The Final Score

YANKEES: Phil Hughes has to go down to Triple-A. End of story.

He's never struggled like this in his life. He's lost. He won't be able to figure it out up here. Darrell Rasner, welcome back.

Hughes will be back. And he will one day be a top starter. No reason to lose faith.

But he needs to go.

METS: I'm officially over the Carlos Delgado vs. Mets fans story. It was fun while it lasted, though.

Anyone who thinks it was much ado about nothing is dismissing the opinions of half the Mets' fan base. I would say from the feedback I've seen, half of Mets fans think it was a snub and half don't. That's fine. Only Delgado knows what was in his mind. Unless Mike and the Mad Dog can read minds as well as read lips on TV.

By the way, as much as Delgado did a dumb thing by not coming out for the curtain call, he did a smart thing by talking with the New York media for 20 minutes about it on Monday. Totally defused it.

It was as charming and engaging as I've seen Delgado, who sometimes talks down to reporters and gets prickly when asked simple questions like, "Were you trying to hit that home run to leftfield" or "are you upset about striking out four times?"

The story would have gone on another day if Delgado had snubbed the media on Monday. The media considers not talking to the media as the worst of all sins.

Making the media wait before talking to the media is the second worst of all sins.

Charging the media $8.50 for a terrible pregame meal is the third worst of all sins.