Give Ruben Amaro credit for one thing. He may do dumb things, but when he admits to one of them, he doesn’t whisper his admission, hoping no one will hear him. He issues the admission in a huge, public way.

Except the Philadelphia general manager does not consider his acquisition of Roy Oswalt last week as a correction for his trade of Cliff Lee last December.

It’s my opinion and that of many others, including other general managers, that Amaro made a mistake trading Lee instead of keeping him and pairing him with Roy Halladay as the fiercest 1-2 pitching punch in the major leagues. With Lee and Halladay in their starting rotation, the Phillies were probably halfway to the World Series.

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While I was away last week, Lou Piniella announced on Tuesday that he planned to retire after the season and on Wednesday Ralph Houk died.

Piniella and Houk worked for the same team, the Yankees, but never together. Houk managed his last game for the Yankees Sept. 30, 1973; they acquired Piniella in a trade about 10 weeks later, Dec. 7.

Piniella, however, wound up doing the exact same jobs in his Yankees career that Houk had done 20 or so years earlier. They were both players, coaches, managers and general managers.

They had something else in common: they both kicked a lot of dirt in their rages at umpires.

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Zachary Kram is substituting for Murray Chass this Sunday.

As the initial beats of “Enter Sandman” fill Yankee Stadium, the frenzied crowd cheers wildly, secure in its knowledge that the immortal Mariano Rivera will finish off the win. No matter the opposing team or hitter at the plate, his routine and demeanor are always the same, his Hall of Fame cutter still working its magic and baffling hitters. This season, one Jason Kubel grand slam aside, Rivera has been just as untouchable as in years past, with a 0.98 ERA and twenty saves in 22 chances. As impressive as his year has been, however, other relief pitchers from across the majors have failed to follow suit and match his success.

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