"Harlan Chamberlain arrived at Yankee Stadium on Thursday carrying a cribbage board in a plastic "I love N.Y." bag, expecting a few quick games in the clubhouse with his son.

Then his Blackberry buzzed after he pulled into the parking garage. Then he heard the shaken voice of a pitcher who was once supposed to be the great hope for an entire franchise, and knew those games - and everything else about his talented kid - were on hold now.

"It's torn," Joba Chamberlain told his dad.

It, as the Yankees revealed soon after, was a ligament in his right elbow. The MRI is headed to specialist James Andrews to plan a course of action, and while the son was insisting they'd have to cut off that arm before he stopped pitching, the father knew better. His season is over.

"He's going to come back stronger than he is today," Harlan Chamberlain said from his motorized cart parked near the dugout. "What you saw in '07 and '08 is what you're going to see again. And more."

It was everything a father should say, of course, but the reality is something different. Surgery means Chamberlain will miss 10-14 months, which brings his rehab into next season.

Joba was supposed to be the next Mariano Rivera. Then he was supposed to be the Yankees' answer to Josh Beckett. Then he was supposed to be the dominant eighth-inning guy.

Now, there are no guarantees he'll be anything but a memory. Chamberlain arrived here with the force of his fastball, an electric and polarizing figure who had all the ingredients to be a star. "