Meet Mr. November. Alex Rodriguez finally delivered in the clutch in the World Series: a two-out, game-winning double in the ninth Sunday night, shedding the criticism that he can't deliver in big games.

November baseball? In the Northeast? When Commissioner Bud Selig talks about growing the game, he didn't just mean stretching it into the 11th month of the year, did he?

We've had great baseball this postseason, but enough is enough. This Winter Classic has dragged into midway through the NFL season.

Over the weekend, Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels said he'd had enough of this season.

"I can't wait for it to end," said Hamels. "It's been mentally draining."

Yes, it has.

Hamels was talking about his brutal performance in Game 3, but he could have been talking about a nation of baseball fans held hostage by a schedule that goes on and on. Nothing like taking down the red, white and blue bunting just in time to hang Christmas lights.

The major league schedule has grown completely out of control. It's been nearly nine months since pitchers and catchers reported to work in Florida and Arizona, more than eight months since players left their camps to take part in the ill-advised World Baseball Classic. Opening day was seven months ago this week. Can you remember that 5-3 Boston win over Tampa Bay?

Those who govern the sport have tried to speed up the pace of nine-inning games. It's tough to cultivate young fans when your games are lasting four hours or more some nights. Those efforts have failed, for the most part, but you've got to give baseball officials credit for realizing our attention-deficit society is having trouble tuning in long enough to follow every pitch, every at-bat and every pitching change.

What they haven't tried to do is keep the season from stretching on too long. In 2010, the regular season once again will stretch into October, when the Red Sox finish up their schedule with three games against the Yankees. Simple math dictates the playoffs will be planned into November again, with extra off days scheduled during the postseason.

The sporadic pace of the playoffs is becoming difficult to follow. At the start of October, the Los Angeles Dodgers played a total of three playoff games in 10 days.

One of the true beauties of baseball is that it's always there. Night after night, the game is being played, the perfect soundtrack to summer. Suddenly, when the games matter most, fans are forced to wait days for the action to resume.

It all adds up to a season that tests the limits of the most ardent fans. We turned the clocks back over the weekend, but the hands keep moving on the baseball clock. These have been great games, but it's hard to get fired up about the boys of summer when we're too busy firing up the wood stove.

Tom Caron is the studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on the New England Sports Network. His column appears in the Press Herald on Tuesdays.