In New York, the football Giants and the Knicks have not yet been able to wrestle the back page from the baseball boys yet. Nothing really new to report, but after a quick look around, here’s what I got for the daily schmooze:

Tyler Kepner on the Yanks; David Pinto on Miguel Cabrera; Steven Goldman on the Hot Stove; a Miguel Tejada-to-the-Yankees rumor out of Baltimore; Steve Treder digs up some gems from the past over at The Hardball Times;

Oh, and this from Buster Olney a few days ago:

Andy Pettitte had to give the Yankees an answer by Wednesday about whether he was going to opt out, and he did. Most players feel the tug of home, but I always thought he was atypical among players in how he copes with that: He is the only player I can remember openly admitting, after a poor outing at the end of a long road trip, that he was distracted by the absence of his kids. So it would not be surprising at all that Pettitte would retire, at age 35. The accumulation of more wealth and the pull of a possible Hall of Fame candidacy — he does, after all, have 201 victories and could pitch another five or six years, if he really wanted to — mean little or nothing to him. Some within the Yankees’ organization believe Pettitte is going to retire. I’d bet he is going to retire.

But remember, the early part of the offseason is an easy time to embrace the idea of retiring. As the fall turns to winter and players naturally begin to think about picking up a ball and about spring training, his body will feel better. You could set the official odds at 50-50 that he will be back, and the Yankees have told him they are ready when he is to talk about another year.

Drop a Gem on ‘Em

Lastly, in matters unrelated to baseball, here are a few more links:

Roald Dahl’s wicked short story, Lamb to the Slaughter; W.C. Heinz’s classic column, “Death of a Racehorse”; Kenneth Tynan’s colassal New Yorker profile of Johnny Carson; Steven Rodrick’s piece on Judd Apatow from earlier this year in the NY Times magazine; a site devoted to the ‘blurb reviews of the late, great Pauline Kael; hilariously bad impressions from Mel and Albert Brooks.