Phillies (and Determination) In Seven!

Life must go on. Despite America having been sold, despite billions and billions of dollars that we don't have bailing out a few cheating, incompetent, greedy financial companies (and campaign contributors to both Presidential candidates), despite all those homes in foreclosure remaining closed to the foolish families that bought them with money they didn't have and couldn't hope to have. Despite the macabre choice that faces all Americans on November 4th, life will go on, at least for a short time. And a large part of life for any real sports fan is the World Series.

This is an event that remains unsullied. Best four out of seven . Sure, the games may start a little later than in the past, but what the heck, it's still the two best teams in baseball facing off for the World Championship. And this should be a great World Series. Both teams have pitching and defense and both teams are undeniably tough.

The NL Champion Phillies were tough enough to outlast my Mets for the NL East Division and tough enough to make short work of the Brewers and Dodgers, the latter a team that had beaten the best team in the National League for the entire regular season. The upstart Rays only beat out the Red Sox and Yankees for the AL East lead, then redefined "tough" by outlasting the Red Sox in seven games.

The oversimplifications surrounding this Series have been amazing. The Rays have the best starting pitching so they'll win it all. Tampa Bay teams have beaten Philadelphia teams in hockey and football playoffs so Tampa Bay will win it all. Tampa Bay beat the best teams in baseball so they'll win it all. The Phillies have the better lineup so they'll win it all. The Phillies have the best relief staff so they'll win it all.

But that's okay, I love all the speculation, even the stupid stuff, for isn't that part and parcel of a World Series? Hasn't it been part of every World Series that I can remember, never mind those Series before my time? It'll still be the World Series. Sure, there'll be a designated hitter this year, and that's quite different from back in 1954, the first Series that I can really recall. And the Rays will get the home field advantage because the American League once again won the All-Star Game. But it's still fundamentally the same game of baseball, the same series of games, even the same format of two-three-two.

The Rays seem to be favored by most pundits and probably in Vegas, although I have too little respect for Vegas to even check the actual odds there. And for good reason, I suppose, with that corps (and core) of starting pitchers. Kazmir, Shields, Garza, Sonnenstein, geez! Except for the Phils Cole Hamels, who might be the best pitcher of them all, the Rays would seem to have the advantage there.

But there's so much more to baseball than just the starting pitching. These Phillies seem to be able to hit good pitching. Didn't the Mets have good pitching, at least starting pitching? Didn't the Brewers have good pitching? the Dodgers? What a lineup these Phillies have! Rollins, Utley, Burrell and Howard come first to mind, but there's also guys like Jayson Werth, who only seem to kill the opponents at the most critical junctures. I don't care to search for the stats with runners in scoring position but I just know what I've seen all season from these Phillies.

And, most frightening of all, maybe, is that if the Phillies take a lead late into the game, that lead ain't going nowhere. And if they hold the lead going into the ninth, they've been unbeatable. But, in the final analysis, baseball is more than all of these things too. It's the pesky guys, like Victorino, the Phils centerfielder, who just seems to run everything down and steal a base at the most opportune moments. It's the moves made by the manager, Charlie Manuel, who seems to have his finger on the very pulse of his charges.

Of course, the Rays are no slouches either. And they seem to be playing better in the post-season than they did during the regular season, a very scary proposition indeed. Their centerfielder, B.J. Upton, didn't really hit for power during the regular season, but he's really turned his game up a notch now. Carlos Pena can drive them a long way too. And then there's Longoria and Baldelli and Crawford. And their own set of pests in that shortstop Bartlett and that quicker than a bunny kid from New Jersey and Columbia University.
So what makes me think the Phillies can really win this thing? Experience, particularly the experience of having lost in the post-season before, particularly the experience of losing to the Colorado Rockies just a year ago. Determination, the resolve to win it all.

That can mean a lot, and I think it will spell the difference in this World Series. <>For determination plays itself out in all aspects of the game, at the plate, in the field and on the mound. In my heart of hearts, I don’t see the same determination in the Rays. Didn’t they seem awfully happy to have survived that Red Sox Series?

Make no mistake about it, the pressure will be squarely on the Rays right now. For the first time really this year. They’ve handled whatever pressure there has been, of course, the pressure of playing without Longoria and Crawford and Baldelli for long periods of time, the pressure of having lost a seven-run lead to the Red Sox in Game 5 and having to win it in that fateful Game 7.

But I think the Rays have been locked in all along on winning the AL pennant. On beating the all-powerful Yankees and Red Sox, on making it to the biggest stage of them all, the World Series.

Did their dreams extend beyond this point? I don’t think so.

Phillies in Seven.