Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Team

The first time they met was seven years ago. Cliff Lee was a September call-up with a cocksure attitude, and his new teammate was immediately impressed. "He was the Cliff that he is now. He went out and pounded both sides of the plate, attacking, real aggressive in the strike zone," CC Sabathia said. "He goes right after you." Lee lost his major league debut that day for Cleveland, despite pitching well against Minnesota. The two pitchers soon struck up a friendship, however, and it's still going strong.

Starters This could be real interesting. The Yankees' CC Sabathia and Phillies' Cliff Lee, former Cleveland teammates, have been dominating. They've combined to make six starts in the postseason, never yielding more than one earned run. They could face each other in Games 1, 4 and 7, if it is necessary. A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte, working behind Sabathia, appear vulnerable but have five quality starts in their six in the playoffs. The Phillies will look to exploit Burnett's wildness.

Teammates and coaches see one side of Pedro Martinez . But the fans see another. "I did some background on what he's like in a clubhouse and how he's perceived in the public, and it is vastly different from how he's perceived in the clubhouse," Philadelphia Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr . said. "This guy is absolutely fantastic in the clubhouse." New York Yankees left fielder Johnny Damon spent three years playing with Martinez in Boston, and he has tons of good memories.

Wednesday night marked the beginning of a 40th World Series for the New York Yankees, but the first played at the sprawling, sparkling new ballpark in the Bronx, next door to where it seems the Fall Classic was born and raised. But ghosts of glory past stayed behind, even though Yogi Berra waddled out to deliver the ceremonial first pitch for Game 1 at new Yankee Stadium. The christening was a disaster as Cliff Lee out-dueled CC Sabathia and the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies broke home-field advantage with a 6-1 victory.

Good thing the New York Yankees won, or this could have been the defining image of the Game 2 of the World Series: The Yankees' pulling their team off the field while the umpires discuss whether they messed up again. Fortunately for Bud Selig, the defining image was this: When a ball would have loaded the bases, when a hit could have tied the score, when a home run could have lost the game, Mariano Rivera came through again. Or, at least the way the Philadelphia Phillies saw it, the umpires messed up again.

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.

Joe Perruccio knows a professional baseball player when he sees one. And he didn't see one the first time he saw Chase Utley. "He was a skinny little kid," Perruccio remembers of Utley, then a freshman at Long Beach Poly High. "He didn't have a lot of natural ability." Ken Munger, another coach at Long Beach Poly, didn't think Utley was a pro prospect either. Especially not in comparison with Poly teammate Milton Bradley, who everyone knew was a future big-league All-Star. "I could see that Milton was a sure major league ballplayer," Munger says.

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.

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."

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.