Americans are living longer and remaining active longer, to the delight of orthopedic surgeons everywhere.

So we tend to rally around athletes who sustain success well past the normal sports retirement age. One such hero is Jamie Moyer, who pitched for the Cardinals back in 1991 – during his sixth season in the majors.

Moyer, 45, will start Game 3 of the World Series for the Phillies. Between now and then, he will answer lots of questions about being so old.

“I’m not upset by people asking me about it, but people are sometimes a little disrespectful of it,” Moyer told reporters. “I’m wearing the uniform, and I’m going to enjoy it. Write what you want to write—good, bad or indifferent.

“I’m going to have fun with it. Go walk the street and ask any 40-plus-year-old or 45-year-old or 30-year-old whether they would give their right foot to be in this situation. And they would.”

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while Tom Brady’s infected knee festers:

• Did Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon channel his inner Whitey Herzog during Game 2 of the playoffs?
• When was the last time you saw that much small ball in the Fall Classic?
• Now that Auburn has lost its third consecutive game, will Tommy Tuberville have to fire somebody else on his coaching staff?

SAY HELLO TO PEYTON MANNING

The Colts quarterback has become a fixture in the Tennessee Titans defensive meeting room. Manning doesn’t appear in person, of course, but the team has affixed a giant Fathead wall poster of him on a wall.

“He’s over there staring at us. We’ve got him on the wall,” defensive end Jevon Kearse told the Nashville City Paper. “We’ve got a Fathead up there. It’s just a reminder that we need to get real close and personal with him, just an early reminder.”

But Kearse did NOT say that the Titans had a bounty on Manning. Tennessee will leave that sort of chatter to the Ravens.

MAKING FUN OF IOWA STATE

Here is another reason why Tipsheet loves college sports.

Thanks to Deadspin for bringing this to our attention. Also, if you’re a fantasy football fan, you will like this clip that Deadspin highlighted.

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Jayson Stark, ESPN.com, on the Rays’ small ball success: “We’d be willing to bet that, before Thursday, we lived in a land of 300 million Americans who all believed, as one unified nation, that making outs was the one thing in baseball you would most want to avoid — with the possible exception of learning that Scott Boras had signed on to represent your cleanup hitter. But then, along came this historic baseball event to teach us that we’ve had it all wrong — that we’ve had it all wrong since birth, in fact. Outs are good. At least if they’re the right kinds of outs. On Thursday, the Rays made all the right outs.”

Steve Rosenbloom, ChicagoTribune.com: “Mark Prior, who didn’t pitch for the Padres last season the way he didn’t pitch for the Cubs the season before, is preparing to file for free agency. Scouts say you could pencil in Prior as no worse than a No. 2 starter on any team’s disabled list.”

Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times: “Eight months after the face of the NFL tearfully announced his retirement, that face is bruised and blushing. It is the face of an accused liar. It is the face of an alleged cheater. It is a face lost. The works of a lifetime, tarnished in less than a football season. An American hero, undone by the American way. That’s the thing about freedom. It gives us the right to choose wrong.The score is now final, and it’s not even close. Brett Favre, New York Jets quarterback, Green Bay Packers traitor, fast-leaking legend, should have quit when he said he was quitting.”

Dave Darling, Orlando Sentinel, on letting your kids stay up late to watch World Series games: “Baseball can provide memories for a lifetime, and if they miss a historic moment they’ll regret it. Just ask Cubs fans who skipped the 1908 Series.”

MEGAPHONE

“That’s the cool thing about us. We’re multidimensional. Even when we’re hitting the long ball, we’re still thinking small. We’re mature enough to understand that big things happen when you focus on the smallest of things.”

Tampa Bay Ray Carlos Pena.