General managers of successful teams are lining up, and they’re not in a bread line or an unemployment line.

A baseball official said Tuesday night Omar Minaya will soon reach agreement with the Mets on a new contract for five or six years, Brian Cashman will re-up with the Yankees for more than $2 million a year and Theo Epstein will conclude a new deal with the Red Sox, also for more than $2 million a year.

The Cashman and Epstein contracts will expire after this season, but Minaya has one year left on a five-year contract.

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What is your favorite memory, the television interviewer asked as we stood on the outfield warning track several hours before Yankee Stadium’s final game. What will you miss the most about the stadium, others have asked. What plays or hits or performances most stand out in your mind?

The approximately 38 years of Yankee Stadium’s 85-year existence that I have spent writing about baseball in the storied Bronx edifice have produced many memories, many moments and plays and performances that are among the best known that happened in the stadium.

But several hours before Sunday’s final game I spotted a familiar figure and was suddenly struck by the thought that in those 38 years this man has been a stadium staple, even moreso than Yogi Berra.

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I never thought I would say this or even think it, but I’m sorry that the Yankees are closing Yankee Stadium without George Steinbrenner. All right, I understand why the house that Ruth built is closing without Babe Ruth in the house. But the man who revived the house that Ruth built should be there and won’t be.

The Yankees owner the past 36 years, Steinbrenner is 78 years old, not sound physically and unable to get around easily. He has been at the stadium once or twice this season, and he has kept a profile that doesn’t even reach the level of low. He doesn’t talk to reporters any more on the phone either.

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