Dead meat? No. Cold as ice? Yes.

The front page of today's New York Post has a tombstone affixed with a Yankees logo and an epitaph on the 2008 season. The headline and subhead, respectively, of George King's story reads: THE DIE IS CAST; YANKS ARE DEAD MEAT AFTER 3-7 TRIP.

"Their supporters are urged to pay their respects privately today for the team that is looking toe-tag dead in the AL East and wild card races," King writes.

Technically, it's too early to stick the fork in the Yankees. Yes, they've looked embarrassingly hideous during a 3-7 road trip. They're a whopping nine games out of first place and six out of the Wild Card. But you have to learn from history. I wrote last week (scroll down David Justice's column to see the inline box) that on Aug. 26, 1995, the Yankees were off an eight-game losing streak and eight games out of the Wild Card race. They finished that season 26-7 to sneak into the playoffs on the final day. And there are a handful of examples, most recently last year's Mets, that prove the season is a 162-game marathon and that Yogi Berra is a genius.

The Yankees aren't dead and buried, but I've said since June they're not making the playoffs. The injuries of Chien-Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain are too much to overcome - if not for Mike Mussina, I'd declare the Yanks dead and buried - and the offense has been the season's biggest disappointment. The core players are a year older. David Justice and I have discussed this repeatedly. When you're older, it's human nature for your skills to slowly erode and a nagging injury you can shake off when you're younger is now more stubborn and barks a little more louder each day. David once told me, "Johnny Damon may be in the lineup, but that doesn't mean he's healthy." Damon is another year older. So is Derek Jeter. So is Bobby Abreu. There's no conincidence the latter two are having down seasons. Are their careers in a decline? Not necessarily, but we're looking at this downcast 2008 season in a vacuum.

Damon hasn't been the problem. There's been lots of them as my colleague and friend Howie Karpin writes in his great blog, "Howie Karpin's 3 Balls, 2 Strikes." Howie, among other things, is like many others are trying to make sense of Robinson Cano. Thirty million for four years and his mind is on anything except baseball.