The last day of baseball, still the national pastime even though NASCAR and football, brutal sports, have edged the boys of summer in popularity.

Baseball is now and forever will be the most lyrical and folkloric of all sports.  Who hasn’t heard or read the poem about "Mighty Casey"?

But I had the honor and privilege today of tuning in to the legendary baseball announcer [tag]Vin Scully[/tag], who quoted this from long-gone baseball commissioner [tag]Bart Giamatti[/tag], the man who fought [tag]Pete Rose[/tag] and won:

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.

"Just so," as my Irish ancestors would say.