After this weekend, it’s all over for the Baltimore Orioles.

The long-suffering Birds started strong, played decent baseball through spring, smacked a bunch of home runs during the summer and then began the usual late August fold. Once again, fans of the orange and black will be rooting for other teams during the march to the World Series. I think I’m siding with Boston, myself.

This year, Orioles aficionados will be joined by other Eastern baseball fans on the misery beat. Like legendary swinger Casey, the New York Yankees have struck out! The pinstripers will miss the late-night October drama for the first since 1993 (a strike wiped out the 1994 playoffs) and there is anguish, wailing and the gnashing of teeth in the Bronx.

I decided to enlist a New York fan for reflection on hard lessons learned this hardball season. Morgan F. Lyle, a former full-time reporter for this newspaper, was the first and only choice.

The affable Lyle, now making his fortune as an assistant public relations director at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, is as crazy about the Yankees as he is about fly-fishing. His column on the sporting life aquatic — creatively called “Fly-Fishing” — appears in Thursday editions of The Daily Gazette.

Lyle knows all about Yankee ingenuity. Of course, as a top fish writer, the man deserves some type of financial compensation for his cameo appearance in “Type A to Z.” There was no money, but I didn’t want to stiff him, you know. I made some calls to Tibet, and on his deathbed, M. F. Lyle will receive total consciousness. So he’s got that goin’ for him ... which is nice.

The curious can click HERE to view a photographic manifestation of Mr. Lyle, taken during his time at the old Gazette during the last century.

Wilkin: Well, the Yankees are out of the playoffs, as are the Orioles. Which team will you be cheering for in October? As an American League East fan, I would assume you would root for someone from your home division. So it’s got to be either Tampa Bay or Boston!

Lyle: “Cheering?” Not the word I would have chosen. I realize you’re joking about Boston. Ha-ha. I keep forgetting Tampa Bay even has a team until they have a series against the Yanks. Yankee-killer Angels? I would root for them against the Red Sox, of course, but that’s about it. Might this be the year I root for a National League team? I don’t hate the Mets. It’s always sunny in Philadelphia. Everyone has a soft spot for the Cubs. Let me just peek at the standings .... well, I’ll be darned. Look who’s in first in the NL West. Dem Bums, the New York-native Dodgers — led no less by two great Yankees unforgivably snubbed at the stadium finale, Torre & Mattingly.
I have my team.

Wilkin: Morgan, how do you think the Yankees will approach the upcoming three-game, season-ENDING series vs. Boston? They gonna lay down, and play Melky in center, Ransom at short, Steve “Bye-Bye” Balboni at first? Maybe that guy who looks like Herman Munster? You know, Shelley Duncan.

Lyle: They’re gonna play with a pathological ferocity. They are going to swing those bats hard enough to dislocate their shoulders. They are going to try to force the commissioner’s office to invoke the little-known Mega-Loser rule for the first time in modern times, which states that a team that loses by 30 or more runs is deemed in the standings to have lost the game twice.

Wilkin: Think the Yankee “dynasty” has ended? Tampa Bay is ascending, Boston is still tough, and those young arms from Baltimore eventually will be as ripe as Caribbean bananas! Them Yanks are getting older and older, and unless Mariano Rivera is really a refurbished and redesigned “Battling Maxo” from “The Twilight Zone” — boxing robot for all you non-Serling fans — the Yanks could be looking at some lean years.

Lyle: If you narrowly define dynasty as “winning tons of games,” maybe. But there’s more to a dynasty than winning. Gleaming new stadium! Gleaming new tax breaks! Cup holders! CUP HOLDERS, you maniac! No more kicking your $5.25 beer over when you have to stand up to let some guy get past to go to the bathroom! No more bending and back strain when you need a refreshing sip! You barely have to move your hand — your drink is RIGHT THERE! If you’re in a 12-step program, it works for soda, too! Pure comfort and relaxation, whether your team is winning or an embarrassment to the city!
When you think dynasty, you should really think about the overall baseball experience.

Wilkin: Baltimore needs a steady shortstop; Yankees need a reliable center fielder. Do you think New York will accept Oriole center fielder Adam Jones, an up-and-comer, and maybe Melvin Mora, in exchange for Derek Jeter, who would be a perfect fit in Baltimore? A-Rod moves to short, Melvin takes third, and Adam Jones goes to center. Think Baltimore might toss in Radhames Liz, the young pitcher, to sweeten the deal. But we would have to take Melky off your hands, and probably “Joba” Chamberlain, too, if that happens. Yanks might also have to kick in John Sterling; I like the Yankee broadcaster’s play-by-play.

Lyle: Derek Jeter is a Yankee for life. Yankee legends go TO New York FROM Baltimore, not the other way around — like Babe Ruth, Mike Mussina and Ken Singleton (the broadcaster, not the player). Considering how the
Yankees kind of own that stadium and three-quarters of the people at every game are Yankee fans anyway, trading Jeter to Baltimore would be like sending him down to the minors (Does Camden Yards even HAVE cup holders?). Besides, he needs to maintain his New York residence so he can run for governor when he retires.
Joba we can talk about.

Wilkin: What do you think the Yankees will be doing in October. Fly-fishing?

Lyle: No better time to do it! Blue-winged olives are still hatching and there might even be some big Isonychia mayflies on the stream. Brown trout and getting ready spawn and striking streamer flies with gusto! The Yankees can learn more in my weekly column on fly-fishing — “Fly-Fishing,” in The Daily Gazette. Every Thursday. Joba could even learn to tie a flying ant pattern!

Wilkin: Who wins in a fair fight — mean crow against a fighting mad blue jay?

Lyle: Two things. First, all crows are mean. Second, the only way that’s a fair fight is if the blue jay has a foreign object in his trunks. How long does the blue jay have to live to cover the spread? PETA, stay thy e-mails. Not sure how well this one would do as a pay-per-view, especially if YES was re-running a loop of Aaron Boone’s homer against Boston at the same time.