R.A. Dickey continues his unlikely role as the wizard of Queens, but his support staff has been unmasked as an empty uniform. If Dickey is to land in Oz, he’ll have to do it on his own.

Oz, in this instance, isn’t where Dorothy and Toto wound up but is Dickey’s destination as baseball’s best pitcher this season. He is headed in that direction despite the erosion of the team that has turned out to be, not unexpectedly, as punchless as the Scarecrow, Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion.

Dickey is the only pitcher among the major league leaders who is not performing for a playoff contender. What’s that? You took a long summer’s nap or a summer vacation and missed the Mets’ discouraging development?

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When John Henry, the Red Sox principal owner, said earlier this week the team would ignore calls for the dismissal of the manager, Bobby Valentine, he was not referring to me. I have not called for Valentine to be fired. I might have questioned why the Red Sox were so foolish to hire him and suggested that they may wind up regretting it, but fire him? No.

On the contrary, I don’t think they should fire him. They should have to endure every day of their two-year contract with him. I have said the two of them deserve each other (thanks for that useful phrase, Billy), and what better way to fulfill their blessed union than keeping them together.

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As the non-waiver trading deadline approached, speculation was rampant about the effect the addition of a second wild card in each league’s playoffs might have on the strategy teams might employ in the trade mart.

On the one hand, more teams figured to be in contention for playoff spots so more teams would be likely to want to make trades to enhance their chances. On the other hand, the more teams that viewed themselves as contenders the fewer teams there would be that would be willing to trade good players for minor league prospects.

So what happened? Nothing out of the ordinary.

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