World Series

Twenty years ago today, Kirk Gibson hit his legendary pinch-hit home run off of Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the World Series. It was voted the greatest moment in L.A. sports history in a poll conducted by the Los Angeles Sports Council in 1995. And it will probably take something similar for the Dodgers to overcome a 3-1 series deficit to the Philadelphia Phillies and advance to the World Series this year.

Major League Baseball agreed Wednesday to delay the start of a World Series game by about 15 minutes to make room for a television commercial that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama plans to run Oct. 29. That would be the date for Game 6 of the baseball championship, if a sixth game is necessary. Obama's campaign this month negotiated to buy the same half-hour of prime time -- from 8 to 8:30 p.m. EDT that night -- on CBS and NBC.

I have seen many great home runs of great importance, but I have never seen anything like Kirk Gibson's home run in the first game of the 1988 Fall Classic. The drama that was attached to that home run was tremendous, and Wednesday was the 20th anniversary of that historic homer. Gibson never came out for the introductions. He never took a swing of batting practice. He was in the trainer's room lying on the rubbing table the entire time.

PHILADELPHIA -- This is not supposed to happen to the Bill Buckners and Steve Bartmans of the sporting world. On the eve of the World Series, you do not embrace your goat. Yet, as the Philadelphia Phillies worked out Saturday in preparation for their first World Series in 15 years, their goat stood in the middle of the clubhouse, greeting players and granting interviews. This goat goes by the name of Mitch Williams. He threw the Phillies' last pitch in the World Series.

He was in college last year, in the minor leagues last month, in the recesses of the bullpen last week. And yet, there he was Monday, introducing Barack Obama at a rally in Tampa, Fla. For once, David Price said he was nervous. "Public speaking is my enemy," Price said. "I'd rather come in with a 3-and-0 count, with the bases loaded, in a tie game, on the road." He inherited a situation almost as dire Sunday.

Phillies The Phillies can play power ball and little ball, although they have not played American League ball very well. They ranked second in the National League in home runs and third in stolen bases, but they lost 11 of 15 games in interleague play. The Angels swept them, and they lost two of three to Oakland, Toronto, Texas and Boston. Ryan Howard led the major leagues with 48 home runs during the regular season; he has none in the playoffs.

I'm playing hooky today, and I hate it. I'm skipping what should be the most important sports event of the year, and I'm sick about it. I'm ditching the World Series. And it's the World Series' fault. As a writer groomed on the baseball beat, I will always be in love with the Fall Classic, its two-minute duels, its exhausting dramas, its suffocating pressure, a tobacco-spitting metaphor for the human condition. Since my first World Series 25 years ago -- remember Rick Dempsey?

Jimmy Rollins played his high school games at Willie Stargell Field. The sign said so. "I thought he was some guy that must have given a lot of money," Rollins said. Stargell was one of the greatest players in baseball history, but Rollins grew up among a generation of African American youth that paid little attention to baseball.

The Tampa Bay Rays are trying the closer du jour approach in this World Series, while the Philadelphia Phillies feature one of the best closers in baseball. Advantage, Phillies? Not so fast, not based on Brad Lidge's last trip to the playoffs, as closer for the Houston Astros in 2005. The Houston Astros were one out from the World Series when Lidge gave up a monstrous two-out, three-run home run to Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals.

There is no denying the Tampa Bay Rays are the more inspirational story of this World Series. They are young, carefree and charismatic, and trying to spin one of the greatest rags-to-riches tales in sports history. But deep down -- if you have any sense of what is right and just -- you must acknowledge their fans do not deserve this euphoric, historic joyride into America's heart.