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The slugger and the suit: a baseball bromantic tragedy.

Age, injuries, and cost-cutting were supposed to have doomed them. So all they’ve done is steamroll toward the World Series again.

For the Mets, 2012 was supposed to be a lost year. Now another miracle seems possible.

Thanks to the Wilpon-Madoff mess, Mets fans could be in for an ugly drought.

As the aging Mets limped to the finish and the Yankees burst through, Billy Wagner, 36 and hurting, dreamed of getting to the big stage.

With a bloated payroll, an injured superstar, notoriously clueless management, and a perpetually hangdog look, the Knicks were basketball's walking dead. Then Isiah Thomas arrived, and a sudden quickening occurred. What's behind that smile?

This year (since nobody entertained the idea that the mighty Yankees wouldn't go all the way), the best baseball stories were off the field.

The Yankees (think invincible) and the Mets (think Rodney Dangerfield) vamp through the playoffs, and suddenly October is one wild emotional roller-coaster ride.

On the field, the Mets have been a bitter disappointment. But they're on the verge of a TV play that will give George Steinbrenner's Yankees fits.

Sportswriters have exploited Darryl Strawberry as a symbol of baseball's rebirth and as a harbinger of the game's imminent decline -- maybe it's time to leave the man alone.