Check out this excerpt about long ago Phillies manager Pat Moran from an upcoming book about Baseball Managers from Hardball Times. Author Chris Jaffe write that Moran “might be the most underrated manager in baseball history”.

Moran coached the 1915 Phillies, who won their first ever pennant, and the 1919 Cincinnati Red who won the World Series over the Chicago White Sox in a fall “classic” that was less than on the level.

Both of the managers in the 1919 World Series had strong Philly connections – Moran as a former Phillies manager and “Black Sox” manager Kid Gleason as a former Phillies player who was born in Camden and died in Philly.

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On this day in 1943, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis barred Phillies owner William Cox could not be involved with the team anymore as a result of betting on the team. The decision was instrumental in making the Carpenter Family the owners of the Phillies. The Carpenters owned the Phillies until after they won the World Series in 1980. Buy low, sell high!

For another interesting angle on this period in Phillies history, check out this article debunking a story that Bill Veeck nearly bought the Phillies before Cox did in an attempt to stock the team with Negro League stars.

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Happy Birthday to former Phillies “pitcher” Adam Eaton, who turned 32 today.

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Todd Zolecki has the scoop on Phillies farmhands in the Arizona Fall League.

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Here are some details on the Phillies’ annual Holiday sale at the Majestic store on Dec. 5 and 6.

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The Phillies are raising ticket prices in 2010, but that isn’t nearly as upsetting to me as the fact that partial season ticketholders are no longer guaranteed tickets to at least one game for each round of the playoffs that the Phillies play in. According to the Phillies website, “Partial Season Ticket Holders will have the opportunity to purchase a minimum of two (2) potential postseason home games. The Phillies will determine the series and specific games. All postseason ticket locations will be determined by the Phillies and will differ from regular season locations.” In an email I received back from the ticket office when I questioned this, I was told that this is necessary based on the number of season ticketholders that the Phillies now have. Hopefully seniority will rule the day and the tenured season ticketholder will have first dibs on extra tickets.

Friday is the beginning of the free agent season, and the Phillies look like they are going to sit back and watch things take shape.

Based on the limited options for affordable third basemen, it will be interesting to see if the decision to not pick up Pedro Feliz’s option. I’m sure that Pedro is less than thrilled that the Phillies didn’t pick up the option, and you wonder if he would even come back for less if he could go elsewhere even for the same lower amount of money.

There are very few sexy options for third base, and Beerleaguer says that Mark DeRosa is not one of them.

Scott Lauber caught up with Ruben Amaro Jr. in print.

Mike Miss chatted with Ruben on the air:

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Instead of giving my amateur opinion on who I think will play 3rd base in 2010 for the Phils, I’ve been working on some other site enhancements that I hope will add some value for folks who swing by. For the record, I really have no clue who the Phillies are going to sign to play third, but I am starting to wonder, based on the available options, whether Feliz at $5.5 million was such a bad thing.

Check out the new Postseason Gamelog page, which chronicles every Phillies postseason game ever played, provided the ability to sort by runs for/against, Phils pitcher of record and more. It also includes links directly to each game’s box score via baseball-reference.com.

I am going to have a separate page for postseason stats in a format that I think is more digestible than what I have found elsewhere. I may expand that to regular season as well.

For the first time in 16 years, Phillies fans had to endure the sight of a team celebrating a World Series win at the expense of their favorite team. In 1993, it was a gut punch – I don’t remember moving for quite some time after Joe Carter turned on that Mitch William’s offering.

This time, we were granted a few innings to allow the reality to sink in: the Phils weren’t going to repeat as World Series champions. Ryan Howard’s too-little-too-late two-run home run in the 6th inning of Game 6 helped chase Andy Pettitte and provided a glimmer of hope for the Philly faithful, but it was just a cruel tease. The Phils put up zeroes the rest of the way, and Mariano Rivera closed it out with a 5 out save.

Once the sting of the World Series loss subsided, even a hardened cynic had to admit that 2009 was a very successful Phillies season.

No team gets to Game 6 of the World Series without a healthy dose of plays that brought joy or heartache to players and fans alike.

Top Five Moments

1. Jimmy’s 9th Inning Walk-Off Double – I don’t know where you were, but I was laying on my couch, feeling pretty sorry for myself as the bottom of the 9th got started in Game 4 of the NLCS. The Phillies were down 4-3, and were facing the prospect of having to beat Dodgers’ closer Jonathan Broxton. Ibañez grounded out, Stairs walked on 4 pitches, Bruntlett pinch ran for Stairs. Deep breath. The tying run was on base. Broxton then hit Carlos Ruiz, bringing Greg Dobbs to the plate as a pinch hitter. Dobbs lined out to third base. Down to their final out, Jimmy Rollins stepped to the plate. He hit a 1-1 fastball to the gap in right center and drove both runners home. Pandemonium ensued at Citizens Bank Park and in living rooms all across the Delaware Valley. It was the moment we knew the Phillies were headed back to the World Series. It’s one of the greatest hits in Phillies history.

2. Cliff’s Game 1 Gem – Going into the World Series, the national media was busy genuflecting in the general direction of the Yankees’ starters, specifically CC Sabathia. Cliff Lee was mentioned usually to draw the interesting storyline that 2 former Cleveland Indians would be pitching against each other in the Fall Classic. In Game 1, Lee out-pitched Sabathia in a complete game gem. His only blemish was an unearned run in the 9th. Lee struck out 10, made the Yankees lineup look foolish all game long, and looked Marlon Brando cool throughout, including 2 great defensive plays. Lee’s Game 1 masterpiece became even more impressive once we saw just how difficult it is to get through the Yankee lineup unscathed once, let alone 3 times in one game.

3. “Get Me To The Plate, Boys” – Ryan Madson had just blown a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 8th in a potential series-clinching game for the Phillies in the NLDS. Cliff Lee’s solid outing was spoiled. Or not. In the top of the ninth with Rockies’ closer Huston Street on the mound, the Phillies countered the Rockies’ 3-run 8th with a 3-run 9th on the strength of Ryan Howard’s 2-out, 2-run double to right field. After the game we learned that Howard had stalked the Phillies dugout, telling his teammates, “Get me to the plate, boys.” Scott Eyre and Brad Lidge locked down the bottom of the ninth, and the Phils were headed back to the NLCS, and any lingering ghosts from the Rockies’ 2007 sweep of the Phils in the NLDS were dead for good.

4. Chase Ties Reggie – In a must-win, backs-against-the-wall situation, Chase Utley delivered again in Game 5 of the World Series, bashing 2 more home runs to tie Reggie Jackson’s record for long balls in one Fall Classic with 5. Utley was as locked in as a batter could be, and the pundits started wondering whether or not Utley could become the first player from a losing team to win the World Series MVP award since Bobby Richardson won in 1960 for the Yankees, who lost to the Pirates. Little did we know that Hideki Matsui would render that argument moot with his record-setting performance in Game 6. Chase’s dominance in Game 5 ensured that the visitor’s locked room would be unmolested by an enemy’s champagne sprays.

5. Werth Rattles Padilla – After Jimmy’s epic walk-off double in Game 4, everyone wanted the Phils to close out the NLCS at home. But doing so meant solving the enigmatic Vicente Padilla, who was toeing the slab for the Dodgers. Padilla had been brilliant in Game 2, and it was imperative that the Phils put runs on the board with the inconsistent Cole Hamels pitching. Padilla cruised through the first 2 batters in the bottom of the first inning, retiring Rollins and Victorino on 4 total pitches. But danger is always just one ball away for Padilla, who subsequently walked Utley and Howard on 9 total pitches. The extremely disciplined Jayson Werth stepped to the plate, and on the 7th pitch of his at-bat with the count full, he launched a deep home run to right center that gave the Phillies a 3-1 lead that they would never relinquish. Getting to Padilla was paramount in this game, and Werth got it done in grand style.

Worst Five Moments

1. Ruiz To Feliz To No One – After tying Game 4 in the bottom of the 8th inning on the strength of a Pedro Feliz solo homer off of Joba Chamberlain, the Phils sent Brad Lidge to the mound for the ninth to keep the Yankees off the board in the hopes for a walk-off win and a 2-2 World Series. The inning started out in promising fashion – Matsui popped out and Jeter struck out. Then, it all came crashing down. Johnny Damon had an epic 9 pitch at-bat that culminated in a single to left. The Phillies put on the shift for Mark Teixeira. Damon ran on the first pitch to Teixeira, and Carlos Ruiz threw to second base in an attempt to nail the Yanks’ centerfielder. Ruiz had no chance to throw out Damon, and with no one covering the hot corner due to the shift, he wisely broke for third and just outran Pedro Feliz. Lidge unraveled from there. He hit Teixeira with the third pitch of the at-bat (Teixeira was previously 1-10 lifetime against the Phillies’ closer). Then Rodriguez hit a double to drive in Damon with the go-ahead run. It just got worse from there. Posada hit a bases-clearing double and suddenly the Phillies were down 3 runs and Mariano Rivera was warming up.

It was the moment that NEVER happened in 2008. It was the moment where I came to the reality that this might not be the Fightins’ year.

2. Pettitte Gets An RBI – Cole was cruising in the early innings of Game 3. He mowed down the Yankees through 3 innings and had a 3-0 lead and an 84% Win Expectancy going into the 4th inning. Then, in circa-2009 Cole fashion, things got ugly quick. Mark Teixeira drew a one-out walk that was questionable and then Alex Rodriguez hit a fluky home run that bounced off of a camera that was hanging over the right field fence. Hamels settled down to retire the next 2 batters, but in the 5th, he ran into more trouble. The coup de grâce was a hanging curveball to Andy Pettitte that went for an RBI single. There was no longer a question as to whether or not Cole could bounce back from his disappointing regular and postseason campaign. 2 hits and a walk later, Hamels was leaving the field to a smattering of boos on the one year anniversary of being feted by a Broad Street parade crowd that hailed him as a savior.

3. Chase Throws It Away – Pedro Martinez pitched a gem of an NLCS Game 2, throwing 7 innings of shutout ball and handing it to his bullpen to close the door on the Dodgers and bring the NLCS back to Philly up 2-0. When you consider everything that went wrong in the 8th, it’s a wonder the Phils only gave up 2 runs. After a Casey Blake single, no one could get to a Ronnie Belliard sac bunt that became an infield single. Then a sure-fire double play ball was mucked up when Chase Utley airmailed the ball to the visitors’ dugout. The Phils pitchers did more damage to allow the winning run to score on a bases-loaded walk. But this one was on Chase.

4. Pedro Pitches To Matsui (Again) – Love means being able to second-guess your manager. No one wanted to see Pedro pitch a very short World Series Game 6. But that’s exactly what Pedro Martinez’s fate would have (and should have) been had Charlie pulled the future Hall of Famer before Hideki Matsui had the chance to add to his RBI count. It would have been one thing if Pedro was showing something. But he was completely ineffective from the beginning and Matsui had already mashed a 2-run homer off of Pedro in the bottom of the second. With J.A. Happ warmed in the bullpen and Matsui coming to the plate in the 3rd with 2 men on, that should have been it for Pedro. Instead, Pedro gave up a 2-run single to the eventual World Series MVP, and the game and the Series began to slip away for the Phils.

5. A-Rod’s Camera Homer – The Phillies were on their way to taking a 2-1 lead in the Series. They were leading Game 3 by a 3-0 score and had Andy Pettitte on the ropes. Then, A-Rod hit a ball that struck a camera near the right field foul pole. Rodriguez immediately signaled that the ball was a home run. The umps congregated and baseball’s first ever World Series replay situation turned a double into a two-run homer. The only saving grace was that the replay delay ruined Rodriguez’s home run trot. Cole was never the same after that.

I am fully recovered from the World Series loss. The healing process began far before the last out in Game 6. When the Phils were down 7-1 in the bottom of the fifth, I had already resigned myself to the fact that the Phillies were not winning this thing. Even Ryan Howard’s two-run shot in the top of the sixth did not move me. I refused to give in to the notion of a possible rally, especially with Mariano Rivera looming 2 innings or so away.

When the last pitch was thrown, I didn’t immediately turn off the game. I watched probably 10-15 seconds of the Yankees celebrating. My opinion? Lame compare to the Phillies last year. Sorry, but the Yankees and their fans just do not match the Phillies for intensity. They were the better team in the World Series, no doubt. But we smoke ‘em in World Series celebrations. The same goes for their Parade. They can talk about the Canyon of Heroes all they want, but when the crowd size is defined as “many thousands” in a city of 8.5 million, color me unimpressed.

Anyway, thoughts already move to the hot stove and what the Phillies can do to make themselves better and to bridge the gap that exists between themselves and the Yankees. Imagine for a moment that this is where we are as Phillies fans. Instead of talking about what our favorite team would be doing to contend again, we’re talking about what we can do to match up better with the other League’s best team to give ourselves the best chance possible for a successful return to the World Series.

Based on early spitballing by local and national media, I must say I am thrilled to have Ruben Amaro Jr., and not Rich Hoffman as our GM. Rich thinks we should reopen talks with the Blue Jays for Roy Halladay because, “maybe the new Toronto general manager values the Phillies’ prospects differently.”

Essentially, Rich is looking to win in 2010, and then never again. If you could guarantee a World Series win because we traded for Roy Halladay and gave away the top couple of farmhands, I would do it. But winning a World Series has a lot to do with luck also. Injuries, getting hot at the right time are essential complements to talent in winning the whole thing. If the Phils acquired Roy Halladay, they would be unable to retain both he and Cliff Lee after the 2010 season. Hoffman doesn’t take you any further beyond his thought process other than “do it”.

Then I heard the Delco Times’ Jack McCaffrey entertaining all kinds of ridiculous trade proposals by clueless listeners on 97.5 last night, and he he even agreed with some, including the idea of trading Cole Hamels, Michael Taylor and Kyle Drabek for Zack Greinke. He did this after also telling us that we should not give up on Hamels after his disappointing 2009 season. Think a year back – would you have traded Hamels 1 year ago today along with those 2 prospects for Zack Greinke? No. You wouldn’t have even trade Hamels straight up for Greinke. So if we’re not supposed to be “giving up” on Hamels, why would we now trade him along with our top pitching prospect and another highly rated prospect?

Jack also continued to refer to Cole Hamels as deserving of nothing higher than consideration as the team’s Number 3 starter, with no detail on who would be the Number 2.

The one thing McCaffrey did comment on that I agreed with wholeheartedly was the curious use of J.A. Happ during the postseason. There seemed to be a real lack of confidence in Happ’s ability to start for the Phils, and Pedro got the nod instead. Pedro pitched well in his Game 2 starts in the NLCS and World Series, but was brutal in Game 6 of the World Series.

Lastly, Andy Martino’s first hot stove report hit a sour note with me as well, with Martino suggesting that it’s too early to think about an extension for Cliff Lee, but that the Phils would be wise to bring back Matt Stairs. I appreciate Matt Stairs’ contributions to the 2008 campaign, specifically his clutch homer in game 4 of the NLCS when he hit that 8th inning moonshot to break the Dodger’s backs. But enough is enough. This guy is not what the Phillies need on their bench. We need versatility. We need guys who can play multiple positions in the field to spell our starting 8 once in a while. We need someone with some speed who could go from first to home on a double in a tight game.

Perhaps it was surprising only in how quickly it happened, and how emphatically.

Less than 48 hours after the Phillies 2009 campaign ended with a 7-3 loss to the Yankees in Game 6 of the World Series, the Brett Myers era was over.

Jim Salisbury reported that Myers had been informed that he would not be offered a contract by the Phillies in the offseason.

Doesn’t matter that Myers just turned 29 years old. Doesn’t matter if Brad Lidge has loose bodies in his throwing elbow and had a historically bad season for a closer. Doesn’t matter if the bullpen is a major question mark during this offseason. Doesn’t matter if the Phillies rotation is anything but set for next year. Doesn’t matter if the only pitching options other than Myers for 2010 are Don Carman or Matt Beech.

Essentially, the Phillies don’t want Brett Myers back, no matter what. Period.

With the uncertainty surrounding the Phillies pitching options going into 2010, the decision here was definitely character related, although not exclusively.

Myers’ worst off-field problem was the domestic violence incident involving his wife in mid-2006 while the Phillies were in Boston for an interleague series with the Red Sox. If you think that incident played a huge role in the Phillies’ decision to sever ties with Myers, think again: they offered him a 3 year contract the February after he was charged with striking his wife.

Myers also had a well-documented scrap with Sam Carchidi of the Inquirer in August of 2007, when Brett Myers called Carchidi a retard and Carchidi requested that Myers spell it. The incident arose when Carchidi pressed Myers to describe how hard a couple of home runs were hit off of the testy righthander:

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Then this year, Myers had the mysterious eye injury in August that was either an accident getting out of an Escalade, or he was hit by his son while playing catch, or maybe he was in a barfight. Regardless of how he injured himself, Myers missed a rehab start.

Most recently, the New York media pounced on an apparently out-of-context exchange with Cole Hamels that was perceived as Myers calling Hamels out for “quitting” on the team after his World Series Game 3 debacle. Turns out the pitchers are friendly and there was no issue.

From a pitching perspective, Myers career began to take strange turns in 2007, when he was pressed into service as the team’s closer ahead of Tom Gordon. Myers went down with a shoulder unjury in 2007, but still finished with 21 saves and was on the mound on September 30th for the 9th when the Phillies won their first National League East title in 14 years.

2008 was a roller coaster for Brett, who pitched so poorly in the first half of the season that he accepted a demotion in early July to AAA to work on his stuff and his head. When Myers returned he was initially brilliant, going 5-1 in 8 starts with a 1.78 ERA. But his September was not as sharp, and he bottomed out with a dud of an outing at Florida on September 19th, when he gave up 10 ER in 4 IP.

Regardless, Myers was the second starter throughout the postseason, and the Phillies went 2-1 in his 3 starts, the one loss being Game 2 of the World Series.

In 2009, Myers was out from late May until the beginning of September due to a torn labrum that required surgery. Myers was never a big factor for the Phils after that, so much so that he was left off the NLCS roster. Myers’ last appearance for the Phillies was in Game 3 of the World Series at home, when he pitched the 8th inning and gave up a home run to Phillies killer Hideki Matsui.

With Brad Lidge slated for elbow surgery, Chan Ho Park and Pedro Martinez’s returns uncertain, offering Myers a low base, incentive-laden offer would hardly have been a controversial move.

Letting Myers, and the Phillies, move on, Ruben Amaro Jr. again shows that he is hardly nostalgic about tenured Phillies players if he thinks that he can improve the ballclub instead of standing pat.

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In other post-World Series news, Cliff Lee’s 2010 option was exercised by the Phillies, surprising no one. The Phillies still have yet to make a decision about no-hit, good glove third baseman Pedro Feliz, but Ruben Amaro’s comments yesterday were any indication, the Phils would love to cut ties with Feliz and bring in a better hitting third baseman:

“He had a solid year for us,” Amaro said. “I like the man personally. He’s a great person and a great teammate, but I also believe in trying to improve, and sometimes change can be for the better. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to, but it’s just something that we’re thinking about.”

Feliz was generally brutal in the postseason, showing almost zero plate discipline by swing at first pitches in situations that screams out for a discerning eye.

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Brad Lidge, Scott Eyre and Raul Ibanez will all undergo surgery in the coming days for a variety of ailments. Balls Sticks & Stuff points out a necessary fix for Lidge that appears to be going unresolved:

It didn’t come crashing down on the Phillies tonight in a flash.

No, if you were watching Pedro closely enough, you could see this one coming from the first inning. Pedro’s velocity was too low for him to fool anyone and his pitches didn’t have the movement on them that a guy pitching in the 80s needs to miss bats. Especially these bats.

In the bottom of the second, Hideki Matsui hit a towering 2 run home run to right field for the game’s first runs. Thoughts of Pedro pitching deep into the game, or finding some unknown gear that he’d put aside in 1999 for just this occasion were gone. Even on full rest, Pedro had nothing. I’m not casting aspersions here. Pedro gave us a strong half year, and for the right price, I wouldn’t even mind seeing the Phillies discuss re-signing him. But tonight was not his night.

Pedro escaped further damage in the 2nd, but he needed a lockdown 3rd inning in order to keep the Phillies in the game as they worked to solve a very beatable Andy Pettitte.

But it wasn’t to be. Pedro got himself into trouble in the 3rd inning after initially striking out Brett Gardner, who resides at the bottom rung of the Yankees order. The problem is that the top of the order follows the bottom. Baseball is funny that way. The Phillies definitely won the battle of the bottom hald of the orders, but the trophies are won with the top half. And with the exception of Chase Utley, the Yankees had the far better top half of the order, even with Mark Teixeira barely showing up.

After Gardner’s strikeout, Pedro got Derek Jeter to pop up, but Shane misplayed the ball in shallow center, Damon walked and Teixeira was plunked. I don’t have an issue with Pedro pitching to A-Rod next, which he did and recorded a strikeout. But to have Matsui come to the plate with J.A. Happ warmed up and Pedro clearly unable to get Matsui out made no sense to me. I’m sure Charlie wanted a lot more out of Pedro. But so did Girardi the other night with Burnett. But you have to know when you’ve reached the point that you’ve been cornered by the other team and it’s about to be checkmate. You either make a solid move and avoid losing right then and there, or you fall right into the trap. Charlie fell into the trap.

Second-guessing? Yes. Hindsight? No. I was yelling at my TV as Matsui stepped into the box and I was wondering when the cutaway was going to come of Manuel lumbering out to the mound, head tilted down and sideways, on his way to getting Pedro.

Didn’t happen. Pedro served up a two run single to Matsui and it was 4-1. Chad Durbin and J.A. Happ came up small in relief, so perhaps this is all moot. Maybe replacing Pedro early was simply delaying the inevitable.

Howard finally hit a homerun in the World Series, a two-run shot that definitely put the fear of God into the crowd. He then struck out for the 13th time in the Series in the 8th inning. The Yankees pitched Howard great all Series long, and he obliged by looking like Bad Ryan – chasing bad breaking stuff out of the zone and jumping at balls instead of sitting back. You can just tell when Howard is locked in and when he’s lost.

The Phils’ last, best shot at clawing all the way back in this game was in the 7th inning, when Chase Utley came to the plate with 2 on and 2 out with a chance to bring the Phillies to within 1 run and break Reggie Jackson’s single Series homerun record. It wasn’t to be. Utley was called out on a not-so-checked swing. With Mariano Rivera looming for the final 2 frames, all that was left was getting nostalgic about the Phillies’ 365+ days of being World Champs.

As I watched this game, a sense of calm came over me once the score got crooked. The Phillies were the defending World Champs. No team has played more baseball than the Phillies over the last two years. No team had a shorter or more frenetic offseason than the Phillies. On top of that, they had a season fraught with issues. Everything that went right for them in 2008 stabbed them in the back in 2009. Hamels, Lidge, Harry died, Jimmy’s slump, Raul’s slump. We can dissect 2009 later – you get the point.

The Yankees’ offense was as advertised, and was the difference in the Fall Classic. Jeter, Damon, Rodriguez and Matsui all had oustanding Series. They were relentless and only outstanding pitching was going to keep them from bashing the ball. The Phillies pitchers couldn’t stop them in order to keep the score low enough to offset subpar performances from key Phillies pieces like Jimmy Rollins, Victorino and Ryan Howard.

It’s hard to be angry at the result, and I suspect that with a little time and perspective, we’ll think fondly of the “season after”. Only 1 team wins the World Series. Everyone else hopes they’re next. The Phillies got as far as you can go without spraying more champagne. They fought hard, and no one can say this was some walk in the park for the Yankees. The Phillies battled the whole way. They made some mistakes in management, pitching, baserunning and more. But they battled. All season long and all playoffs long. This was a great season.

Lastly, I am much happier tonight rooting for a Phillies team that lost this World Series than to be a Yankees fan celebrating their 27th. I don’t want to get into a big bitchfest about how they bought this World Series. But I will say this: there is no heartache in being a Yankees fan. It’s easy to be one. It’s the biggest bandwagon this side of the Dallas Cowboys. There is no way that the biggest Yankees fan in the world got goosebumps tonight even 1/10th as big as those that invaded our arms last October 29. Being a Phillies fan is a struggle. It takes immense patience and unconditional love of franchise. I’ll take it all day, every day.

Whoever says that baseball is a boring sport has never watched October/November baseball. And they definitely have never tuned in to a Phillies game.

The Phillies won Game 5 of the World Series with an 8-6 win that shouldn’t have been nearly that close. Cliff Lee wasn’t as sharp in this one as he was in Game 1, but he certainly outpitched AJ Burnett, who brought absolutely nothing to Citizens Bank park except extended batting practice for the Phils.

This is the kind of game that the Phillies needed to play in order to beat the Yankees. You can’t score 3 runs and hope to hold on. The top half of the Yankees order is relentless. The Phillies haven’t faced such a formidable 4 batter stretch in the playoffs in the last 3 years like they have Jeter, Damon, Teixeira and Rodriguez.

A couple of thoughts while I await a decrease in my heart rate.

1. Johnny Damon is some hitter. He works an at-bat and finds a way on base. The sense of deja vu after he hit that single in the 9th was enough to make me run from my TV and find the nearest bed to crawl under.

2. The Phillies can absolutely win this series, but whatever happens, they’ve given the Yankees trouble in all 5 games of this series. This is no one-sided affair. The pundits will write about how this was just delaying the inevitable. But the Phillies are not dead. Andy Pettite was hardly unhittable in Game 3, and Pedro is more than capable of pitching a gem in Game 6. After a devastating Game 4 loss, the Phils came out determined.

3. Larry Bowa is a peckerhead, seriously.

4. Until this World Series, I haven’t ever thought much of the New York Yankees. I don’t mean that I thought poorly of them, just that I literally don’t think about them much. There’s plenty of hate for the Mets, and the Yankees are typically just a fun diversion during interleague play. Now that we’re knee deep in a war with them, I realize that you can in fact despise both baseball teams in New York. Especially Jorge Posada. Total dick.

5. Was glad to see Melky Cabrera knocked from the World Series roster, even though he was a pathetic 1 for 10 in the Series. Another annoying Yankee. Far too cocky for his talent level. If he was a Royal, no one would have ever heard of him.

6. In September, Chase always seems to get tired, or at the very least LOOK tired. His number begin to wane and Phillies Nation begins to squirm. This year he followed that up with some troublesome defense in Game 1 and 2 of the NLCS. Now he’s in the World Series and he’s tying Mr. October for most World Series homeruns. We need to enjoy watching a guy who will go down as one of the greatest second basemen of all-time.

It will go down as one of the worst losses in Phillies history, given the time and place. We won’t ever forget this one. It will haunt us.

The Phillies came within 1 strike of heading to the bottom of the ninth with a tie game and Phil Coke on the mound for the Yankees.

The possibility of a 2-2 World Series and Cliff Lee pitching tomorrow night was so close you could already imagine the headlines in the papers tomorrow and talk of how the resilient Phillies struck again – how these Phillies were not to be taken lightly. I could already imagine myself reading NY Post columns from bad writers bitching about Girardi’s decision to leave in Joba Chamberlin to pitch to Pedro Feliz.

It was so close.

But it wasn’t to be. Instead, I’ll have to avoid print media, electronic media, non-electronic, non-print media, ancient hieroglyphics that foretold of this disaster. It’s iPod time in the car tomorrow.

With a full count and no one on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Johnny Damon singled to left field. Should have been a minor speed bump even with the dangerous Mark Teixeira coming to the plate.

The Phils put the shift on for Teixeira, which someone with more baseball knowledge than me will need to explain to me, as I don’t see the sense in shifting the entire infield over when you are protecting a one run lead and you’ve got a runner on base. Of course, this discussion may have been academic had Carlos Ruiz not thrown to second base to try and throw out Johnny Damon on a steal. With no one covering third due to the shift, Damon wisely took off for third base and Pedro Feliz had no prayer of catching him.

The rest happened so quickly. Teixeira HBP. A-Rod double to left. Posada two-run single to left center. Game over.

Blanton pitched well enough to win, I guess. But the two-run 5th inning was grossly unnecessary given the fact that he had retired 11 straight before walking the anemic Nick Swisher on 4 pitches. That opened the door for 2 runs the Phils could ill-afford to give up.

The top of the ninth was a fitting, even poetic end to the game. Ryan Madson threw 22 pitches in Game 3 and another 20 pitches in the 8th inning tonight. Sending him back out for another frame in the 9th was probably unwise. Besides being unfailingly loyal all season to Brad Lidge, Charlie didn’t have much more in the way of options. I suppose he could have trotted Chad Durbin out there, but he hardly looked good after throwing 29 pitches in an ineffective 7th inning in Game 3. I suppose we can blame Cole Hamels’ short start in Game 3 for the lack of bullpen options.

It would have been unthinkable for Lidge not to screw up one of these games after struggling so much during the season. Let’s just be glad he stayed perfect in 2008, otherwise this loss could be far more painful had we not won it all just a year ago.

Lidge will be a popular choice as the goat for this game, but Charlie’s decision to shift the infield with a runner on base and Ruiz’s poor decision to throw to second to try and get Damon on the steal are almost as egregious.

In Game 5, Cliff Lee will do everything in his power to get this series back to New York. Certainly anything can happen from here on out. It just looked a lot better with 2 outs and no one on in the top of the ninth.

I turned to my Dad in the late innings last night as we shook excess rain off of our ponchos from Sect. 420.

“It’s hard to believe that on the one-year anniversary of the parade, Cole gets booed on his way off the mound”.

Jason Weitzel at Beerleaguer wrote that last night’s start used up any remaining goodwill that Hamels had built up from 2008.

Being an athlete is akin to having a banking relationship with your fans. You make deposits and withdrawals. The truly great players keep their accounts consistently in the black, making huge deposits consistently and only withdrawing small sums here and there.

Cole’s 2008 was a massive deposit. So much so that his atrocious 2009 cannot ever take away the magic that was his 2008 postseason. But Weitzel is right that the extra love that comes along with being a World Series hero one year can vanish in a subsequent fall failure. At this point, we must grapple with the duality of Cole’s October fate: 2008 hero. 2009 heel.

We’ll always have 2008, Cole. In 20 years, I suspect we’ll remember a lot more about last year than we will this year if 2009 doesn’t end with flatbeds on Broad.

But if the Yankees do go on to claim another World Series championship this year, Cole will be as much the goat for this year as he was the man for last year.

He’ll have company though, as several Phillies players are coming up very small on baseball’s biggest stage. Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez are hitting a combined .194 as the Yankee hurlers have come with outstanding gameplans to shut down our lefty bats. Howard, Utley and Ibanez have 2 hits among them in the last 2 games. The Phils simply will not win the World Series if these guys can’t get untracked.

Hamels was outstanding through 3 innings. He worked quick, looked confident and the sense in the crowd was that we were seeing a rejuvenated, focused Cole who would build on his solid start and the offense’s 2nd inning success off of Andy Pettite.

But danger is always just one questionable ball/strike decision away from turning Cole’s steely resolve to jello.

After a shutdown 3rd inning after the Phils took a 3-0 lead, Hamels retired Johnny Damon before running into trouble. A walk to Teixeira on a close pitch was followed up by Alex Rodriguez’s disputed home run off of a stupid camera that was dangling beyond the right field wall. Because a $100,000 camera needs that extra foot for zooming.

Cole settled down to get the next 2 outs, but his 5th inning started off bad and just got worse. Double to Nick Swisher down the 3rd base line, a Cabrera strikeout, a single by Andy Pettite, Jeter single, Damon two-run double, Teixeira walk.

Hamels done. Boos ensure. Schmitters begin unnatural digestive gyrations in stomachs.

The Phillies bullpen fared no better, allowing 3 more runs that proved to be the difference after another Jayson Werth homerun to left and a 9th inning shot to left-center from Carlos Ruiz, who needs to do a better job of taking command of Hamels’ starts.

The Phils are not out of this by any means, and a solid start by Joe Blanton tonight couple with the Phillies lefties getting to CC Sabathia could knot this series at 2 with our ace going in Game 5. Counting out the Phillies in October is risky business.

But there is an uneasiness about where we’re at right now. Perhaps you think that the Phillies have the Yanks right where they want them. Perhaps you’re still trying to forecast which day you’ll need off for the parade.

Me? I think the Phils are staggering around the ring right now, and they’d better have their gloves up to defend the knock-out blow. This is as on-the-ropes as we’ve seen this team during this 2 year World Series run.