Where were you when you heard the news?

2:40 pm, Saturday, October 7th, 2006.

Alex Rodriguez is batting eighth.

If you asked me at 2:39 pm, I'd have told you that Alex Rodriguez was never going to get traded in the offseason. Now it seems inevitable.

When ARod's Yankee tenure is reviewed, you will see some great regular season stats (though still somewhat underappreciated), an MVP, a great start to the postseason, and an obviously disappointing finish to the postseason.

ARod deserves the criticism he has received for his postseason failures, though it's still a team game and he's obviously not the only Yankee player who deserves to be criticized for the team's postseason failures.

Having said that, I never thought Torre would throw a player under a bus quite like this. The SI article, batting sixth suddenly in the first game of the playoffs, batting eighth in the fourth game of the playoffs. Torre will probably put in Nick Green to pinch hit for ARod if men are on base.

It's stunning and shocking and disheartening.

It's hard to imagine this makes sense anymore strategy-wise or as a motivational ploy. I mean, gee, just take a look at the batting averages of all the guys who Joe stuck with and moved ahead of ARod in the lineup. Sheffield and Cano aren't exactly inspiring confidence, either.

Torre's treatment of ARod now seems like nothing more than a mean-spiritied way to embarrass a player and divert blame.

Can you seriously imagine the reaction if any other manager pulled a stunt like this? Reyes is 1-for-7 (.143) in the ALDS, so Randolph benches him?

The past 26 playoff at-bats are a damn shame and ARod deserves his share of ridicule for the Yankee postseason failures. But he is still a .300/.400/.550/40/120 third baseman, mark it down every year.

Don't you know the inevitable result of the impending trade?

(1) A Yankee third baseman who drives in 65 runs.

(2) A third-place finish.

(3) ARod comes back to punish them in a future playoff series.

I thought last night's Yankee loss was one of the worst since I've been alive. This morning, it got worse. This is a sad episode in Yankee history, made worse by a petty, mean-spirited manager.