Only time will tell.

Here are nine things to keep an eye on in the final weeks of the season:

The Yogi Factor: Yogi Berra once uttered "it ain't over 'til it's over" and it ain't. Last September alone, there were two dramatic late-season charges into the postseason.

On Sept. 1, the Rockies were six games back in the NL wild card, and while it took a 13-out-of-14 finish to the regular season, including a wild-card tiebreaker win against San Diego in Game No. 163, the Rockies won the first NL pennant in franchise history.

The Mets, meanwhile, had a six-game lead in the NL East with 19 games to play, lost 13 of those games, and wound up spending October at home, wondering what went wrong while the Phillies won the NL East. Kind of a 1964 in reverse.

There doesn't seem to be a team ready to make that kind of move in 2008, but when the first week of September last year, who'd have thought the Rockies and Phillies would have been playing in the NL Division Series?

Arms race: The Cubs say they pushed Carlos Zambrano back in the rotation because of arm fatigue. Will a few extra days of rest help?

Mets closer Billy Wagner has been out for a month and wants to return. Is desire enough?

The Brewers hit the jackpot with the addition of CC Sabathia. Where is Ben Sheets, forced out after five innings with a groin problem in his most recent start and a winner in only two of his last seven starts?

Can the Mets survive without John Maine or the Red Sox without Josh Beckett? Who's going to carry the veteran load for a Twins rotation that doesn't have anyone with more than three years in the big leagues? Was that a blip on the radar screen or were the back-to-back humblings of Brandon Webb and Dan Haren a sign of things to come for the Diamondbacks?

Road woes: The Cubs have a comfortable lead on Milwaukee, which puts them in position to claim the wild card if nothing else, but there won't be the comforts of the Friendly Confines to help the Cubs navigate the final days of the regular season. Not only are 16 of their final 24 games on the road, but the season ends with a seven-game trip to play the Mets (four games at Shea) and Brewers (three games at Miller Park). Over in the AL East, meanwhile, Boston has 16 of its final 25 at Fenway Park, where it has a best-in-the-AL 46-19 record, which should at least give the Red Sox an edge in holding off the AL Central runner-up for the wild card if they are unable to overtake Tampa Bay for the AL East title.

Help at hand: The expansion of the rosters to 40 players provides for reinforcements, and Tampa Bay can look forward to the pending return of rookie-of-the-year candidate Evan Longoria from the disabled list. The Mets can at least add ample arms, hoping that quantity will help overcome the lack of pitching quality. And Boston can restock with the expectation of Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew getting clearance to come off the disabled list.

Winning ways: LHP Cliff Lee, just an extra body who had pitched his way back to the minors a year ago, has become the first Cleveland pitcher to win 20 games since Gaylord Perry in 1974. With at least five, possibly six, starts remaining, will he become the first big-league pitcher to win 25 games in a season since Bob Welch won 27 for Oakland in 1990? He is on a roll, winning six starts in a row.

Honors time: Can OF Carlos Quentin of the White Sox or OF Josh Hamilton of the Rangers become only the fifth player in history, the first since Dick Allen in 1972, to be traded during the offseason and win an MVP the next? And can CC Sabathia of Milwaukee join Rick Sutcliffe, with the 1984 Cubs, as the only pitchers traded in midseason to win a Cy Young? Touch of irony: Cleveland was the team that dealt Sabathia and Sutcliffe.

Generally speaking: Can GM Jim Bowden hang on to his job in Washington? What about J.P. Riccardi in Toronto, where the ownership recently brought back Mel Queen to an outsider's view of the organization? If the Mets don't win, does GM Omar Minaya and sidekick Tony Bernazard survive? Could Pat Gillick retire in Philadelphia and surface as a club president for one of his previous employers? Who steps in for Gillick with the Phillies? How interim is Lee Pelekoudas' interim GM job in Seattle?

Who's next: Already, Seattle fired manager John McLaren. Ditto for John Gibbons in Toronto and Willie Randolph with the Mets. Jim Riggleman is just killing time in Seattle, waiting for the season to end, but what about Ron Washington in Texas or Trey Hillman in Kansas City?

Fond farewells: Have Tom Glavine and John Smoltz already thrown their last pitches? Is Greg Maddux trying to enjoy one last September? Will the three future Hall of Famers, who spent a decade together helping Atlanta win division titles, try and hang around another year or will they all walk away and create the scenario that in five years the three of them could enter Cooperstown together, in their first year of eligibility?