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Someday, the magic runs out. Because that's what it is, right? Magic. The ninth inning is the Chinese Water Torture Cell. The ninth inning is handcuffs and shackles and a burlap sack and a solid oak box with shiny steel chains and seven unbreakable locks keeping those chains tight. The ninth inning is for escape artists, and escape artists grow old, and the magic runs out. Someday.

And here is Mariano Rivera again. Here is Houdini hanging upside down high over a city. Here is the lovely assistant in a box pierced with swords. Here is the magician engulfed in fire. Here is the ninth inning again, in the chill of another October night, in another World Series the Yankees cannot stand to lose. This time it's the Phillies at the plate, and it's Yankee Stadium, and...