Brewers sign GM Doug Melvin to three-year contract extension  —  Club announces decision regarding interim manager Dale Sveum, hitting coach Jim Skaalen  —  MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers today announced a three-year contract extension in which Doug Melvin will remain with the organization …

A Stathead Considers Chemistry  —  With apologies to Elvis Costello (or whoever the line belongs to), writing about this game is like dancing about architecture.  —  You need more.  You need sounds, and feelings, and touch, and all the things that make an experience burn itself into memory.

Somehow, Red Sox get magical  —  Somehow, out of nowhere, it became a game screaming and begging for a Dave Roberts moment.  —  Here were the Red Sox [team stats] last night and into the early morning at Fenway Park [map] trailing the Tampa Bay Rays 7-0 in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series …

Congress Questions Appraisals of Stadium  —  The chairman of the Congressional subcommittee investigating the tax-exempt financing of the new Yankee Stadium said that city officials could be prosecuted if the Internal Revenue Service determined they lied about the ballpark's property value.

Yanks to pursue CC, Lowe, Teixeira … Determined not miss the playoffs for a second straight season in 2009, the Yankees' top executives have decided to pursue many of the game's premier free agents, chief among them starting pitchers CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe, and first baseman Mark Teixeira, among others, this winter.

“Jerry ‘Needs An Instruction’ Manuel” —Chris Berman (1955-2008)  —  KT covered some Manuel lunacy in the Gallimaufry, and there's more where that came from:  —  While the big offensive trio had respectable statistics or better, they didn't stop the September slide.

Four months after injury, Yanks' Wang fires pitch  —  TAMPA, Fla. — New York Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang threw 25 pitches Friday in his first throwing session off a bullpen mound since hurting his foot in June.  —  Wang partially tore a tendon and sprained his right foot running the bases during …

Columbia pitches ‘Moneyball’ to Pitt  —  Zaillian to write, Frankel to direct adaptation  —  Brad Pitt is adding to his busy schedule by playing ball for Columbia.  —  Steve Zaillian has signed on to adapt Michael Lewis' nonfiction bestseller “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” and David Frankel is attached to direct.

Peavy says he'd waive no-trade clause to be an Astro  —  San Diego ace, who's a good friend of Oswalt, likes what team offers  —  San Diego Padres ace righthander Jake Peavy told the Chronicle he would waive his no-trade clause to join his friend Roy Oswalt with the Astros.

Rick Knapp named Tigers pitching coach  —  DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers today announced the organization has hired Rick Knapp as the club's pitching coach.  —  Knapp joins the Tigers Major League coaching staff after spending the previous 12 seasons as the Minor League pitching coordinator for the Minnesota Twins.

Looking at the candidates who spurned the Mariners  —  I spent 30 minutes or so on the telephone Thursday night with a longtime baseball executive who wanted to know what was going on in Seattle.  —  Specifically, he wanted to know why so many people at the assistant general manager level told …