The Rocket has a place to park

Every day, while walking through the players parking area, it's become something of a ritual to check the spot formerly assigned to Carl Pavano.

At first, it was to check if the injured right-hander was actually at the ballpark, when it appeared there was a sliver of hope that he might pitch for the Yankees again this season and we actually needed a status report on him.

But more recently, post-Tommy John surgery, it grew comical, as the hurler's silver Mercedes SUV sat in the spot uncollected and unmoved, gathering dirt as it went through a series of weather patterns as evidence that Pavano hadn't checked in at the Stadium for quite some time.

The changing state of the Yankees' rotation was even reflected in that small strip of asphalt, as maintenance workers eventually painted around Pavano's vehicle, replacing the '45' marking his space with a bright white '22.' I'm not sure how Roger Clemens gets to the office every day, but for his entire second tour in pinstripes, he hasn't been able to park in the space allotted to him.

That is, until this morning, when Pavano's vehicle mysteriously vanished sometime within the eight hours that it was last seen here. Good news, Rocket. Your orange Hummer has a home.