Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Team

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.

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.

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.

PHILADELPHIA -- You can take the kid out of L.A., but you can't take L.A. out of the kid. Unless, that is, the kid is Chase Utley, who would no sooner brag about himself than play second base naked. Utley is a metronome, a three-time All-Star and the most popular player on the Philadelphia Phillies, by far. In a town that eats its stars, he is beloved. He left L.A. without the Hollywood ego. He never had one. He shows up early every day, works hard, plays hard and deflects attention onto others.

For the first two games of the National League Championship Series, the Dodgers will head back to Philadelphia, the site of a four-game sweep by the Phillies in late August that started a season-long eight-game losing streak for the Dodgers. But memories of Philadelphia don't necessarily elicit negative emotions for the Dodgers, who were outscored 27-5 by the Phillies in that series.

Joe Beimel was sitting at a table in the middle of the visitors' clubhouse at Chicago on the eve of the Dodgers' first playoff game this year when Ned Colletti took a seat across from him. "How are you doing today?" the Dodgers general manager said. "Doing fine," Beimel said. "See," Colletti said, "we're off to a better start already." They laughed.

PHILADELPHIA -- Aristotle believed patience to be a virtue. Ryan Howard disagrees. And Aristotle might have too, had he, like Howard, led the National League in intentional walks through his first three full seasons. "Baseball's the only game where you can completely take a person out of the outcome of the game," said Howard, who has spent many plate appearances standing in the batter's box watching the opposing pitcher play catch.