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.

Jimmy, Vic, Chase, Ryan: 1 for 13.

Game, set, match.

The unpredictable AJ Burnett didn’t bring bad AJ with him tonight. He also didn’t bring good AJ to Yankee Stadium. He brought practically unhittable AJ to the park with impressive results in a game the Yankees had to win.

The Phils again gave Pedro Martinez NOTHING in terms of run support and they forced the “crafty righthander” to be nearly perfect. While Pedro was good, he is no longer the kind of guy who can throw up zeroes inning after inning after inning. Eventually he’s going to get touched for a couple of runs.

This is not time to overreact to one loss or overly dissect some of the key moments in this game. But we will for a minute anyway.

Jayson Werth lead off single in the top of the 4th with the Phils leading 1-0. Before you could tweet about how awesome it was, Werth was picked off after straying too far off first. Dammit. Next half inning, Teixeira long ball. Phils never scored again.

In the bottom of the 7th, should Pedro have come back in to pitch? Perhaps not, but it was hardly a “Grady Little” moment as some of the lazy journos would have you believe. The lead had already been relinquished on a Hideki Matsui solo shot in the 6th and Pedro was facing the shitend of the Yankee order. I don’t blame Charlie for thinking that Pedro could get out the likes of Hairston, Cabrera and Molina.

Since Joe Girardi has no one else he has an ounce of faith in out in the Yankee bullpen, he summoned Mariano Rivera for a 2 inning save. Rivera was hardly unhittable. In both the 8th and the 9th, the Phils got the tying or go ahead run into the batter’s box. Chase Utley grounded into a doubleplay to end the threat in the 8th (he was safe, but that’s an entirely different issue).

The Phillies went to New York looking to split. But after winning Game 1, you get greedy and you want Game 2, especially with the shaky Cole Hamels on the mound on Saturday night in South Philly. That said, a split still puts the Phillies in good position heading home to Philly. The goal in Philly of course is to never head back on the Amtrak to New York, courtesy of yet another 3 game home sweep to end a best of seven series. Taking 2 of 3 and going back to New York up 3 games to 2 would be ok, also.

I’m already over this game. I felt worse after letting Game 2 of the NLCS slip away. Time for Cole Hamels to show up and deal on Saturday night.

A couple other thoughts.

1. Pedro Feliz? Just killing us.

2. I like that Jay-Z song he performed, but it was a shitty performance and the sound was awful.

3. Ok, I am really not over this game yet. We coulda gone up 2-0 and we were facing a guy we should have touched for more than 1 run.

4. The second guessing of umps on those 2 plays tonight is a bit much. Both were extremely close calls.

Some thoughts after soaking in the Phillies Game 1 spanking of the New York Yankees:

1. Close your eyes and imagine for a minute that the Phillies do not trade for Cliff Lee before the deadline. Where does this trade rank all-time? Lee is such a perfect fit on this team because, like his teammates, he does not give a shit who he is playing, how many World Series championships they have, or how much bigger their city is, or how many so-called pundits picked the other guys. The Phils may very well still be in for a dogfight in this series, but there is NO National League team that is better equipped to go into Yankee Stadium and knock down the Yanks than the Phillies.

2. The new Yankee Stadium is not nearly the home field advantage that old Yankee Stadium was. The crowds had more of an edge, behind the plate didn’t look like a corporate cocktail party and it was much louder. The sense I got, watching from home, was that the crowd was nervous before the first pitch, let alone when Sabathia struggled in the first.

3. Cole Hamels looks and sounds like a complete tool in those Comcast commercials. Only Mike Richards’ soulless West German BMW commercials are worse.

4. I am still waiting for one of these expert baseball talking heads to mention things other than how stats and platoon splits determine who wins a World Series. Heart counts more than platoon splits. Everyone just assumes A-Rod, perennial October dud before this year, would just parlay his success in the ALDS and the ALCS into World Series glory. Granted, there are still games to be played, but the lack of respect for the Phillies would be really fucking annoying were it not so laughable.

5. The Phillies CANNOT hit the Yankees’ lefty pitching. Don’t check out the box score though, as you’ll be confused by the disconnect.

6. Name the great bullpen pieces for the Yankees that aren’t named Rivera. Did any of them pitch tonight?

7. I know I am stating the obvious here, but winning game 1 was HUGE. The reduction in pressure on Pedro is equal to the increased pressure on AJ Burnett tomorrow night. The “Who’s Your Daddy” chants won’t have the same bite, and Pedro will be able to pitch loose. Game 2 of the NLCS, Pedro pitched pretty good too, right? Right.

8. Joe Girardi is a complete and utter lightweight. of a manager. He wouldn’t qualify as Charlie’s bench coach. Of Cliff Lee tonight, he said, “”One thing, he can’t pitch every day.” Hey Joe, we’re the team that has more than 3 competent starting pitchers to throw. CC in Game 4 at the Bank? Bring it on, Bombers.

10. I cannot imagine how annoying Joe Buck and Tim McCarver must have sounded to Yankee fans. Once they see where the story of the night is going, they beat the living daylights out of it. Tonight it was Cliff Lee. Didn’t annoy me a bit. I wanted to listen to 1210, but the radio is way ahead of the TV feed on both the HD and the non-HD feeds.

11. Is Pedro Feliz’s defense so much better than Greg Dobbs that we have to keep running him out there? I know Dobbs hasn’t been great this year, but the Phillies are winning in spite of Feliz’s atrocious work at the dish.

12. The Phillies are being very economical with their hits. In the 2009 regular season, the Phillies had 1.75 hits for every run they scored. In the postseason, it is taking only 1.39 hits per run for the Phils, who are taking advantage of walks, and small ball in general to score this postseason.

13. Phillies fans are confident tonight. There’s nothing wrong with that. The good news is that the Phillies are not even remotely impressed with themselves. They don’t care until they can pop Domaine Ste. Michelle.

This past week has been a bitch. First pitch can’t get here any quicker.

Everyone is picking against the Phillies. Hell, even Jayson Stark is picking the Yankees, and he probably has a book deal lined up if he is wrong.

The Phillies are the more seasoned playoff team; the defending World F. Champs, yet no one is giving us a shot to win. In the last 5 playoff series, we’ve lost 5 games. Every talking head out there is predicting we’ll nearly match that in one week.

Every other playoff series is nice, but when you see your team in the World Series, it’s enough to bring tears to your eyes. You’re so proud that they got there, and you have tons of faith that they’ll do their best, but you’re petrified anyway. So much can go wrong.

Beat these Yankees. Grab legendary status. Own this town, forever.

What all of the pundits never seem to talk about are the stuff that doesn’t get a column on the stat sheets. Because you can’t quantify it. You can’t divide it into another number to prove your point. You just know it when you see it. Heart. Confidence. Sticktoitiveness. Resolve.

The Yankees may have it to. They’ve had tons of comeback wins late in games and that certainly speaks to heart.

But the Phillies have in bucketfuls. They aren’t headed to New York to put on a good showing.

They’re going there to win.

I am trying to avoid too many previews about the World Series leading up to Game 1. I don’t need to read which team 30 different idiots at ESPN think is going to win and in how many games. Most of the analysis is generally homerism by each team’s metro papers, who don’t want to piss off the locals. The national media are for the most part johnny-come-latelys who just rehash tired storylines and tell us things about our team we know better than they do, since we live and die with them every day.

So I am resorting to daydreaming about back to back to back Word Series trophies. About another perfect fall afternoon on Broad Street, watching flatbeds roll down the street carrying our heroes to the coliseum. About timely hits. About resurgent aces. About those inevitable butterflies that invade your stomach 15 minutes before the first pitch and leave only after the game’s winner is decided.

I really don’t care that we’re playing the Yankees. Winning against the Tampa Bay Rays doesn’t dampen the 2008 World Series one iota for me. We could have beaten any team in the World Series and I would have been just as delirious. This year is no different. I am not thinking about avenging 60 year old World Series sweeps, and I am not thinking about being a roadblock to a 27th World Series crown. I won’t feel any better should we lose to the Yankees than I would if we lost to the Cleveland Indians. There won’t be any moral victory in losing to the Bronx Bombers, regardless of their obscene payroll.

This World Series is about the Phillies. About going back-to-back. About cementing this team’s legacy as the greatest team to ever represent this city in any sport in any era. This is about these players going from the guys who will never pay for another drink to the guys who became legends.

The Phillies, at least publicly, are looking forward to going up against the Yankees given the bright lights and iconic nature of the Yankee franchise. But they will be best served by putting blinders on, grabbing their bats and gloves and just playing their brand of baseball. They shouldn’t spend a split second considering disparities in the franchises’ histories. They should be reminding themselves that they’ve rattled CC Sabathia before. That this cast of Yankees are not as World series battle tested as they are. That our ballpark is far more intimidating that the Yankees new corporate catering facility.

The good news is this group of Phillies loves this stuff. They couldn’t care less about 10,000 losses or 26 flags. Jon Heyman had a great article about what the Phillies had that the Dodgers still don’t:

About the Phillies, Dodgers GM Ned Colletti said, “They’re a tough club, not just wins and losses but how they approach the game. They play it hard, and they play it that way all the time. They play with a relentlessness, and they absolutely refuse to be beat.” Using the Phillies as a measuring stick, the young Dodgers still have a little work to do. One young Dodgers star made it a point before every game to seek out Peter Gammons with the intention of high-fiving him. The Phillies players don’t suck up to anyone.

If the national media and the haters are expecting the Phillies to kick the ball all over the infield or get caught doing something incredibly stupid on the basepaths, they might leave this Fall Classic disappointed. The Phils may make the occasional gaffe from being too aggressive, but with a 2 year postseason record of 18-5, this team knows a little something about winning on the road in the postseason.

Teams get put together over time. The recipe for a team includes homegrown talent, free agent pickups, trade deadline pickups, diamonds in the rough and more. Teams grow together, experience ups and downs and learn from them. Teams remember what it was like not to win. Teams have a real connection to their fans. Teams collect their trophies in front of the fans when they win at home.

Only one team is playing in this World Series. The other guys aren’t a team. Hitting guys you just started playing with 2 months earlier with shaving cream pies after a walkoff doesn’t make you a team.

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If you are looking for some reading material instead of 98 out of 100 sportswriters picking the Yankees, here goes:

Metsblog determines that the Yankees are easier to root for than the Phils in the Series, but not all of his readers concur.

Mark Herrmann of Newsday delves into the Mets’ fans conundrum as well, and determines that the Phillies are most certainly the lesser of the evils.

CBSsports.com columnist Mike Freeman minces no words when speaking ill of the Bombers.

Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN.com has 15 reasons to root for the Phillies.

It’s been a few days since the clincher of the NLCS. I am still pretty spent. Those NLCS games were a bitch. With the exception of the 11-0 Game 3 blowout, every game had a ton of drama.

Here’s some interesting stats and more as we wait to find out who we’re playing in the Series.

Jayson Werth is now the Phillies all-time postseason home run leader with 7 long balls. His opposite field shot to right-center on Wednesday was crushed.

The first ever postseason home run by a Phillie was hit by Fred Luderus in the 1915 World Series. 61 years later, the franchise got its second postseason homer off the bat of Greg Luczinski in the 1976 NLCS against the Cincinnati Reds.

61 years. 4 wars were fought in the meantime. Damn, we are blessed fans right now.

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If the Phillies wrap up 2009 with another World Series, Charlie Manuel will become the 25th manager to win at least 2 World Series.

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The Phillies have now played the Dodgers in 5 NLCS. After losing the first two in 1977 and 1978, the Phils have won the last three (1983, 2008, 2009).

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Jayson Werth leads the team with 11 strikeouts in the postseason, but we’ll take it when he also leads the team with a 1.208 OPS which is just a hair better than Ryan Howard’s 1.204. Imagine what the Phillies offense would look like right now with a locked-in Pedro Feliz, who has looked generally awful throughout the postseaon. He is sporting a razor-thin .567 OPS right now.

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The Yankees have won 26 World Series. The Phillies have won 2. But the current crop of Phillies has more World Series experience position by position than the Bronx Bombers. Consider: every position player for the Phillies except for Raul Ibanez has played in the World Series. The Yankees? 5 of their 8 position players will be playing in their first ever World Series (Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, Melky Cabrera and Mark Teixeira).

On the starting pitching side of things, only Andy Petitte is a Yankee starter with World Series experience. Mariano Rivera’s postseason record goes without saying. For the Phils, only Cliff Lee will be pitching in his first Fall Classic. J.A. Happ was with the team for last year’s World Series, but was not on the roster after pitching in the 2008 NLCS.

The Phillies won’t be intimidated by playing the Yankees. In fact, I feel like they’ll be more jacked up for the Yankees, and playing the Angels would be a letdown.

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Feeling confident about Cole Hamels showing up to pitch like the 2008 version of himself in this year’s World Series? Yeah, me neither. Hamels gave up 7 earned runs in the NLCS, which is what he gave up in ALL of the 2008 postseason. Hamels is sporting an ugly 6.75 ERA this year, and just doesn’t look like the Hamels of old.

That said, some of Hamels’ 2009 postseason stats are not much different from last year. For instance, his K/9IP is 7.36. Last year it was 7.71. Walks? Last year he walked 2.31 batters per 9 IP. This year? 1.23 BB/9.

So what is the difference between this year and last? Batting average. Last year, batters hit .190 off of King Cole. This year they are batting .328.

It was the best of times. Period.

The Phillies locked up their 7th National League pennant in a mostly comfortable win on Wednesday night that put them back in the World Series for the second year in a row and helped cement their status as the greatest Phillies team of all-time.

In retrospect, it’s hard to believe that the Dodgers were generally favored by the talking heads. Sure, the Phils had bullpen questions going into the series, but in almost every position on the field, the Phillies players were superior to their Dodger counterparts before and during the series. Starting pitching? Please. When you’re relying on a headcase like Vicente Padilla to stave off elimination, you’ve got pitching problems. Randy Wolf? Just above average. Clayton Kershaw? Still spot-shaving. He may be everything he’s been hyped to be, but not for a few years.

If there was any perceived edge before the series, it was the Dodger’s bullpen vs. the Phils ‘pen. In the end, the results weren’t even close. Jonathan Broxton? Toast. George Sherrill? Even the lefties hit him hard. Kuo? Shane Victorino’s homer last night hit a plate of wings in Harry The K’s, I think.

There was a noticeable level of nervous energy in the stands when former ace Cole Hamels served up a home run to Andre Ethier on the 8th pitch of their first inning battle. Note to Cole – stop giving good hitters a ton of pitches. Eventually they’ll crush one. Find an out pitch for Christ’s sake. I shouldn’t have to tell you this.

But that nervousness was tempered by the knowledge that the Dodgers were countering a mediocre Hamels with a mental Padilla. Padilla got through Rollins and Victorino with just 4 pitches in the bottom of the first, but things unraveled from there. Padilla is capable of folding like a load of laundry after he throws just one ball. And that’s pretty much what happened. Walk to Utley. Walk to Howard. And then Padilla walked into his worst nightmare – the most patient hitter in the Phillies lineup, a guy who likes to remind LA what they let slip away – Jayson Werth.

Werth worked the count to 3-2, as he always seems to, and then crushed a ball to right center for a 3-1 lead. I am sure that Jimmy Rollins’ double two night earlier drummed up a higher state of instant insanity than Werth’s three-run shot, but damn, it was still bedlam.

The Phils never trailed again – counterpunching 1 run Dodger innings with 2 run innings of their own. While the final score was 10-4, it really seemed a lot closer than that. In the 8th inning, a couple of singles off on Chan Ho Park, a walk to Manny Ramirez by Ryan Madson and a single by Matt Kemp cut the lead to 5 with no one out and the bases loaded. A home run would have turned Game 5 into a 1 run nail-biter with Brad Lidge looming in the ninth. Madson squirted out of further damage by retiring the next 3 batters, and 46,000+ finally could see a clear path to the Phillies second consecutive and 7th all-time pennant.

Brad Lidge nailed down a perfect ninth in a non-save situation, but he looked strong.

A franchise that has for so long has been associated with losing, bad luck and fan angst, the Phillies continue to put old school notions in the rear view mirror.

After the game, we headed down to the first base dugout area to laud our heroes, look for Todd Zolecki and Peter Gammons, and check out some of the eye candy disguised as reporters.

The remaining couple thousand fans sang High Hopes with the folks on the field, players included. It was an oustanding moment I won’t forget.

All that was left was a trip to the Majestic store to pay full MSRP for anything that was already declaring the Phillies as NL Champs, 2009.

Video – The Last Out From Sect. 418

Pictures From The Clincher

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.

When will folks finally get sick of Manny Ramirez? The media for the most part tolerates this crap, and his teammates are oftentimes complicit in his behaviors by shrugging off his antics with the tired “Manny Being Manny” talking point.

The latest example is that, during the nail-biting bottom of the 9th inning on Monday night, while everyone else in the free (baseball) world was glued to the play on the field at Citizens Bank Park, Manny Ramirez was showering in the clubhouse after being pulled for Juan Pierre in an attempt to have some competent defense in leftfield. Well covered here, here and here.

Manny, in typical fashion, blew this all off as much ado about nothing, and his manager and teammates were more than willing to go along for the ridiculous ride.

Manny: “”I come out of the game early, I take a shower.”
Joe Torre: “”I think the way it turned out, it probably doesn’t look good. But it’s nothing different than he has done before.” And, “As we say, Manny is Manny. He’s a cool customer.”
Randy Wolf: “”I love him. He’s Manny.”

Oh, gosh. I really hope I get to be a big league ball player one day. Then, maybe I can be a teammate of Manny’s so I can say how great it is to be around such a cerebral guy. He’s just….just….just….Manny!

Joe Torre was at the Bruce Springsteen concert last night. If Manny had even a sliver of the Boss’ energy, passion and work ethic, imagine what he’d look like when he wasn’t in the batter’s box? Instead of resembling the worst guy on your local bar’s softball team, he may actually pass for a major leaguer. And his performance when he’s not in the basepaths is equally uninspiring.

One of the common excuses made for Manny’s “I don’t give a shit” attitude is that it’s good in a clubhouse – keeps guys loose:

It’s that coolness that could aid Ramirez and his teammates as they try to win three straight to save their season, win the pennant and move on to the World Series.

The following day, Tuesday, Ramirez was calm and relaxed in the Dodgers clubhouse. He sat at his locker with his feet propped up on Rafael Furcal’s chair and across the room, the movie “Anchorman” was on television.

“I slept like a baby [last night],” Ramirez told the assembled media.

FYI to media lemmings: We know that Manny’s “coolness” is code for not giving a shit. Just shoot us straight instead of writing a bunch of fawning claptrap about his calming nature.

Shame on Joe Torre for putting up with it. Shame on the Dodgers for not having the balls to speak up. And shame on the media for, the most part, not calling him out on it.