Rod is sleeping with who?!), but it's possible that Andy Pettitte, the team's best and most reliable pitcher this year, may be called in to testify in the defamation suit brought against Brian McNamee by Roger Clemens.

According to the New York Daily News, one of the claims Clemens is making against McNamee is that McNamee defamed Clemens by telling Pettitte Clemens used PEDs. McNamee's lawyer, Richard Emery, wants the judge to determine if the statute of limitations on that claim has passed, and doing so may require a hearing in which Pettitte will be forced to leave the Yankees and testify.

Sounds bad for the Yankees, right? It could get even worse. Emery has also requested that the defamation suit be moved from Houston to New York, which would allow Emery to subpeona a long list of witnesses, which includes Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, Mariano Rivera, as well as team trainers and doctors.

All of a sudden, dealing with paparrazi on the A-Rod/Madonna beat doesn't seem too bad.

I think every baseball fan, whatever their view of performance enhancing drugs in baseball, is interested in seeing how the players of the steroid era fare in voting for Cooperstown. Mark McGwire's already on the ballot but the next 10 years will be full of fascinating cases because of the balance of great numbers and possibly nefarious means used to accumulate them.

Most of us wonder about Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens but Joe Buck has his sights set on a another, rarely discussed Hall of Fame candidacy. During Saturday's Mets-Yankees game, Tim McCarver mentioned that no pitcher who was 100 games over .500 in their career has been kept out of Cooperstown. Bob Raissman of the Daily News brings us their conversation.

"Yeah, but not one of those pitchers (who were 100 games over and enshrined in Cooperstown) ever admitted to taking HGH," Buck replied.

McCarver: "(Pettitte said he took HGH) Only once."

Buck did not respond. He already made his point. We cannot read minds. Still, considering his tone of voice, and his straightforward manner, Buck was not so much casting aspersions on Pettitte, but injecting reality into the conversation.

Not really. If Buck wanted to inject reality into the conversation, he would have said despite a strong won-loss record, Pettitte doesn't have much else to recommend his enshrinement.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Oakland Athletics (23-19) at Atlanta Braves (20-20) - 7:10 PM ET

It's probably safe to say that out of the former "Big Three" in Oakland, Tim Hudson has been the most successful of the bunch since leaving the nest after the 2004 season. Four seasons later, Hudson faces his former club for the first time (the two teams played a three game set in '05 but Hudson did not make an appearance). A lot of Hudson's old teammates from his last season in Oakland are gone, but his mound opponent for today, Rich Harden, is still around. And Harden was hoping he'd match up against him. Harden is probably also hoping that he makes it through the game intact.