When the New York Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays Monday night in the first game of their three-game series, I thought this is crazy and far-fetched, but maybe the Yankees could be a playoff contender in the final seven weeks of the season.

When the Yankees took a 6-0 lead against the Blue Jays after five innings the next night, I thought this is getting crazier by the inning. And then a 42-minute rain delay threw cold water on the Yankees and the fantasy. The Blue Jays erupted for 12 runs after the delay and won, 12-6.

Toronto’s explosion against the Yankees’ relief corps epitomized the problems the Yankees could have as a result of their decision to trade two-thirds of their bullpen troika, Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller. No longer would the Yankees be covered for the final three innings if they had a lead after six innings.

But General Manager Brian Cashman made that decision in the belief that …

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Christmas came early this year for Major League Baseball’s 30 teams. Bob Bowman was the jolly old gentleman with the big belly and the fluffy white beard.

Bowman is the president of MLB business and media, formerly CEO of MLB Advanced Media, who is probably responsible for generating more revenue for MLB than any other individual.

His gift to the clubs was last week’s $1 billion sale to the Walt Disney Company of a one-third stake in BAM Tech, the venture Bowman and aides developed to stream live events, allowing them to be viewed on any device.

“We’re trying to grow a business,” Bowman said in a telephone interview last Friday. “We built third-party streaming technology. People started calling us. It was a client demand. People said we want to do it.”

BAM Tech has attracted widespread and serious attention from, among others …

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When I finished interviewing 21-year-old Alex Rodriguez that spring training morning in 1997, I went to find a telephone (this was before cell phones) to call my wife.

“I just found another child for us,” I said jokingly but clearly impressed with this young man.

I wrote it, too.

“At the age of 21, Rodriguez is also a phenomenal baseball player. He may be an even more phenomenal person. It is easy to walk away from a conversation with him wanting to take him home to be another child in the family.”

I don’t know how long it took me to find out how wrong I was, but I found out. Rodriguez, as young as he was, was a …

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