Peter Gammons Has Returned, Just In Time

Baseball Musings had the great news today that Peter Gammons will be back on "Baseball Tonight" tomorrow night, and late today comes even better news: Gammons is writing again, with his first work since his aneurysm in July. Typical Peter, he has an excellent look at the upcoming free agent pitching market, but, before that, he exercises some well-earned indulgence by telling the story of his recovery.

The first clue that my cell towers were intact came right around the trading deadline, approximately a month after my aneurysm. By that time, I had been transferred from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston to the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and the Islands. I was perusing the morning box scores in the Cape Cod Times when I brusquely asked my nurse, "Linda, how did Austin Kearns get to the Nationals?"

Seriously, his first question back ... and it's a great one. (It's not the aneurysm, Peter: Nobody still knows how that happened.) Welcome back, Peter. Just in time for the playoffs. Outstanding to have you here.

Oh, and if you're looking around the office for Harold ... well, don't ask. Long story.

Still Believing In Man's Goodness And Dignity [ESPN] Old Hickory Returns [Baseball Musings]

(By the way, we usually don't begrudge ESPN for making stories Insider: Not everything on the Web is supposed to be free, and hey, you gotta make up all the money lost by ESPN Mobile somehow. But making people buy Insider to read Peter Gammons' first column after returning from an aneurysm is just mean, and absolutely unacceptable.)

(UPDATE: The story is no longer Insider. Good move; applause, applause.)

(SECOND UPDATE: So it appears we were mistaken, and it was never Insider. Even better.)