Those Cruel and Unusual Yankees

The Padres must know they're done for, the way the cruel and relentless New York Yankees toyed with them Tuesday night before letting their unheralded third baseman finish the job. In the stands, old ladies cried and grown men prayed. It didn't help. Maybe Kevin Brown, the Padres' hard-throwing footnote to Game 1 and tonight's Game 4 starter, can prolong the agony.

This has been an apt enough World Series to tack onto this glorious baseball season. The Yankees' team of faceless assassins are the perfect counterpoint to the solo gunslinging of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, and when this team finishes the job, their numbers will loom with the rest. But good television? This Series has had its share of subplots, but its outcome -- the soul of any sporting event -- has never really been in doubt. Truly, the 1998 Yankees are destined for the history books. But history can be a dull affair when it's viewed this close.