YANKS HAVE NEVER BEEN FURTHER AWAY FROM A 27TH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

JOE GIRARDI still believes in the current New York Yankees. Well, Joe, I’ve got news for you. No one else does. Not even the players themselves.

Before the series against the Boston Red Sox, Girardi stated that the minimum requirement to keep the Yanks in the play-off picture was two out of three.

Yet after two humiliating losses to their bitter rivals, the delusional Girardi was still refusing to give up on either the season or his team.

Naturally, no manager is going to write off the year – publicly, at least – with 30 games still to go. But Girardi’s tired old line that “it ain’t over til it’s over” is beginning to grate.

For a man who has worked on the other side of camera, he has a lot to learn about dealing with the media. Girardi's reluctance to tell the whole truth about injuries and be honest about his players is unlikely to win him friends with the New York press. You can only fool some of the people some of the time...

Let’s face facts. Now seven games behind the Red Sox in the wild card standings, the Yanks are done. For the first time since 1993, there will be no October baseball in the Bronx. And just to rub salt in the wounds, the Yanks final three games of the season will be at Fenway Park. Three meaningless games...at least, for the away team.

Boston, the new “Evil Empire” of the East, has a chance to win the World Series for the third time in five years.

In stark contrast, it’s now eight years since the Yanks won a championship...and they’ve probably never been further away from winning No. 27.

Even allowing for the horrendous list of injuries, notably to their starting pitchers, this has to be the worst Yankees team of the last 15 years.

Young pitchers prove a bust

Much has been made of the pitching staff – and replacing a 19-game winner like Chien-Ming Wang is hard to do.

But let’s not forget that it was the choice of general manager Brian Cashman and the Yankee suits not to trade Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Melky Cabrera to the Minnesota Twins for Johan Santana last winter.

Hughes and Kennedy have not managed to win a game between them this season and Cabrera’s form has been so bad that he’s now down in the minor leagues.

With Hughes (ERA 9.00) getting knocked around pitching for Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre on his return from injury, there has to be a serious doubt whether either he or Kennedy are going to make it at Major League level with the Yanks.

It all starts with pitching and no team sending Darrell Rasner, Sidney Ponson and Carl Pavano to the mound can be confident of winning consistently.

However, the truth of the matter is that the Yanks should have been able to hit their way out of the trouble and the batters must shoulder most of the blame.

Projected to score between 900 and 950 runs, they have managed only 638 in 132 games, and their situational hitting has been awful.

After his MVP season in 2007, Alex Rodriguez is once again the Bronx boo boy. His batting average of .310 belies the fact that he has contributed next to nothing to the team when it mattered most.

I couldn’t believe the statistic that he has scored just two RBIs in the eighth and ninth innings this season, but apparently it’s true.

Time to say goodbye to Giambi

It’s time to say thank you and goodbye to Jason Giambi. And while Bobby Abreu has been the Yanks’ best situational hitter this season, you have to question whether they should spend big money on resigning him at age 34. Like Johnny Damon, he’s a liability in the outfield.

Jorge Posada has proved impossible to replace…and not just behind the plate. José Molina is good defensively but he couldn’t compensate for Posada’s 20 home runs and 90 RBIs in 2007.

Neither could Pudge Rodriguez, who looked a good singing on paper but has proven to be a shadow of his former self.

Detroit manager Jim Leyland is nobody’s fool and while Kyle Farnsworth has hardly set the world alight for the Tigers, he would have been of more use to the Yanks than I-Rod.

Shaky starting pitching has forced Girardi to overuse the bullpen and it’s at this time of the year when it really begins to show.

So all in all, there’s much work to be done in the winter. The Yanks have a new stadium to play in next year. Now all they need is a new team.

Surely Andy Pettitte won’t be coming back in 2009 – he’s certainly not worth $16 million – so the Yanks will need to sign at least one, maybe even two, frontline pitchers.

The rotation will be based around Wang and Joba Chamberlain. Mike Mussina must pitch at least one more year. Hopefully, Hughes can redeem himself during spring training and at least prove a useful No. 4 or No. 5.

CC Sabathia and first baseman Mark Teixeira will no doubt be at the top of the Yanks’ shopping list. They will have the money to outbid their rivals. Whether that’s enough to persuade either of them to come to New York remains to be seen.

Whatever happens, there’s nothing they can do about A-Rod other than hope that he straightens out his swing and his life by 2009.

Nine more years of booing is going to be tough on the ears.

IT’S NOTHING PERSONAL, BUT YOU CAN SHOVE YOUR SEAT

P.S.L. The three initials that stand for Personal Seat License. Or should it be Pay up! Sports Loser?

Not content with fleecing the fans to pay the over-inflated salaries of Alex Rodriguez and Brett Favre, New York’s two baseball and two football teams are expecting them to finance their new stadiums too.

Personal seat licenses at the $1.6 billion Jets-Giants stadium, the $1.3 billion Yankee Stadium and the Mets’ $800 million Citi Field will cost anywhere between $1,000 and $25,000.

And, in some cases, ticket prices are more than doubling for the same view (or worse) that you had in the old stadium.

Not surprisingly, it’s a subject that is causing outrage among many season-ticket holders of the Yankees, Mets, Giants and Jets.

The owners were no doubt bracing themselves for a backlash. But they know that once the furor has died down, the fans will do what they always do…pay up.

It’s a simple case of supply and demand. In New York, and some of the bigger cities, demand currently outweighs supply.

The clubs have done their market research. They know just what they can get away with. Which is just about anything.

The three major sports in the United States – baseball, basketball and football – continue to defy the economic downturn. The less disposable income the average man has, the more the teams charge.

But, of course, that’s where sports have changed. Baseball and football are not games played for the average man anymore.

Baseball and football no longer games of the people

America’s favorite pastimes are no longer aimed at the blue-collar worker. They're aimed at the Wall Street stockbroker and corporate hospitality; people who can afford to spend upwards of $20,000 just for the right to sit somewhere near the halfway line or behind home plate.

The clubs will argue that the season-ticket holder has ownership of their seat so they can sell-it on.

What it actually means is that Ticketmaster and StubHub will make an even bigger profit on commission and the chances of purchasing single-game tickets will become more remote.

In any case, the true fans don’t buy their season ticket with the aim of making a profit. They buy it because they want to attend as many games as possible and support their team.

The clubs also claim they are “rewarding” loyalty by giving long-standing season-ticket holders first refusal on purchasing their P.S.L. Thanks a million!

Never mind a season ticket, it’s rapidly getting to the stage where the middle class man in the U.S. (if he still exists) can’t afford to take his family to a one-off game. Well, not if they want a hot dog and soda too. It’s more expensive than the best Broadway show and nearly as dear as a mini break in Barbados.

Believe it or not, there was actually a time when Yankee Stadium wasn’t sold out every night. Heaven help the clubs if there’s ever another strike or wane in popularity.

Who then will pay Alex Rodriguez $27.5 million a year to go 0 for 5 against the Yankees’ arch rivals the Boston Red Sox?

+++ Talking of the Red Sox, Boston manager Terry Francona summed up my feelings entirely when asked whether he had any sentiment about playing his last regular season series at Yankee Stadium. “Not really, the new one is only 100 yards away.”

SOX SWEEP CAN PUT YANKS BACK IN HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER

IT’S NOW OR NEVER for the New York Yankees. This week’s three-game series against the Boston Red Sox might not be make, but it could certainly be break.

Five games behind the Red Sox in the race for the American League wild card, the Yanks simply cannot afford to lose this series.

To be brutally honest, they really need to complete their second successive sweep, having revived their fading hopes in Baltimore this weekend.

And there’s actually reason to believe they could do it.

With 46 runs in the last seven games, offense should not be a problem. And while not exactly favored by the probable starting pitching line-ups, they’re certainly not overmatched.

The Yanks catch a break tomorrow night. Red Sox ace and Yankees killer Josh Beckett still has tingling and numbness in his right arm and will miss at least one start.

That means Andy Pettitte will be up against Tim Wakefield instead. The knuckleballer has been on the DL since August 7 due to tightness in his right shoulder so there has to be a major question mark about whether he’ll be at his best.

Even if he is, the Yanks have had plenty of success against him in the past. With Pettitte giving up just one run in seven innings on his last start in Toronto, it should be game one to New York.

Paul Byrd, who joined Boston from the Cleveland earlier this month, faces Sidney Ponson on Wednesday.

This is a real crapshoot. Byrd is 2-5 against the Yanks with an ERA on 4.90. He allowed four runs on six hits over six innings, but that was good enough to give him the win against the Blue Jays.

Becket-less Boston could have pitching problems

Ponson was simply horrible in Toronto last Thursday, lasting just over two innings, during which he gave up seven runs on eight hits.

But he’s been pretty good on his last two starts at the Stadium, notably against the Los Angeles Angels, when he conceded just two hits in seven innings.

It’s asking a lot for him to repeat that level of performance, but if he can just keep his team in the hunt, the Yanks can come through late and win game two.

On paper, game three looks the toughest challenge for Joe Girardi’s men. Mike Mussina goes for his 17th win against Jon Lester.

Lester dominated both his starts against the Yanks last month, the Sox winning 9-2 and 7-0. He pitched a complete game at Yankee Stadium, allowing just five hits and no runs.

The Yanks have been unable to work him out. But the Blue Jays had no such problems on his last outing, pounding him for seven runs on eight hits in only 2.1 innings.

The bad news for the home team is that Lester will be fresh. The good news is that his last outing must surely have dented his confidence.

Mussina has been Mr. Reliable this season. Even when he’s got off to a shaky start, he’s managed to hang in there.

It may be wishful thinking – and it would be foolish to place too much faith in a team that currently has Ponson, Darrell Rasner and Carl Pavano as three of its five starting pitchers.

But if Mussina comes through, the Yanks can sweep the Sox and put themselves right back in the hunt for October.

FOR WET-BLANKET YANKEES, IT MIGHT AS WELL RAIN UNTIL SEPTEMBER

INCONSISTENT is an adjective that’s been used to describe the 2008 New York Yankees. Consistently bad might be more appropriate.

How else can you characterize the ineptitude of a team that has managed to lose the first game of their last seven series?

Not since their 1-0 win in Boston on July 25th have the Yanks won the opening game. And you don’t win too many series from 1-0 down.

Last night’s 2-1 defeat in Toronto was a microcosm of the season. It wasn’t down to bad starting pitching. Darrell Rasner made just one mistake in seven innings.

Once again, it was due to their inability to come up with a big hit when they needed it – and another appalling error in the outfield.

Melky Cabrera was sent down because of his poor form with the bat. But you can bet your mortgage that he would have caught the long fly ball makeshift centerfielder Johnny Damon dropped to hand the Blue Jays victory.

Even then, there was time for the overpaid and underachieving Alex Rodriguez to run himself out at second base with another error in judgment.

Girardi let down by senior players

Manager Joe Girardi must be beside himself at seeing so many mistakes made by so many experienced players.

The Yanks had controlled the game for the best part of seven innings – only to waste all their hard work.

Most other teams in the American League have worked out a way to score runs against A.J. Burnett – he gave up eight hits and four runs in six innings on his previous start in Detroit – but not the Yanks.

And unlike Yankees teams of old, they were unable to tack on to the one run they scored in the very first inning.

Perhaps Girardi should have canceled Monday’s day-off. After scoring 15 runs against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, their star-studded batting line-up sleepwalked their way through another game.

With Tampa Bay, Boston, the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins all winning, the Yankees now find themselves 6.5 games back in the wild card standings.

Right now, the question isn’t whether there will be October baseball in the Bronx. It’s whether September baseball will hold any meaning for the fallible, feeble, fumbling New York Yankees.

RULE BRITANNIA, BRITANNIA RULES THE GAMES!

GREAT BRITAIN’S surprising gold rush at the Beijing Olympics is causing a stir “Down Under.”

It seems the rivalry between Britain and Australia is not confined to the cricket field.

The Aussies currently hold The Ashes – the urn awarded to the team that wins the Test cricket series between the two countries ­– and has dominated the Poms in just about every sporting pursuit.

In the last four Olympics, they have won considerably more gold medals than the Brits. But that could be about to change in Beijing.

As of today, Great Britain has won 16 golds to Australia’s 11 and stands third in the medals table behind China (43 gold) and the USA (26).

Traditionally, Australia has been strong in the pool. But for the first time since 1976 in Montreal, the Australian men’s swimming team failed to win a single gold.

Australia has also been good at cycling in the past but Britain has wiped the floor with them in the velodrome, boosting their total medal haul on the bike to 14.

Aussies outswum, outcycled and outrun by the Poms

To rub salt in the wound, the British cycling coach Shane Sutton won gold at the 1978 Commonwealth Games – for Australia!

Apparently, top-level coaches can earn five times as much in Britain as they can in Australia.

Australian sports minister Kate Ellis, who described the Poms as a bunch of “serial chokers” before the Games, is being forced to eat humble pie.

And John Coates, head of the Australian Olympic Committee, has conceded that with five days of competition to go, they might be edged out by the Brits.

Not bad for a country that has virtually no Olympic-standard swimming pools or cycling tracks and very little sunshine to train under compared to Australia!

The Aussies, it seems, have become a victim of their own success. The Australian Institute of Sport, set up after the disastrous display in the Montreal Games, has become the role model for Olympic Committees throughout the world.

And with the next Summer Games being staged in London in 2012, the Brits will even have home advantage.

GIRARDI LEARNS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO LIVE IN JOE TORRE'S SHADOW

WOULD the New York Yankees be any better off this season if Joe Torre were still in charge?

We’ll never know the answer to that question. But it’s one that is sure to be asked if they miss out on October baseball.

Five games out in the wild card race, it’s going to take a superhuman effort by A-Rod and Co. to maintain the Yankees’ proud record of making the play-offs every year since 1993.

With 38 games to go, the Yanks are a disappointing 66-58. They finally managed to win a series against the last-placed Kansas City Royals.

Usually, two out of three ain’t bad. But in their current predicament, the Yanks really needed a sweep.

The pressure they’ve been playing under has been etched on the face of Joe Girardi.

At times, Girardi has looked as though he is carrying the weight of the whole world on his shoulders. And it’s hard to believe his obvious frustration and vexation is not being transmitted to the players.

Now I’m not for one moment suggesting that Torre was leaning on his bat, cracking jokes in the dugout. I could actually see him age during the course of last season.

New Yankees boss prepared to give youth a chance

But one of his big strengths was carrying the burden on his own back and thus deflecting the pressure away from the players.

I doubt whether Girardi is quite as good at that. Nor should we expect him to be in his first season in charge of the 26-time world champions.

Managers can occasionally influence the outcome of games by their decisions, notably through pitching match-ups, pinch hitters and pinch runners.

But in the end, it all comes down to the players, and too many have of them been below average this year.

Torre always relied on the old guard. Girardi has been more willing to give younger players such as Brett Gardner and Justin Christian a chance.

To a certain extent, his hand has been forced by a ridiculous number of injuries. But his decision to play Christian and Richie Sexson ahead of Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi in Minnesota last week defied all logic. Yes, the Yanks were up against a left-handed pitcher, but he had a better ERA against righties.

The jury is still out on Girardi’s management style. We won’t be able to make a fair judgment on the strength of his hand until he has full deck of cards to play with.

But the fact remains that in Joe Torre’s 12 seasons as manager, the Yankees always made the play-offs. If they do miss out this year, Girardi will have plenty to prove in 2009.

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER NO MORE ON THE FAN

NEW YORK sports fans suffered a major blow last night. And, for once, it had nothing to do with the Yankees stinking up the city.

They say that breaking up is hard to do. Apparently not for Mike and the Mad Dog, WFAN’s popular afternoon sports talk show.

For some months, there had been rumors about a break down in the relationship between Mike Francesa and Christopher Russo.

Now, after 19 years analyzing the Jets, Mets, Nets, Yankees, Giants, Knicks, Rangers, Devils and Islanders, Mike and the Mad Dog is no more.

It’s now Mike minus the Mad Dog, or to give the new show its proper title, Francesa on the FAN.

Russo, a 48-year-old father of four, was unwilling to commit to another five years with WFAN and has decided to go it alone. He denied any rift with Francesa.

Although he has yet to announce his future plans, he is being tipped to become the voice of sports on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Sadly for disciples of Mike and the Mad Dog, there will be no farewell show.

“You only get a goodbye show when you retire,” said Francesa. “No company gives you a goodbye show unless you’re no longer going to be a competitor. And we all know that Dog will work again.”

Russo said: “I’m not sure I’ll take another partner on, because before Mike, I was solo. I can do a talk show. Solo, partner, anything I’m on, I’ll do a good talk show.”

Mad Dog splits with Mike after 19 years together

Of that, I have no doubt. But I would question seriously whether it would ever be as good as Mike and the Mad Dog.

The fact that they were so different was their strength. Francesa is a Yankees fan. Russo supports the San Francisco Giants.

Francesa is cool, calm and collected; Russo excitable, opinionated and famous for his rants.

George Vecsey of The New York Times once described his voice as “a bizarre mixture of Jerry Lewis, Archie Bunker and Daffy Duck.”

He was introduced to WFAN listeners by Don Imus on his morning show as the sports reporter.

The departure of Imus, and now Russo, is an undoubted blow to WFAN in its ratings battle with ESPN.

For those who follow sports in the New York area, Mike and the Mad Dog was compulsive listening between 1pm and 6.30pm on weekday afternoons.

The only sports talk show that comes anywhere close to it is Mike & Mike In The Morning on ESPN. And they spend a lot more time talking about sports nationally than they do focusing on the local scene.

Boomer (Boomer Esiason) and Carton (Craig Carton) have their followers. But, as a Yankees fan, I can no longer listening to the irksome Carton (a Mets fan) gloating about their demise.

I always found Mike and the Mad Dog’s coverage of the New York baseball teams fair and, for the most part, unbiased.

Okay, so Francesa went over the top about Joe Torre leaving the Yankees last year, but you could never accuse either of them of not having their finger on the pulse.

They knew New York sports; they knew the personalities. Afternoons won’t be the same without the Mad Dog barking.