Yankees in a black hole

Apparently we missed the secret memo, but somewhere, someone declared Tuesday desperation day in sports. From the United States men’s team initially falling behind, 1-0, to that great soccer power Guatemala and risking a humiliating ouster from World Cup qualifying to Eagles Coach Andy Reid throwing his defensive coordinator overboard midseason when it is his offense that should have been fitted for scuba gear to the current headquarters of desperation: the Yankees dugout.

This reached its apex (or nadir, depending on your point of view) in the ninth inning of the Yankees’ attempt to stave off complete irrelevance against Detroit, when someone in that moribund lineup actually made contact with a baseball and scored a run, then two more had the “Oh, we’re supposed to hit the ball?” revelation. This instantly reminded Manager Joe Girardi that he had a future Hall of Famer on his bench with 647 career home runs and he promptly decided to use everything short of a nail gun to keep him there. That it was a former Yankees pitcher, Phil Coke, on the mound polishing off this little rally only increased the desperation factor by a power of 10. The result? Forget desperate, they are now fast-forwarding right to panic.

How bad is it? They are left to channel the 2004 Red Sox for inspiration, Mike Vaccaro writes in The New York Post. Yes, they are mentally leaning on one of the lowest points in their franchise history, Boston’s comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the American League Championship Series. And they are doing it with a lineup of players for whom 2004 was the prime of their career. Alex Rodriguez, he of the 647 home runs but now hitting with what appears to be a Styrofoam telephone pole, is left to field pep talks from his friend Kobe Bryant. (John Harper reports in The Daily News that it might be General Manager Brian Cashman wielding the staple gun when it comes to A-Rod, but that hardly makes anything seem better.)

Under any other circumstances, the focus of this series would be the Tigers, who got another glittering performance from their ace, Justin Verlander, who sparkled despite not having anywhere near his best stuff, Nicholas Cotsonika writes on Yahoo.com. In Detroit, they are overtaxing their supply of hyperbole to celebrate Verlander, who seems to be even more pumped up with a championship within smelling distance, Jon Paul Morosi writes on Foxsports.com. He made Jim Leyland’s job awfully easy Tuesday night, Jim Caple writes on ESPN.com, despite a few fraught minutes in the ninth inning. That, Drew Sharp writes in The Detroit Free Press, echoes a season of the Tigers being uneasy in seemingly comfortable spots.

But even in Detroit it is tempting to look over at the Yankees and be fascinated by their woes, writes John Niyo in The Detroit News, partly because they are so baffling. The offensive slump defies explanation, Scott Miller writes on CBSSports.com, leaving Girardi with no answers on his roster, Ian O’Connor writes on ESPN.com.

If Rodriguez is getting pep talks from Bryant, perhaps Girardi should hook up for comfort in misery with Reid. His 3-3 Eagles team would not appear to be in similarly dire straits, but Reid is clearly feeling the blowtorch under his coaching seat turned up a notch, Dan Graziano writes on ESPN.com. To Peter King of SI.com, firing the defensive coordinator Juan Castillo reeks of a diversionary tactic that does nothing to solve the team’s real woes. It does, however, mean Reid’s bold off-season move to put an offensive line coach in charge of the defense has backfired spectacularly, Bob Ford writes in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Things could have been even toastier for the United States men’s soccer team, but a rather impressive rally after falling behind early against Guatemala put an end to the immediate crisis. It does say something about the current state of affairs that the national team was sweating the semifinal round of qualifying, writes Martin Rogers on Yahoo.com, and there are still lots of issues to deal with as the competition gets stiffer, Bill Reiter writes on Foxsports.com. But for now, staving off the disaster of being knocked out of the World Cup will have to do, writes Grant Wahl on SI.com.

The N.H.L. hasn’t yet staved off the disastrous effects of its latest brain-freeze of a lockout, but at least the league’s new proposal Tuesday injected a little hope into the proceedings. The league blinked a little, writes Bruce Arthur in The National Post, which might be enough to provide momentum for a deal, although Eric Gordon writes in The Toronto Globe and Mail that the process is nowhere near the end.

The Yankees wish they were able to say the end isn’t near. But it came a lot quicker than any of them imagined.