Sept. 20 -- WADE HIRED BY ASTROS

WASHINGTON -- Greetings from RFK Stadium, which is about to host its last four baseball games. Much more on that as the weekend chugs along.

For now, though, I wanted to pass along news that the Astros have hired former Phillies GM Ed Wade to fill their GM vacancy. Wade was picked over Phillies assistant GM Ruben Amaro Jr., who is here with the team this weekend. Within the past few days, there had been speculation that the Astros would hire Amaro as the GM and Wade as a special advisor. But they didn't go in that direction.

"I'm very, very happy for him," Amaro said. "He's a close friend of mine, and I think they made a great choice. I think they would've made a great choice either way. Certainly, I'd love to have had the opportunity to take that job. It's a goal of mine to be a GM and run the baseball operations of an organization. But I'm pleased for Ed. I think the Astros made a great choice."

As I wrote in The News Journal last week, Amaro remains a possibility for the Pirates' GM vacancy because of his association with new team president Frank Coonelly. But the Pirates haven't asked for the Phillies' permission to interview Amaro.

More on all of this in tomorrow's 50-center. Also, I'll have some details on the Phillies' defensive positioning in the 10th inning last night. Let's just say Charlie Manuel and Greg Dobbs didn't agree with Yadier Molina's and Brett Myers' view of their defense.

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Jason Bergmann, tonight's starter for the Nationals, and I graduated from the same New Jersey high school, albeit a few years apart. So, you could say it's a big night for Manalapan High here tonight.