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24 Stories on Carl Pavano
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SI.com: Tom Verducci: Free agency today is more about busts than big names and bargains

Free agency once was a yellow brick road to riches. Free agents could count on being wined and dined and enriched. Does anyone remember a recruiting tour of the country by Carl Pavano -- yes, Carl Pavano -- unofficially named Carlpalooza?

SI.com: Ben Reiter: Yankees force Twins into fatal mistake

MINNEAPOLIS --- About forty-five minutes after Mariano Rivera induced the weak groundout from Brendan Harris that ended this American League Division Series, a few Twins fans lingered in some hidden corner of the Metrodome, testing, for one last time, the stadium's acoustics. "Let's go, Twinkies!" they yelled, their voices echoing throughout the ballpark, well after workers had dug up home plate and had begun to pull the advertisements down from the outfield wall. It was the last time that those words will ever be shouted here.

SI.com: Ted Keith: Can Verlander's arm counter Twins' momentum to win AL Central?

As team sports go, the regular-season collapse is a phenomenon unique to baseball. After all, there isn't much sense getting too worked up over whether a team blew its chance to be the No. 8 seed in the NHL or NBA playoffs, or one of two wild cards in each conference in the NFL.

SI.com: Baseball Prospectus: Yanks could easily get burned by A.J.

The winter meetings in Las Vegas may have ended, but the Yankees are still busy. Two days after landing the free agent market's most coveted hurler, CC Sabathia, they've bolstered their rotation with another free agent, A.J. Burnett. The former Blue Jay has reached a preliminary agreement with the Yankees on a five-year, $82.5 million contract -- pending a physical. If Sabathia's seven-year, $161 million deal carries risks for New York, Burnett's deal arguably carries even more.

Money for (almost) nothing: Fat paychecks for very little work

Work hard, get promoted, succeed in your new post, and eventually you'll start earning the big money. This progression seems like a firmly ingrained part of the American Dream, and it's certainly worked for a lot of people.

SI.com: BP: Unconventional Wisdom: Changes Yankees should make

Tuesday night's Red Sox win made it official: The Yankees will miss the 2008 playoffs, making this the first season in the Division Series era in which October will kick off without the Bronx Bombers. That's a reason for celebration in many quarters, and a cause for distress in others, but the team's failure to make the postseason inspires one question from everyone: What now?

SI.com: John Donovan: Desperate Yanks run into nervous Red Sox in Bronx showdown

It is now time, whether all those playoff-privileged East Coast fans want to admit it or not, to face up to the very tangible possibility that both the Yankees and the defending World Series champion Red Sox might be on the outside looking in this postseason.

SI.com: Tom Verducci: Teams are inking their young stars to long-term deals

Revelations, observations and ruminations from the first week of the championship season:

People.com: Alyssa Milano Says She's Done Dating Athletes

Alyssa Milano is single, and says she's done living out the fantasy of being a baseball player's girlfriend.

SI.com: John Rolfe: The '80s have returned to the Bronx

Twenty-five years ago, the Yankees hit July 4 at 36-37 on their way to unceremoniously snapping a string of five postseason appearances in six years, including three pennants and two World Series championships. That run could have been six-for-six if not for the demoralizing death of captain Thurman Munson during the 1979 season. The '82 Yankees, who bear a passing resemblance to this year's squad, were a talented bunch (on papyrus) that wheezed in fifth in the A.L. East at 79-83 -- the franchise's first losing record since 1973.

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