Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Team

The Dude, as he calls others and is called himself, reflects on his record-setting, reputation-enhancing performance of 1993 and says: "I basically went from star to superstar. I basically proved I'm more than the best leadoff hitter in the game. It's nice to have that recognition, but I'm more than a leadoff hitter. "I proved I'm the impact player I've always considered myself to be, a situation hitter capable of getting the home run, double, walk, whatever the situation requires.

Joe Torre caused quite a stir in 2006 when he dropped Alex Rodriguez to the eighth spot in the New York Yankees' lineup. The Yankees were facing playoff elimination and Rodriguez had one hit in 11 postseason at-bats that year, but the relationship between Torre and Rodriguez was never the same thereafter. Ryan Howard batted .158 through the first five games of the World Series, with 12 strikeouts in 19 at-bats. Philadelphia Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel said he gave no thought to dropping Howard from the cleanup spot for Game 6. "What kind of message do I send to Howard, after three or four years he's been in the big leagues, all of a sudden on a big, important game in the World Series, I drop him?"

The New York Yankees celebrated their latest championship long and loud, dancing and giggling into the wee hours of this morning. This is the championship the rest of America curses, the title the Yankees bought last winter, not that they really care what anyone else thinks. "You can call us anything you want," General Manager Brian Cashman said. "You're going to have to call us world champions." The Yankees, desperate to end their 0-for-this-millennium rut without a ring, committed $423.

It was early July, and Randy Ready was late for one of his life's highlights. Accompanied by the three children whom he serves as both father and mother, the utility player for the Philadelphia Phillies was hurrying to Veterans Stadium and the Phillies' annual father-son game. Andrew, 7, and twins Colin and Jared, 5, were dressed in tiny Phillies uniforms. They chattered excitedly about playing on a big field, with real equipment, alongside their hero.

He has gone from August castoff to October conqueror. At this rate, Vicente Padilla could start the World Series opener should the Dodgers make it that far. All the veteran right-hander has done in two postseason outings is hold two potent lineups to one run in 14 1/3 innings, the latest command performance coming Friday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. Padilla limited the Philadelphia Phillies to one run in 7 1/3 innings in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, keeping the team that led the league in home runs and runs scored within striking distance until the Dodgers could rally for two late runs and a 2-1 victory.

The New York Yankees celebrated their latest championship long and loud, dancing and giggling into the wee hours of this morning. This is the championship the rest of America curses, the title the Yankees bought last winter, not that they really care what anyone else thinks. "You can call us anything you want," General Manager Brian Cashman said. "You're going to have to call us world champions." The Yankees, desperate to end their 0-for-this-millennium rut without a ring, committed $423.

In "The Natural," the movie based on Bernard Malamud's novel, a mysterious woman played by Barbara Hershey shoots a ballplayer played by Robert Redford in a hotel room. Russ (Monk) Meyer, 65, a coach for the Albany Yankees in the Eastern League, was Eddie Waitkus' roommate when the Philadelphia Phillies' first baseman was shot by a 19-year-old woman in a Chicago hotel room in 1949.

The coach turned back into a pumpkin. The emperor realized he wasn't wearing any clothes. Vicente Padilla ran out of magic. Like that, the Dodgers' season was over, with Manager Joe Torre and his group of miracle workers falling three victories short of the World Series for the second time in as many years. Again, the Dodgers were turned away by the Philadelphia Phillies in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series in five games, this time dropping the deciding contest by a 10-4 margin at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday night.

"Are you calling about Cole?" the secretary at Rancho Bernardo High said in place of "Hello." The San Diego-area school is such a baseball powerhouse that scouts refer to it simply as "the Factory." It has turned out seven first-round draft picks in the last 14 years. One season, it had an entire starting lineup that went on to play professionally. But when the athletic department phone rings now, the calls are usually about Hamels.

He'll be on national television tonight, the worst nightmare of many a Dodgers fan: Pedro Martinez , pitching in the World Series for the Philadelphia Phillies. "I'll be watching," Fred Claire said Tuesday. "I've always wanted to see him do well." Claire freely admits his worst trade in 12 seasons as the Dodgers' general manager: Martinez to the Montreal Expos for Delino DeShields . In 1993, the Dodgers considered Martinez a fragile middle reliever, in part on the recommendation of Dr. Frank Jobe . They needed a second baseman, and the cost-cutting Expos had one of the best in the game.

If the New York Yankees bid for John Lackey this winter, we'll know why. The Yankees ought not to run out of starting pitchers, or anything else, not with their practically infinite resources. But they could not identify four men to whom they would entrust a playoff start, so they demanded extraordinary labor from CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. They got away with it Sunday, with Sabathia. They did not get brilliance. They got just enough. They did not get away with it Monday, with Burnett.

The Phillies are taking the World Series back to New York, but they may be missing their starting center fielder when they get there. Shane Victorino was hit on the hand while trying to bunt an A.J. Burnett fastball in the first inning Monday and eventually had to leave the game because of severe swelling. "He had X-rays, and it's not broken," said Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel . "But as the game went on, his finger kept swelling. He couldn't grip the ball and couldn't grip the bat."

Chase Utley saw his first World Series game when, as a 9-year-old growing up outside Los Angeles, he went to see the Dodgers play the Oakland Athletics in 1988. "Game 2," his father, Dave, said. "The game after Kirk Gibson." For two decades that was the closest Utley would come to a dramatic World Series home run until Monday, when he hit two in Philadelphia's 8-6 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the World Series, extending the Phillies' season for at least two more days.

The Yankees may have scored the go-ahead run on Alex Rodriguez's ninth-inning double. But if you ask Rodriguez, they won Sunday's game two batters earlier, when Johnny Damon fouled off three two-strike pitches before blooping a single to left to start the game-winning rally. "For me, the whole key of that whole inning was an unbelievable, tenacious at-bat by Johnny Damon," Rodriguez said. "This guy is just a great competitor. Put us in a position to get a big hit there in the ninth."

These can be the saddest of possible words: One strike away. Defeat found Brad Lidge one more time this season, perhaps for the last time. He was baseball's perfect closer last year. A generation of Philadelphia fans had lived for the moment when Lidge dropped to his knees last fall, when the Phillies had become World Series champions for the first time in 28 years. The Phillies had been one strike away. Lidge got that strike, and bedlam reigned. The Phillies were one strike away Sunday night, not from winning the World Series but from heading to the bottom of the ninth with the score tied.

PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel sat in his office, alone with his thoughts. A few feet away outfielder Shane Victorino sat shirtless in front of his locker, heaving a sigh and staring, for what seemed to be an eternity, at nothing in particular. The Phillies had just won Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, beating the Dodgers, 8-5, to move a giant step closer to the World Series. But there was little celebrating in the Philadelphia clubhouse because the Phillies' family suffered losses Friday that go beyond the locker room.

You are in search of Joe Maddon's past, on a trip that runs through this Pennsylvania cradle of managers. There's the turnoff to Upper Darby. Mike Scioscia grew up there. Here's the exit for Norristown. Tom Lasorda grew up there. And then you leave the Pennsylvania Turnpike behind, for twisting two-lane roads surrounded by the majesty of fall foliage.

You can tug on Superman's cape. Even spit into the wind. But hitting Alex Rodriguez with a baseball? That's probably not such a good idea. Because he'll make you pay. Just ask the Philadelphia Phillies. They tried to intimidate Rodriguez by plunking him three times in two days only to watch him hit back Sunday with a tiebreaking double, sparking the New York Yankees to a 7-4 victory that moved them to within a win of their first World Series title since 2000. "There's no question I have never had a bigger hit," Rodriguez said.

With the World Series tied at a game apiece as it moves from New York to Philadelphia for Game 3 tonight, the Phillies are counting on a couple of factors to give them the home-field advantage. For starters, the loss of the designated hitter in the National League ballpark will cost the Yankees one of their big bats. And the vocal Philadelphia crowd has unnerved opponents before, helping the Phillies win 11 of their last 12 postseason games at home. "Our club is not necessarily built to come into this ballpark," Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said before his team's workout Friday at Citizens Bank Park.