Billy Connors, age 70, is "relieved" of his duties as Yankee pitching guru

That's not a keyboard fart. He did not "retire." He was "relieved," as in canned, peed, fired, let go, squeeged, feeliwaxed... dinkled.

Billy Connors, George's ol'buddy'ol'pal and the man who presumably headed our Gitmo-Tampa pitching staff for the Lost Generation, is gone. Not retired. Relieved.

Strange choice of words. They suggest Billy refused to go until they dismantled his cubicle and revoked his parking pass. What's stranger is that he lasted this long. Good grief, when I heard he was feeliwaxed, all I could think was, He was still here?

Seriously. In recent years, the Yankees have faced one ongoing, Vietnamesque slog: Our inability to develop pitchers. From Andrew Brackman to Dellin Betances, our top prospects seem to go blooey. The jury remains out on Hughes and Joba (both doing well lately, FINGERS CROSSED.) And it was always Billy Connors, captain of the Tampa Titanic.

I wonder if he was really pulling strings or just yapping, like the B-list codgers across the table from Brad Pitt in "Moneyball." Either way, Billy gave the team about 30 years. Seems like they could have found a nicer word to describe his exit - unless, that is, there were teeth in the parking lot. Hey, nobody likes to get squeeged.