Marty Miller. I feel your pain.

Who's Marty Miller? He's the guy who was just scapegoated by the Evil Empire ( Read: New York Yankees ) Miller, until yesterday, filled a position created this year by the Bronx Bombers.

His title: Director of Performance Enhancement. His job description: Prevent...

Let's spell that out so we can be perfectly clear about what Mr. Miller was expected to do.

P-R-E-V-E-N-T

injuries to New York Yankee players.

We are now one month into the 2007 Major League Baseball season. The Yankees have thus far placed nine players on the disabled list, many of them suffering hamstring injuries. The other night, a 20 year old rookie pitcher, Phil Hughes, was pitching a no hitter. In the sixth inning he threw a pitch then grabbed his leg. He'd pulled a hamstring. There went the no hitter. There went Hughes. He'll be out of the lineup for four to six weeks.

The Yankees are in last place. Sure, it's early in a very long season. Baseball ain't no short story; every season is an epic poem. Or a novel written by Tolstoy. Still. The Yanks are in last place, six games out. And you watch the team filing off the field after their latest loss and it reminds one of Dunkirk.

The term self - fulfilling prophesy comes to mind. I mean, look what they named the guy:

Director of Performance Enhancement. Who's the genius who made that decision? The decision to hire someone and give them that title. When the biggest story in baseball in the past few years has been:

Performing enhancing drugs.

Be careful what you wish for. Take care when giving things names.

I never thought I'd say this about the Evil Empire, but...

This is painful to watch.