Schadenfreude 102 (A Continuing Series)

George A. King III, Post:

Measure the toes, initial the tags and clear space in the morgue. The Yankees are nine innings away from self-inflicted baseball death. ...

Etch A.J. Burnett on the pinstriped tombstone, because he is an easy target. But make sure to include relievers Boone Logan and Joba Chamberlain, a lineup that has gone limp and manager Joe Girardi's decision to stick with Burnett in the middle of a 10-3 loss to the Rangers in Game 4 of the ALCS last night at Yankee Stadium ...

John Harper, Daily News:

[C]onsidering that Burnett was pitching for the first time in 17 days, it was surprising to see the manager put his righthander in a situation where one mistake pitch could prove so costly ...

... after all the debate about whether Burnett should pitch, after a season in which so much went wrong with him on the mound, this seemed to be a night when Girardi would go get him before anything big could go wrong.

Joel Sherman, Post:

[Girardi] invest[ed] trust in his least trustworthy player, A.J. Burnett. After a postseason spent running away from the erratic righty, Girardi stuck with a pitcher with a pretty pronounced loser gene long enough for Burnett to lose. It was Mismanagment 101: Rely on the Unreliable. ...

No one could think it was a good idea to have him on the mound at that moment: tying run in scoring position, go-ahead run on first, season on the brink. ...

Girardi had given a baseball arsonist matches and the Yankees season went up in flames.

Mike Lupica, Daily News:

That makes it 25-5 over the last three games, Yankees down 1-3 now, trying to somehow find the character to begin the greatest comeback in the history of the team Wednesday. Big guy pitching Wednesday. Go big or go home. ...

The Yankees had a chance to put this game away in the middle innings. Didn't. ...

The Yankees try not to ... watch the Rangers celebrate a pennant at this Stadium the way the Red Sox did at the old one six years ago. ...

The Yankees have not just been beaten three straight, they have been embarrassed. ... The Twins put up a better fight in the three games of the division series than the Yankees have put up against the Rangers over these last three games. ...

The Rangers are having all the fun in the world. Still have one more game to win. The game the Yankees never got off the Red Sox after being up 3-0 in '04. ...

Sean Brennan, Daily News:

With their season teetering on the brink of oblivion, the Yankees' long-shot odds of rallying from a 3-1 deficit got a little longer when Mark Teixeira [0-for-14 in the ALCS] likely went down for the remainder of the playoffs with a hamstring strain Tuesday night. ...

The injury was diagnosed as a Grade 2 hamstring strain that will keep him sidelined for six to eight weeks.

Post:

The fruitcake who ran onto the field at Yankee Stadium Monday [in the top of the fifth inning of ALCS 3] wanted to confront A-Rod out of crazed jealousy over the star infielder's romantic relationship with Cameron Diaz ...

Grim LeRogue, who legally changed his name from Joe Rogan, was carrying five pictures when he made his mad dash -- including one of Rodriguez with an X scrawled across his face and a gun pointed at his head. An apparent threat was scribbled across the picture: "You have to go bud, you've ruined too many of our white queens." ...

LeRogue, 33, of The Bronx, also has a soft spot for Osama bin Laden. A picture he carried of the al Qaeda head bore the inscription, "I will serve you," and described the terrorist as his "master." ...

[LeRogue] has managed to finish writing a 700-page novel "about a ninja or something" that he's self-publishing next month, [his mother] said. "He told police he wanted publicity" for his tome ...