The latest on Alex Rodriguez and Scott Boras: While Variety’s report yesterday used the phrase FORMER AGENT to describe Scott Boras, A-Rod may not have actually severed ties with Baseball’s Clown Prince. The NY Daily News offered this: “The agent isn’t speaking to anyone now. Boras did not return a phone call yesterday for comment – although a source said his role as A-Rod’s agent was unchanged.” Strange that the always-chatty, ultra-confident Boras isn’t talking, right? Someone at the Players Association told MLB.com that Boras is still listed as A-Rod’s agent, but we confess not grasping something here: for what ‘baseball related matters’ would A-Rod still need Boras? He just signed a 10-year deal, and these new marketing gurus will handle all other matters … we’re not really sure why he would retain Boras. Obviously we’re not saying anyone who signs a long-term deal doesn’t need an agent, but these two aren’t getting along, and now seems as good a time as any to cut the cord.

How do you think Ben McGrath feels right now? Though Boras had long been abhorred in MLB circles, McGrath’s incredible profile in the New Yorker in October has to be the tipping point. In case you have forgotten the story, our favorite passage after the jump:

“This spring, he mailed a letter to Commissioner Selig, in which he outlined a proposal to alter the format of the game’s most sacred ritual, the World Series. Why not make it nine games, instead of seven, he argued, and hold those extra two games—the first two games—at a neutral site? Cities all over the nation, or even the world, could compete for the honor of playing host, as with the Olympics. “It’s a fact that our game needs a forum that’s akin to the Super Bowl,” Boras explained to me not long after he’d sent the letter. “People don’t go to the Super Bowl for the game. Most Super Bowl games are not competitive, or good games. They go there for the event. They go there for the three-day weekend.€ He described a vision of “corporate hospitality,” including a “gala, like the Oscars,” during which the M.V.P. and Cy Young awards, among others, would be announced, with all the finalists present and on view, and presumably walking the red carpet in sponsored menswear. Who could argue against such a change? It would mean more money for the owners, more “marketable content” for the media to broadcast, more attention for the stars—more everything.”

That’s crazy-person talk, folks.