The Daily News announced it’s first ever “Sportsperson of the Year” award, and the voting was, predictably, dominated by the Phillies.

Brad Lidge won the inaugural award, and it is hard to argue with a guy was was literally perfect the entire season, and then went out in the playoffs, when any normal Philadelphia athlete would then subsequently choke, and was perfect 7 more times. It’s the kind of stuff that makes you think that we aren’t destined to root for teams that exist solely to break our hearts.

Charlie Manuel came in second, with Cole Hamels and Ryan Howard rounding out the quartet of Phils at the top of the voting.

Had I been voting, Lidge would most likely have been third on my ballot behind Charlie (1st) and Cole Hamels (2nd).

Successfully managing a baseball team requires strong leadership to say the least. For countless years, the Phils have struggled to find a manager who could command respect from his players while requiring accountability from them at the same time.

Lesser managers would have crumbled under multiple dust ups during the Phils’ 2008 run – the Jimmy Rollins benching in New York, J-Roll’s “front-runner” controversy and Brett Myers’ histrionics coming off the mound after being yanked in the 8th inning of a 4-2 win against the Pirates in August to name a few. Manuel instead thrived during these moments; going with his gut instincts in how to handle his players. Very few leaders can toe the line successfully between accountability and respect. The Phillies are not a team that could just be managed by anyone and they would have won it all regardless. Charlie led them there.

Charlie’s management during the playoffs was exemplary, and his ability to make small changes to the lineup, specifically swapping Victorino and Werth periodically, in most cases paid off quite well. Joe Maddon may have gotten all of the press for being such a great baseball mind, but Charlie outmanaged him in the World Series after doing the same to Joe Torre in the NLCS.

Ok, not really, but former Phillie Ron Gant is on the 2009 ballot for the Hall of Fame, this being his first year of eligibility.

Mr. Gant won’t sniff the Hall, due in no small part to his lackluster career .256 batting average and his less than impressive career 112 OPS+. However, he finished his 16 year career with over 1000 runs and 1000 RBIs, as well as over 1500 hits. But that stat line has also been achieved by 194 other players, many of whom are not, nor will they ever be, Hall of Famers.

But I thought I’d have some fun with Lee Sinins’ indispensable Baseball Encyclopedia, and isolate a longer stat line for Gant, cherrypicking his best career numbers, and seeing how many other players had the same achievements. I didn’t include batting average, OBP or OPS, since they don’t help Ron at all (.256/.336/.806).

The reaction in certain circles to the Mark Teixeira /Yankees marriage has been passionate to say the least, with columnists like Phil Sheridan going so far as to say that Bug Selig should have invoked the “best interests of the game” clause and blocked the signing. Others are less hyperbolic, but overall there is definitely a groundswell of anger over the 8 year, $180 million contract that Teixeira is getting. Here are 5 reasons why this is neither the end of the world, nor necessarily a reason to begin picketing outside Major Baseball Headquarters in support of a salary cap.

1. The free market. While the dollars given to Teixeira during a recession certainly looks bad, this is an example of the free market working the way it always does. Teixeira went to a high bidder, although not necessarily the highest one. The Nationals are rumored to have offered $5 million more total to Teixeira, who instead chose to go with the team more likely to compete in the near term. The notion that Bud Selig should have blocked this deal is naive at best. Why should Teixeira not be allowed to go to the Yankees if he wants to? He should be forced to go elsewhere simply because it’s unfair that the Yankees have both the means and the balls (not to mention possibly a lack of gray matter) to dump nearly a half billion dollars on 3 players in the hopes of winning another World Series? What kind of ridiculous precedent would that set? You can’t just say that Selig should have blocked the deal without considering the ramifications down the line for doing so.

How much different are baseball contracts from stock purchases? You believe in the product, you buy the product. The decision either works or it doesn’t, and you either learn from the mistake or you make a lot of money. The Yankees blew millions and millions of dollars on Carl Pavano. Bad decision. Wasted money. No one is complaining about that. With a recession fully underway and the New York City economy suffering from the loss of high paying jobs and tax revenue by extension, the Yankees’ financial situation could be tenuous in the coming years. They made a big gamble. If it pays off, they deserve whatever comes with it. It could just as easily blow up in their face,

2. Someone was paying, whether the Yankees did or not. Had the Yankees not swooped in at the eleventh hour and signed Teixeira, he was headed to most likely the Red Sox or the Washington Nationals for roughly $170-184 million, according to published reports. Should Selig have blocked those deals as well, or only when the Yankees are involved? The economy being in a recession does not stop the business of baseball from plowing forward. Someone was going to show Teixeira the money. Crying about it being the Yankees is pointless.

A belated Merry Christmas to the small handful of folks who have found this little corner of the internet!!!

Since there has been a dearth of Phillies news, I’ve been spending more time building out the site. An upgrade to Wordpress’ latest version, adding the ability to embed audio, and a Photo Gallery were on The Shibe Times’ Christmas list.

Check out the photo gallery here. I will be formatting it in a more organized fashion, but for now it will do. Pics from my last trip to Cooperstown, seeing the Phils at Wrigley Field in 2006 and the last game at the Vet are among the galleries available for your perusal.

One final note: it was a decidedly Phillies Christmas in our home, as I’m sure it was in yours. Hats, books, memorabilia and DVDs commemorating the franchise and the ’08 World Series were everywhere you looked.

One last Christmas gift arrives on Jan. 1 at 6 pm when the MLB Network launches. For those in the Philly area on Comcast, it’s on Channel 280 and there are a couple hours of content that they are running on a loop, including old footage and behind-the-scenes footage of the creation of the channel. This looks like my new dafault channel when there is nothing else on.

Today is Steve Carlton’s birthday. Lefty turns 64 today. Also celebrating birthdays today are former Phils Lonnie Smith, Glenn Wilson and Mike Jackson. Connie Mack also was born on Dec. 22nd.

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I wonder where Carlton will end up on Phillies Nation’s list of the 100 Greatest Phillies of All-Time List. Ricky Bottalico and Jose Mesa are on the list, which makes me wonder if they shouldn’t have looked at the 50 Greatest Phils instead. Now that I am getting a taste for their list, I am going to feel compelled to offer up my own.

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We Should Be GM’s has a good interview with Todd Zolecki of the Inquirer where he opines on Philly’s best food haunts, being a Packer’s fan, and who is the best interview. Definitely worth a read.

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The Good Phight has a nice post about the craziness that was Game 5.

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Ryan Howard has elected not to play in the World Baseball Classic, which is just fine with me. This WBC thing is a contrived television event that I’d prefer no Phillies participated in. This is what the Olympics are for. And, yes, I am aware that baseball has been phased out of the Olympics.

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The Fightins has (or is it have?) a sweet pic of Ryan Howard on Santa’s lap.

Man, Charlie does talk in circles. I’d love to see the transcript of his answer to the last question about Utley cursing.

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950 ESPN

Pat Burrell is gone. His Phillies career is over, and now we are left with a nine year run with the local squad that included many hits and misses. Below are the 10 angles to Burrell that I will remember most.

1. Pat The Rookie – Pat was called up on May 24, 2000, and hit his first dinger on the road the next day against the Astros – a solo shot off of Scott Elarton in a 10-6 loss. His first 4 bagger in a home game came on June 4, when he jacked a 2 run homer off of Jeff Fassero that pulled the Phils to within 1 run of Red Sox – helping them overcome a 5-2 deficit to win 6-5. In all, Pat would hit 251 homer runs as a Phillies, good for 3rd all-time behind Del Ennis and Michael Jack Schmidt.

2. Pat the Rocketman – Pat had a strong and accurate arm. In ’01, Burrell had 18 outfield assists. The only Phillies OF since 1975 to have more in a season was Glenn Wilson (20 in 1987). Opposing baserunners and base coaches learned to fear Burrell’s arm, if not his legs.

3. Pat the Met Slayer – Pat destroyed Met pitching. He hit 42 homers off of the Mets; 18 of them at Shea Stadium. One of the biggest came on May 28, 2001, when Burrell beat Armando Benitez and the Mets with a 2 run jack in the top of the 10th inning at Shea to win the game.

4. Pat the Stud – whether it was his infamous 2001 Penthouse interview or his penchant for living at the Irish Pub, Pat was always good for non-baseball related fodder.

Lots of activity in Phillies land over the last few days. Raul Ibanez is in, Pat Burrell is out. Chan Ho Park is in, and now Jamie Moyer is back.

For my money, the re-signing of Moyer to a 2 year deal is a better move than throwing tens of millions of dollars at Derek Lowe. The Phils have multiple starting pitching prospects who could be ready in time for the 2011 season once Moyer’s contract expires. Keeping Moyer on for 2 more years takes the pressure off the Phillies from having to rush Carrasco or Drabek’s development. The emergence of J.A. Happ opens up the possibility that the Phils starting rotation would be Hamels/Myers/Blanton/Moyer/Happ. I am comfortable going into 2009 with that rotation. Having Park available for spot starting and long relief will be a nice insurance policy against injury as well.

Chase Utley met with the media today to discuss his rehab from hip surgery, and everything sounds good. Chase is talking big right now, targeting a return to the diamond for mid-spring training and being the Opening Day second baseman for the Fightin’s.

Ok, I didn’t kiss the World Series trophy yesterday, but there were several brave folks who did, germs be damned, as I waited in line to get my picture taken on Saturday morning with the Commissioner’s Trophy.

I got down to Citizen’s Bank Park around 10-ish to grab the new flap cap that Jimmy Rollins made famous in the World Series, as well as snagging the “Perfect Season” DVD and the Harry Kalas CD.

After that it was up to the luxury suite level to stand in a line in a windy chill to see the trophy. It probably took an hour from beginning to end, but the wait was worth it.

Citizen’s Bank Park just looks different – having now hosted a successful World Series campaign. The championship flags are all down, and different parts of the grass are covered up from where playoffs logos now need to give way to good old-fashioned green grass.

April can’t come soon enough. Whether a bad glove Burrell or bad glove Ibanez is in left, April will be awesome.

There is no other good explanation for the Phillies signing Raul Ibanez to a 3 year deal for $30 million today, unless Burrell’s demands were wildly out of touch with the market for his services.

Look, I’m willing to give Ruben Amaro Jr. the benefit of the doubt on some level, especially since Pat Gillick’s fingerprints are probably all over this deal since Ibanez played in Seattle and Gillick is reported to be enamored with him.

But I really need someone to explain the logic to me on a baseball level. Amaro is not a sabermetrician – he’s said so himself – but I have to figure he respects the notion that a balanced lineup makes sound baseball sense.

Here are my reasons against this deal:

1. Age – Burrell is 4.5 years younger than Ibanez. That is a huge difference. If Pat had been offered a 3 year deal, he’d be younger than Ibanez is today by 18 months. Should we really expect Ibanez’s years at ages 37, 38 and 39 to be better than Burrell’s 32, 33, and 34?
2. Ibanez makes it even easier for the Phillies to be shut down by a lefty specialist in the late innings. Ibanez may have batted .305 against lefties in 2008, but he batted a less impressive .256 in 2007 and his career avg. against lefties is .268.
3. Ibanez adds nothing extra on defense. Their defensive stats are negligible.
4. Ibanez adds little extra on the basepaths. Ibanez has 4 stolen bases in his …