With hopes for finding anyone alive in the rubble fast fading, teams from a number of countries, including the United States and Switzerland, scaled back their search and rescue efforts and turned their attention to the thousands of survivors, many of them suddenly homeless and bereaved.
The surprise acquisitions of Howard and Nash seemed to return a fading team to its status as the team of the new millennium, with five titles since 2000.
Jaguars Lack Protection Jacksonville Coach Jack Del Rio made a point of demoting linebacker Mike Peterson last week in an attempt to seize control of his fading team.
When Varitek, Boston's fading team captain, crouches behind the plate to catch in Game 5 on Thursday night, it could be his final game with the Red Sox.
Finally, behind the gritty Pettitte and Joe Torre's revised lineup, the Yankees emerged and grabbed Game 2. If the Yankees had stumbled again, Paul O'Neill admitted they would have been "tapped out," a fading team awaiting burial.
The Scot spent chunks of his media availability last year lamenting the league's masochistic decision to schedule games during Fifa international windows, depriving him of his top players, and pointing out that the fading team he inherited from Kinnear – the only other head coach in the franchise's 11-year history – failed to reach the postseason.
In today's N.F.L., the concept of lining up with a running back, fullback, tight end and two receivers has mostly faded, as teams find it easier to generate explosive plays from three-or-more-receiver sets.
As the Mets' remote chances for a postseason spot continue to fade, the team is eager to have Reyes back on the field.
He was infuriated when former team president David Kahn declined to give him a full, five-year max contract two years ago and also grew distant from team-mates last season as the team faded down the stretch.
