Lots to get caught up on and write about regarding last night’s game. I didn’t get home from South Philly until after 2 am, and had work today, so I haven’t even had time to read every last word written about how awesome the Phillies are and how much the Dodgers suck.

But I did see this today. And I now have a whole new appreciation for this scene from Goodfellas, given a Phillies flavor:

Here’s another reaction to Jimmy Rollins’ game-winning double on Monday night. This time from the Comcast Sportsnet postgame guys. I love Rocky Bottalico’s reaction.

The Phillies and Ryan Howard reached agreement on a 3 year, $54 million contract that buys out the first baseman’s remaining arbitration years.

Folks are going to applaud the Phils for gaining “cost cetrainty’ with this deal by knowing now how much of the overall budget will need to go to Howard for the next 3 seasons. But other than that, this deal is kind of a yawner. Ryan Howard is not long for this organization, as the Phillies will rightly avoid giving a record breaking long-term contract to a player with a makeup that screams “short term deal!”

The Phils still have the ability to trade Howard before free agency, even though it would cost them $1 million if they do it before Nov. 1, 2010. No big deal there.

In 3 years, Ryan Howard will be a large 32 year old, no glove slugger who will be better off in the American League. The Phillies are unlikely to be negotiating some monster contract with him at age 32. This could conceivably be the biggest contract Howard ever signs, be it with the Phillies or elsewhere.

There are no guarantees that the US economy will be out of the current recession in 3 years, and record unemployment and depressed earnings for fans will absolutely impact the bottom lines of sports franchises as discretionary spending is diminished. Howard could be looking at an economic climate no better than the one we have today, if not potentially worse.

Taking this …

I almost feel bad for the Mets and their fans. Almost.

First, they are coming off of back to back choke jobs in September at the hands of the Phillies. Then, the namesake for their new stadium, Citigroup, becomes the poster child for the economic meltdown, spawning nicknames for the new park like Bailout Field. Then, the Mets’ owners reveal that they were caught up in Bernie Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

That’s not exactly going to be one of the more fun chapters in the Mets Encyclopedia.

Now, we’re just a couple of months away from the opening of Citi Field, and the Mets have unveiled the official patch for the inaugural season.

Wow. They can’t be serious, can they? I’m hoping they didn’t actually pay someone to create this. I mean, I know money might be tight in Flushing right now, but this is ridiculous.

Here are a couple of suggestions to spruce up the patch.

My favorite:

Anyone have any others? The Sports Hernia had some good ones, too.

Stephen Colbert tips his hat to the Mets for their patch. He must be a Phillies fan.

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Man, is the hot stove particularly cold, or what? It’s not just the Phillies, either. No team has made much of a splash, although it seems likely that the Winter Meetings will help fire things up.

Even if there is little activity in the way of free agent signings and trades at the Winter Meetings, there will be the announcement of the results of the Veteran’s Committee vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The ballot is separated into “Pre-1943″ and “Post-1942″ players. The “Post-1942″ players will be voted on by the living Hall of Famers, and the “Pre-1943″ players will be considered by a group of Hall of Famers and media types.

As we discussed here last week, Dick Allen made the cut to be a finalist for consideration among the living Hall of Famers. He has company, though, as he’s not the only Phillie with a shot at being immortalized in Cooperstown.

Sherry Magee, who patrolled Baker Bowl’s left field for the Phillies from 1904-1914, is on the “Pre-1943″ ballot.

Magee lacks a traditional Hall of Fame resume (although he does fare well on the Hall of Fame black ink and gray ink tests), but much of that is attributable to him playing during the dead ball era. What gives Magee a shot at making it in is that he is considered to be one of the great hitters of his time. More on his …

It’s very cool to see the WORLD CHAMPION Phillies making the rounds of the talk shows. For those of us who can’t get enough of the Phils right now, these little snippets hit the spot.

Cole Hamels was on Ellen to dunk her executive producer, who happens to be a Phillies fan. Nice.

Cole nailed it on the second shot. Not too shabby.