Bird 6, Yankees 3

Ahhhhhhh . . . I no sooner dedicate myself to the whole season than the chaos of Thursday night intervenes, and I miss Andy Pettitte's, ah, glorious return.

Now this. I saw the game unfold in the most painful way possible: the manual, inning-by-inning scoreboard at Minute Maid Park--where, by the way, I paid witness to another undoing of the Astros, and this during Jeff Bagwell Appreciation Day (not to be confused with Jeff Bagwell day, the retiring of the uniform number and all of that, set for August 26th).

From seeing one game and reading about two, from hearing what people say, I think we know the following:

1. The Yankees have had two tipping points in their history: 1965 and 1982. These were the times when everyone became old and slow. Are the Yankees there yet? No, but warning signs are everywhere. Their pitchers are fragile. The talent core-minus-A-Rod-and-Jeter (call it Georgie, Mo, Giambi, Matsui, Moose, Andy and even Damon) are all a year further away from their prime. Unless Cashman's wizardry has has re-stocked the minors with players not just ready to contribute and play well (Robbie, Melky) but to be out-and-out dangerous, the third Bronxian Dark Ages may be closer than we think.

2. That said, we can't worry so quickly. When a team stops hitting in the clutch for awhile, when a few errors mount up, the entire season can look hopeless.

3. Matsui's throwing arm has come seriously close to disqualifying him from the outfield.