This team is truly one of the greatest in the history of this franchise. We’ve been lucky enough to witness the golden era of one of America’s oldest ball clubs.

They may not have been victorious, but they sure gave it their all.

This team is filled with a unique group of guys, gathered together from the various nooks and crannies of our country, who have gelled together unlike any team I’ve ever seen. They are a giant family, they all get along, and manage to find away to do the impossible, get through a major league season.

It all starts with the manager, Charlie Manuel. Charlie’s southern twang and lack of public speaking skills have created an incorrect public perception of his intelligence. He’s smart, and he knows how to manage this team. He’s the biggest reason that the team has been to three straight postseasons.

It stems from the manager to his players. And thanks go to:

Cliff Lee , who was the biggest mid-season acquisition in baseball and came here and never turned it off. He started and finished strong. Then came the postseason, where experts wondered how he would deal with the heightened emotions. He was marvelous, and pitched the Phillies into the World Series, as well as giving them a good chance to win the Series.

Chase Utley , whose five home runs in the World Series tied Reggie Jackson’s all-time record.

Ryan Howard , who never showed up for the World Series, but played perhaps the largest role in getting them there.

Jimmy Rollins , who bounced back after a rough start to the season to contribute when it mattered most.

Carlos Ruiz , who handled the pitching staff with such class and expertise all year. He brought his bat to the table yet again in the postseason, earning the title “Senor Octubre” from local media.

Shane Victorino , who his the spark plug of the Phillies lineup. He always has something to say, and always brings that extra fire. He showed up all year and especially in October.

Raul Ibanez , whose performance was so good at points, people questioned the legitimacy of his statistics. Well he proved them all to be true, and continued to help his team till the very end. He was a welcome addition to this lineup, replacing one of Philly’s favorites.

Jayson Werth , who was just always there. And he was always solid. Werth was impressive through the playoffs, and helped put this team where it was.

Ryan Madson , who stepped up for the struggling Brad Lidge to fill in from time to time in the closer role. Madson came into his own at the end of last season, and was there all year this time. He was the most steady part of the Phillies’ struggling bullpen.

Brad Lidge , who didn’t have a real great year. But he battled in the postseason, and saw the light at the end of the tunnel at times. Lidge will have an abbreviated offseason, where he can hopefully gather his thoughts and show up ready for 2010.

Chan Ho Park , who after a rough start to the year as a starter, found his role in the bullpen and proved to be a reliable go-to guy for Charlie.

Scott Eyre , who took on the role as a situational lefty, and did his job quite well.

Jamie Moyer , who wasn’t there on the field in the postseason, but was with the team teaching his brand of baseball every chance he got.

Cole Hamels , who had a rough season. He’ll be another one who will need to get his head back in the right place for 2010.

Joe Blanton , who was steady. About as steady as they come.

Pedro Martinez , who grabbed our hearts upon his arrival. What a guy. He was instrumental in getting the Phils back to the Fall Classic. Unfortunately, maybe the Yankees are his “Daddy.”

J.A. Happ , who did so much more than you can ask for from a rookie, pitching superbly in the rotation all season and then effectively out of the pen in October.

And everyone else who came in and got the Phillies a win here or there or contributed in this way or that.

They were truly a special team, and it was an honor and privilege to cover them this season. The Yankees are undoubtedly great, but so are the Phils, and mark my words, they’ll be back.

The Phillies are a team that’s been counted out time and time again. They couldn’t get past the red-hot Rockies? Well, they did. They can’t get by the offensively sound Dodgers. Well, they did that too. So what should make us think they can’t rally to overcome what was a three-games-to-one deficit in the 2009 World Series?

They just could do that, too.

After a win last night, the team has earned the train ride back to New York, where tomorrow they will put their trust in Pedro Martinez, whose history is storied in the postseason against New York. Martinez must win, and the future Hall-of-Famer is no stranger to doing just that.

There’s just something about Pedro, in Yankee Stadium, that feels so right.

The Phillies’ charismatic righty goes up against Andy Pettite on three-day’s rest. Pettite has plenty of experience during his career on short rest, but tomorrow will be a different experience for the lefty.

Pettite has not pitched on three-day’s rest since 2006, when he was a much younger 34. In 14 regular-season starts, he is a respectable 4-6 with a 4.15 ERA.

But this isn’t the regular season anymore, and Petite is a few years older than he was in 2000, when he last pitched on short rest in the postseason.

The Phillies capitalized on A.J. Burnett’s weak short-rest performance yesterday, and tomorrow they hope to do the same and disprove the experts who counted them out before they even got a chance.

For your 2009 NL Champion Philadelphia Phillies:

1. Jimmy Rollins SS
2. Shane Victorino CF
3. Chase Utley 2B
4. Ryan Howard 1B
5. Jayson Werth RF
6. Raul Ibanez DH
7. Ben Francisco LF
8. Pedro Feliz 3B
9. Carlos Ruiz C

Notables: Ibanez DH, Francisco LF.

AL Champion Yankees:

1. Derek Jeter SS
2. Johnny Damon LF
3. Mark Teixeira 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez 3B
5. Jorge Posada C
6. Hideki Matsui DH
7. Robinson Cano 2B
8. Nick Swisher RF
9. Melky Cabrera CF

—–

MATCHUPS:

From today’s press notes:

C.C. Sabathia vs. Phillies hitters
Jimmy Rollins: 5/13, 4 XBH, 1 RBI, 1 BB
Shane Victorino: 5/9, 2 XBH, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 1 BB
Chase Utley: 0/5, 3 SO, 1 BB
Ryan Howard: 3/9, 1 XBH, 1 RBI, 4 SO
Jayson Werth: 2/8, 2 XBH, 3 SO
Raul Ibanez: 11/40, 5 XBH, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 2 BB, 10 SO
Pedro Feliz: 1/8, 1 XBH, 1 RBI, 3 SO
Carlos Ruiz: 2/5
Ben Francisco: 1/5, 1 XBH, 1 BB

TOTALS : 30/102 (.294), 19 XBH, 3 HR, 6 BB, 23 SO 

Cliff Lee vs. Yankees hitters
Derek Jeter: 11/27, 3 XBH, 5 RBI, 3 BB, 3 SO
Johnny Damon: 2/22, 1 BB, 3 SO
Alex Rodriguez: 5/15, 2 XBH, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 2 SO
Mark Teixeira: 9/23, 5 XBH, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 2 BB, 2 SO
Jorge Posada: 6/21, 4 XBH, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 2 SO
Hideki Matsui: 5/17, 2 XBH, 2 BB, 4 SO
Robinson Cano: 4/18, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 3 SO
Nick Swisher: 6/18, 2 XBH, 1 RBI, 4 BB, 4 SO
Melky Cabrera: 3/11, 1 XBH, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SO

TOTALS : 51/182 (.280), 19 XBH, 6 HR, 14 BB, 24 SO

—

PRESSER HIGHLIGHTS:

Probably my favorite quote so far this series, from Pedro’s presser just moments ago at Yankee Stadium:

“I remember quotes from the paper, ‘Here come the men that New York loves to hate.’ Men? None of you have probably ever ate steak with me, or rice and beans with me to know what the men is like. You might say the player, the competitor, but the men? You guys have abused my name.

“There is one time I remember when I was a free agent there was talk that I might meet with [Yankee’s owner George] Steinbrenner. One of your colleagues had me in the paper with horns and a tail. Red horns and a tail. That’s the sign of the devil. I’m a Christian man. I don’t like those things.”

Don’t mess with Pedro, before you eat rice and beans with him, New York.

—–

That’s about all from here. Game 1 begins tonight from Yankee Stadium on FOX.

—–

Send email to sroddy@philliephanatics.org and visit Shay Roddy’s blog here.

Here in Philadelphia, fans are gearing up for the highly anticipated 2009 World Series between the Phillies and Yankees. In the Bronx, the media circus has begun. Over 300 writers attended today’s media day at Yankee Stadium. Among them was the New York Times ’ Yankees writer Tyler Kepner. 

Tyler was kind enough to speak with me this morning, about the Yanks, the Phils and how they match-up, in what promises to be an exciting World Series.

SHAY RODDY: You haven’t gotten to see much of the Phillies this year, covering them in just one series back in the spring. Give us an outsider’s take on the Phils.

TYLER KEPNER: Well, I’d say I follow the Phillies closer than I follow any other NL team, because I grew up outside Philadelphia and my parents have season tickets. They’re a tough team—tough-minded and confident. They know they can come back, they’re not intimidated by anything, and they’re cocky in a way that translates to success on the field. Charlie Manuel seems to have a tremendous feel for his players, both the subtleties of their personalities and their strengths/weaknesses on the field. Just a very impressive team all the way around.

SR: The Yankees are a franchise with a rich history of winning. The Phils won the title just last year with virtually the same team. Talk a little about how experience plays to each team’s advantage.

TK: I don’t think experience matters very much in the postseason. The first year I covered the Yankees was 2002. They had been to five of the last six World Series. Their playoff opponent was the Angels, who had one player (Kevin Appier), with one series of postseason experience. So what happened? The Angels pounded the Yankees in four. Then the next year, in 2003, the Yankees played a young Marlins team in the World Series and lost. So I just don’t think it matters. And even if it did, in this case, both teams have lots of postseason experience.

SR: Yankee Stadium and Citizens Bank Park are both hitter friendly parks which, coupled with both team’s explosive offenses, could lead to high scoring games. However, both teams have solid pitching, the Yankees with Sabathia, Petite and Burnett and the Phillies with Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and Pedro Martinez. What do you anticipate the scoring will be like?

TK: Good hitting. Good pitching. So who wins? The cliche is good pitching stops good hitting, but we’ll see. I wonder if the Yankees can neutralize Howard because they have two very good lefty starters. If they do, that’s a big problem for the Phillies. But all six of those starters can shut down any lineup when they’re on. Still, these teams can hit so well that I’d expect a fair amount of home runs.

SR: What is the key to winning this year’s series?

TK: Pitching’s usually the key, so I don’t see any reason why it won’t be just as important in this series as it usually is in all the rest. Specifically, though, the bullpens will make a huge difference. The Yankees devoured opposing bullpens this season, and my guess is the Phillies did the same. Both teams have a knack for late comebacks, especially at home. Obviously that puts a lot of emphasis on the relievers, and the Yanks’ late-inning guys have been a little shaky lately.

SR: Talk a little about this Yankees club. The common stereotype is that they are more of a group of talented players put together rather than a real team. Is that description accurate?

TK: No, I wouldn’t say so. When you’re around them, they actually work together quite well. The free agents they imported last winter all had the nice bonus of being good team guys (Teixeira, Burnett and especially Sabathia), and they’ve really seemed to enjoy each other’s company since spring training. The four stalwarts (Jeter, Rivera, Posada and Pettitte) bring stability and leadership, and I’d throw Matsui into that category, too. Damon keeps them loose, and A-Rod has cut way, way back on his usual distractions and just focused on baseball this year. That has made a big difference, too. He’s not the preening diva of past years; he’s just a really, really good ballplayer.

SR: Lets do some head to heads. Who has the advantage… 

Rollins-Jeter: Jeter

Howard- Teixeira: Teixeira

Utley-Cano : Utley

Posada-Ruiz: push

Sabathia-Lee : push

Manuel-Girardi :  Manuel

SR: And finally, your series pick…

TK: Yankees in 7, but only because they have home-field advantage. That’s the only obvious difference to me that distinguishes between these two extremely evenly matched teams. It really could go either way, and I’m just hoping for a hard-fought, compelling World Series. I think we’ll get it this year.

Well, what will the excuse be this year, if the Phillies pull off the unthinkable, and repeat as World Champions?

After the Yankees wrapped up their series with the Angels last night, the Phils finally learned their opponent in the 2009 World Series. The Yankees, the winningest team in the history of the sport, stand in the way of another parade down Broad Street.

The Yankees bring their rich history of 40 World Series appearances and 26 rings back to baseball’s grandest stage in 2009. But you can expect the underdog Phillies to put up a fight.

For the Phillies things haven’t come easy this season, for the first time since 1981, they were forced to defend their crown. They’ve been through their share of trials and tribulations. But the attitude never changed. This is an organization that’s prided itself on hard work, and dedication, as well as perseverance.

Now, in the Bronx, with the crisp orange leaves falling from the sky, as the cool autumn breeze whistles through the air, a group of twenty-five men, a manager and a coaching staff are joined together with one common goal.

Repeating.

These men all grew-up far away from the streets of Philadelphia. They practiced baseball, dreaming to one day be able to showcase their skills on the grandest of levels. They never knew each other, and came to this organization through various outposts, some coming straight from high-school, others bouncing around from team to team, before finding a place they could call home.

They were raised in places like California, Florida, Texas, and the Midwest. They were perhaps unaware, and certainly isolated from the city they now find themselves fighting for.

Now they are cobbled together and charged with a task that baseball history has proved unlikely, a task Philadelphia has witnessed very infrequently in the history of professional sports in the city.

Repeating as a world champion.

This year, the road block is upgraded, perhaps. Instead of a ringless expansion franchise, the Phils get to face the best. Yet the mentality for the Phillies remains the same.

They think they can beat anyone. And they can.

The Yankees will be tough, coming at the Phils with bombers like Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira. But the Phils can counter with stars like Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and the best hitter in the game right now, Ryan Howard.

The Yankees will throw pitchers like CC Sabathia, Andy Pettite, and A.J. Burnett. But the Phils will matchup with Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and Pedro Martinez.

The teams seem evenly matched on paper. But the Phillies get no respect. The national media’s act gets old.

I wonder what excuse the media will find this year to discredit the Phillies if they once again win the World Series. What kind of fluke will it be this time, guys?

Or is it that the Phillies are just that good?

Nah…it couldn’t be. It’s just another fluke.

Because the AL won the All-Star game, and clinched home field advantage for the World Series, no matter who they play, the Phils will need to decide on a designated hitter for Games One and Two, and if necessary, Six and Seven of the World Series. It’s no secret that there’s no obvious choice for the spot.

The Phils have a few potential candidates, but with a lineup that has clicked so well, one can’t help but wonder if adding a DH will prove to be a disturbance.

However, it doesn’t really matter. Like it or not it’s part of the game, and Phillies manager Charlie Manuel has to make a decision. 

Last year, in the same situation, Manuel again waited and waited to clue the media in on what he was thinking regarding DH. Now after hearing Manuel’s thought process from last year, we can expect him to think heavily about match-ups. 

When LAA/NYY use a right handed pitcher, the likely candidate would appear to be Matt Stairs. Stairs, the power-hitting lefty, is tailor made for the DH spot, lacking in speed and fielding skills. He’s also no stranger to postseason heroics, sending Jonathan Broxton’s fastball deep into the October sky last season.

Stairs admits he strides to the plate with one goal every time: sending one into the upper deck.

The downside to Stairs is that he struggled mightily this season. Because of this, you have to have a back-up plan for when the opponent throws a lefty, or if Stairs were to struggle mightily.

There’s no cut-in-stone way to go here. You could use Greg Dobbs, but he’s a lefty, go with Miguel Cairo, but he’s old and may not be the best option, perhaps even use Eric Bruntlett, but he’s not known for his bat.

However, the best option involves one of General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr.’s most useful trade-deadline acquisitions, Ben Francisco.

Francisco was a slip-in in the deal Cliff Lee headlined with the Indians, perhaps the best deal made at the deadline.

He has proved his worth time and time again this season, both in the field and at the plate. So why not utilize both?

Here’s how it would work: You take Francisco and make him the starting left fielder against all left-handed pitchers. You then make Ibanez the DH. This not only provides you with a defensive upgrade, but also with an upgraded bat in the lineup. Ibanez still gets his at-bats in, and Francisco can become a baserunner in front of the red-hot Carlos Ruiz.

Manuel says he hasn’t decided, but I’m sure he’s looking for everyone to step up. In October, even the 25th man matters.

Send email to sroddy@philliephanatics.org. Read additional content from Shay Roddy on his blog, Phillie Phanatics .

PHILADELPHIA- The Phillies proved again last night that you can never give up on this team, coming from behind to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4 at a frigid Citizens Bank Park.

The mood on Broad and Pattison, last night, was solemn and quiet as the fans predicted a plane ride back to Los Angeles would be inevitable, as the Dodgers handed the ball to closer Jonathan Broxton, who’s 98-101 MPH fastball has devastated opposing hitters this season.

However, a little bit of hope started to creep back into the cold, quiet crowd when Matt Stairs stepped to the plate with one out in the ninth.

Stairs went up there with one goal. “I walked into the batter’s box, and there was one thing on my mind, and that was to go for the Budweiser sign,” the lefty slugger put it.

Broxton, who’s no stranger to Matt Stairs’ tremendous power off the bench, suffered a career changing loss in last year’s NLCS, when Stairs took his fastball deep into the October sky.

This year, Broxton wasn’t going to let that happen. Broxton pitched around Stairs and walked him, leading Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel to send speedy Eric Bruntlett into the ball-game to pinch-run.

That brought Carlos Ruiz to the plate, who’s been known as Senor Octubre around Philly, due to his Panamanian descent and his postseason heroics. Broxton tried to come inside to Ruiz, to try to get a weakly grounded double-play ball. However, Broxton wound up hitting the Phils’ catcher on the arm, setting up runners on first and second for pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs.

Dobbs strode to the plate to the tune of 46,157 screaming, towel waving fans, but proceeded to softly line out to third baseman Casey Blake.

With two outs in the ninth, it all came down to Jimmy Rollins.

Maunel, from his seat at the far left of the Phillies dugout gazed across the diamond to the third base dugout and found his friend and former Phillie Jim Thome. Thome’s eyes met Manuel’s. And Charlie pointed to the right field stands. Thome shook his head, no way. 

“Thome is standing over in the other dugout, and Thome looks at me, and I motion like that,” Manuel said, holding out his arm. “I told Thome, he is going to hit one. I go like this [points finger] and point to the right field stands. I did, but I had a good feeling about it. It wasn’t like I was joking or kidding or nothing.

“He was looking at me, and I went like that, and he’s shaking his head like no, he’s not, or something like that. You can ask him. I had a real good feeling. I was talking to [bench coach Pete] Mackanin the whole time. With Jimmy up there, I liked that moment. I liked the guy hitting.”

Then Rollins dug in to the left-hand batter’s box.

Rollins swung at the first pitch and missed it. He let the second pitch sail by for a ball. Then with the count 1-1 and two outs in the ninth, Rollins stepped out, took a breath and stepped back into the box.

“It’s funny,” Rollins said later. “Right before he threw the ball, I said, ‘Hit a ball in the right-center gap.’ “

Then came the hit that will be remembered for a long time.

With Charlie standing in the left of the dugout, his faithful leadoff man proved him right.

Rollins drove Broxton’s inside fastball to the gap in right center, splitting the two outfielders and bouncing the ball against the out-of-town scoreboard. By the time it was retrieved, Bruntlett had already scored to tie the game and Ruiz was rounding third, being waved home by third base coach Sam Perlozzo. The throw to the plate was cut-off near second, and Ruiz slid safely into home plate, popping up to join the swarm of teammates who charged Rollins near third. 

With that the Phillies won the ballgame. 

With that the Phillies took a three games-to-one series lead, setting themselves up to clinch their second straight trip to the World Series, Wednesday in front of the home crowd.

And you can be damn sure momentum will be in the home dugout.