Johnny Damon is a free agent at the end of this year, and he is off to the kind of epic salary-drive walk year that Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez enjoyed two years ago meaning that if it keeps up, and he spends much of the season being what he’s been for the Yankees so far — namely, their lone reliable clutch hitter — the Yankees’ hand-wringing decision about what to do with him will serve as a nice preliminary to the main event, which will center around Derek Jeter, who enters his walk year next season.

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Johan Santana vs. Derek Lowe tonight at Citi Field, in a wistful reminder of what the Mets’ top of the rotation could have looked like. A.J. Burnett vs. Roy Halladay tomorrow night at Rogers Centre in Toronto, a reminder of just how amazing it is that the pre-Cito Gaston Jays weren’t able to make hardly any noise at all in the A.L. East the last three years with that formidable 1-2 punch at the top of their rotation. These things

Was it me,or could you actually hear some of the NBC announcers — not the great Johnny Miller, of course, but the rest of them — actually get misty-eyed on the air as it became apparent that Tiger wasn’t going to make a charge at the TPC yesterday?