As the Phillies turn

There are so many underlying themes and subplots with these Phillies that it makes a day with the team seem as if one were watching a mini-series. Swing a dead cat and hurl it through the Phillies’ clubhouse and chances are it will bean a would-be story in the melon.

But the main premise with the Phillies remains unchanged. It’s all about injuries and pitching, folks.

In Thursday’s series finale in Chicago the injury bugged showed that it wasn’t just monopolized by the initiated. No, it appears as if all one has to do is pull on a Phillies uniform and something crazy will happen. Kyle Lohse, the new starting the pitcher the Phillies picked up in a trade from the Reds on Monday had his Phillies’ suit on for just 29 pitches and one inning before he got all nicked up by a line drive off his forearm.

How long he’ll be out is anyone’s guess.

“Just the way it welted up right away, I knew they weren't going to let me go out there and chance it,” Lohse told reporters after the 10-6 victory over the Cubs. “We'll see how it goes. I don't think it's serious enough for the DL, but it was pretty bad.”

Lohse is hardly the biggest problem for manager Charlie Manuel and general manager Pat Gillick. Far from it, in fact. The Phillies stayed in the playoffs chase without Lohse, chances are they will stay close to the first-place Mets with him doing his best Danny Tartabull impression.

Nevertheless, it’s a fun little exercise to imagine how much better the Phillies could be had the injuries not plagued the team so thoroughly – and by fun we mean in the same manner as pouring a can of paint thinner on top of a bon fire. You know, Beavis & Butthead stuff.

Think about what would have happened this week if Chase Utley had not been beaned by that pitch at the Bank last week. Certainly Gillick would have never gone out and traded for Tadahito Iguchi even though he didn’t really have to give up much to get him. More importantly there’s a strong possibility that Ryan Howard would not be in such a swoon if Utley were still hitting ahead of him in the lineup.

“Teams probably are not going to give me anything to hit even more now,” Howard forecasted soon after Utley’s injury. “It's definitely going to be hard with him not being here, the way he works pitchers and has such good ABs.”

With Utley on the shelf, Howard is 5-for-26 (.192) with three RBIs, no homers and 15 strikeouts. Clearly Howard is trying to carry the load with Utley out, though he dismissed the idea when the subject was broached by a few of the li’l newshounds travelling around with the team. However, Manuel believes it just could be the case just as he admitted it was the case in the beginning of the season when Howard got off to a slow start before landing on the disabled list in May.

Meanwhile, one of those underlying themes that could become a major focus if the Phillies are still in the hunt a month from now remains the right arm of reliever Tom Gordon. The veteran right-hander pitched on Thursday afternoon and was able to hand over a lead to closer Brett Myers despite giving up a run, two hits and a walk in the eighth inning, but that wasn’t the case the night before.

Gordon complained of shoulder tightness before the game and informed Manuel that he wasn’t available, which didn’t really work out too well. As a result, Myers came in to pitch in the ninth inning of a tied game (on the road), and had he been able to get out of the inning J.D. Durbin was set to come in and pitch until ol’ Mother Leary’s cows came home to Chicago.

The coincidental part of that is Durbin was brought in to be the long man today when Lohse was knocked out after just one inning.

So maybe it all worked out?

Maybe. Maybe not. Myers likely would have escaped the inning last night had the injured Michael Bourn been available to play left field instead of Jayson Werth when Matt Murton’s sinking liner dropped in for a double.

Anyway, there’s a lot of that woulda, coulda, shoulda stuff going on with the Phillies these days. You know, kind of like Beavis & Butthead.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

***
Tomorrow (or maybe later) we finally get to Barry Bonds and David Walsh’s book.

We should also mention that Pat Burrell is hitting hell out of the ball these days... if we rip him when he's bad, it's only fair to point out when he's playing well.

Stay classy, Cole Hamels

For some reason today feels like a Friday…

Regardless of what day it is, the Phillies have four tough games this weekend against the San Diego Padres, who despite their 52-41 record (one game behind the Dodgers in second place in the NL West) could be the National League’s representative in the World Series.

Yes, the Padres are 52-41 even though they have just one regular player with a batting average over .260 and have a Major League-worst batting average (.242) and on-base percentage (.313) and are next-to-last in slugging. With Adrian Gonzalez, Mike Cameron, Marcus Giles and Khalil Greene as the Padres’ version of a Murders’ Row, it’s easy to see why they have the second-most strikeouts in the league – far more than the free-swinging Phillies.

Yet at the same time it’s easy to see why the Padres are a good pick to get through the National League.

Pitching, pitching and more pitching.

The Padres’ team ERA is 3.13 (2.63 from the bullpen), which leads the Majors by a lot. Better yet, the question isn’t who will win the Cy Young Award in the National League, it’s which Padre does one pick?

Is it Jake Peavy and his 2.30 ERA and 9.36 strikeouts per nine innings? Or is it Chris Young with his 1.97 ERA and 8.78 strikeouts per nine innings? Mix in 40somethings Greg Maddux and David Wells, both of whom are pitching pretty well, and it’s no wonder that the .242 batting average is getting it done.

But the most interesting pitcher on the Padres staff is fifth starter Justin Germano, who as most close followers of the Phillies remember was claimed off waivers by the Padres when the Phillies tried to sneak him back to Triple-A during spring training.

With a 6-3 record, 3.55 ERA and 16 walks in 12 starts have fit in nicely with San Diego. Not to mention the fact that the rookie right-hander went 4-0 with a 1.74 ERA in his first five starts.

For some reason he couldn’t make the Phillies this spring. Perhaps the Pat Gillick and the gang are having second thoughts now? What do you suppose the Phillies will be thinking on Sunday when J.D. Durbin goes to the mound against Peavy?

Better yet, do you think that Germano will be fired up for Friday night’s start? I’m going to go out on a limb and say… yeah probably.

***
As we determined the Phillies are spending the weekend in San Diego which is the hometown of tonight’s starting pitcher Cole Hamels. San Diego is also the adapted hometown of Ron Burgundy, Tony Gwynn, Tony Hawk and Floyd Landis, it has one of the lowest crime rates of all major U.S. cities, and it’s 70 degrees every stinking day of the year. Snow, ice and cold weather are concepts in San Diego, not reality, which means outdoor sports and activities rule.

So why haven’t we all packed up and moved to San Diego?

Good question. Then again, the average price of a home in San Diego is over $600,000… just think how much it would be if everyone moved there.



***
I have a theory that Philadelphia sports fans and French sports fans are uncannily similar. Mostly this is based on the idea that like the French, Philadelphia fans appreciate losers far more than the gifted or talented. To hear Philly folks tell it, the Phillies won the World Series in 1993 and they appreciate the fact that the team lost so dramatically.

The same goes for the French in that they haven’t seen a winner in the Tour de France since 1985, however, riders like Christophe Moreau, Richard Virenque, Laurent Jalabert, Luc Leblanc and Raymond Poulidor were always gallant in their many defeats.

Yes, French sports are like Philadelphia sports. That’s the theory. Since 1936 the French have had won winner of the French Open (Yannick Noah in 1983), but claim Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs and major title tennis player Mary Pierce.

Take away the French National soccer team’s World Cup title in 1998 – and defeat last year – and France faces a championship drought of Philadelphia proportions.

Hey, it’s a half-baked theory with not a lot of research put into it, but I’m sticking to it. After all, Philadelphia has more public art than any other city outside of Paris (or at least it used to… like I said, not much research has gone into this theory).

Anyway, the point is the French will go without a champion at the Tour de France again this year when Moreau was dropped from the peloton and lost considerable time – 3-minutes, 19 seconds – in the overall standings.

Meanwhile, David Zabriskie was eliminated from the race today because he finished more than 30 minutes behind Stage 11 winner Robbie Hunter. Zabriske is a time-trial specialist who held the Yellow Jersey for exactly 52 seconds during the Prologue this year, and held it through the first three stages of the 2005 Tour. This year, however, Zabriskie looked like a contender for the Lanterne Rouge, leading some (like me) to wonder, “What’s with Zabriskie?”

Apparently it was an achy knee that led to Z-Man’s rough showing.

“After the Galibier day I really struggled to try to get better,” Zabriskie said. “I was hoping these few flat days I could nurse it back to health, but the Tour is not the kind of race where you can fix yourself. Today was a really hard day and my knee couldn't handle it. I came off when Astana finally did their rotation in the wind.”

As if that news wasn’t enough, Yellow Jersey holder Michael Rasmussen was kicked off the Danish national cycling team on Thursday because of an alleged disagreement over drug testing.

According to a story in VeloNews:

The director of the Danish Cycling Union (DCU) Jesper Worre told DR1 television station that Rasmussen had received a number of warnings over failing to inform doping authorities over his training whereabouts.

"We consider this case with great seriousness and the executive of the DCU decided that Michael will no longer be part of the national team and he was informed of this on June 26," said Worre.

Rasmussen spends most of his time in Mexico where his wife his from and as the leader of the Tour de France is drug tested after every stage. But, you know, the DCU doesn’t want to have to refer to Google Earth to track down its soon to be ex-patriot.

In Stage 11… sprinters.

Stage 11 Final
1.) Robbie Hunter, Barloworld, South Africa
2.) Fabian Cancellara, CSC, Switzerland, same time
3.) Murilo Fischer, Liquigas, Brazil, s.t.
4.) Filippo Pozzato, Liquigas, Italy, s.t.
5.) Alessandro Ballan, Lampre, Italy, s.t.
6.) Paolo Bossoni, Lampre, Italy, s.t.
7.) Claudio Corioni, Lampre, Italy, s.t.
8.) Philippe Gilbert, Française des Jeux, Belgium, s.t.
9.) William Bonney, Credit Agricole, France, s.t.
10.) Kim Kirchen, T-Mobile, Luxembourg, s.t.

Overall
1.) Michael Rasmussen, Rabobank, Denmark, in 53:11:38
2.) Alejandro Valverde, Caisse d'Epargne, Spain, @ 2:35
3.) Iban Mayo, Saunier Duval, Spain, @ 2:39
4.) Cadel Evans, Predictor-Lotto, Australia, @ 2:41
5.) Alberto Contador, Discovery Channel, Spain, @ 3:08
6.) Carlos Sastre, CSC, Spain, @ 3:39
7.) Andreas Klöden, Astana, Germany, @ 3:50
8.) Levi Leipheimer, Discovery Channel, USA, @ 3:53

One more day of sprinters before the time trial and Pyrenees.

Not much to say

I don’t have much insight on baseball today, especially since it’s become even clearer that the Phillies apparently need to score at least 10 runs a game in order to win. With that in mind there really isn’t much to say about a team that’s goal every game is to kick in another team’s teeth.

That’s pretty black and white.

Speaking of teeth, I spent the morning at the dentist so I missed the Tour coverage. Nevertheless, based on my reading and eyeing up the results it appears as if the sprinters are back for the next few days. The course remains relatively flat until Saturday when the first of two time trials sets the table for three straight days in the Pyrenees.

It seems that the Tour will be decided in the mountains. Can Michael Rasmussen hold on until then? I’m inclined to say no. How about Alejandro Vanverde? Iban Mayo, maybe? Cadel Evans?

I’d say Levi Leipheimer, but he hasn’t yet engaged.

Speaking of engaging one’s self, Floyd Landis was invited to Google's Mountain View, Calif. headquarters to discuss his autobiography, Positively False among other topics. Better yet, those wizards at Google even recorded the chat and put it on the Internet.

Check it out:



Here’s what I found interesting – it seems as if Floyd has become a bit of an ambassador of the sport of cycling in that he has spent the past month barnstorming the country and talking to regular folks about his sport. And I’m not just talking about him talking about his pending arbitration case or anything like that. At least in the chat at Google, Floyd was talking about his sport. There are very few people of his stature and ability doing anything remotely close to that.

Of course if Floyd had his choice he would be getting ready to ride from Marseille to Montpellier on Thursday morning, but alas…

Reflecting on 10,000 losses

If we have said it once we’ve said it a thousand times: stick around long enough and your team will lose some games. And as one of the older clubs in the history of Major League Baseball, the Phillies have lost more games than any other team in professional sports history.

Actually 10,000 of them.

The Phillies, as everyone knows by now, lost their 10,000th game on Sunday night to the St. Louis Cardinals. In fact, the outcome was never in doubt even when the Phillies scored two runs in the ninth inning of the 10-2 loss. Even when images of that game from Dodger Stadium in August of 1990 when the Phillies rallied for nine runs in the ninth to win 12-11 were conjured, no one really thought the Cardinals were going to blow it.

Something like that would have really upset the fans that remained to see a bit of “history,” stomping and clapping with anticipation with each pitch following the second out of the ninth inning.

Nevertheless, the remarkable part regarding the Phillies and all of the losses in the fact that they have been to the World Series just twice since 1980, five times since 1883 and have won it all just once in 124 seasons.

That, folks, is amazing.

But a stroll through the Phillies clubhouse reveals that the players are not really hung up on any of those facts. Better yet, when rookie Kyle Kendrick was asked about winning Friday night’s game to delay the dubious milestone for another time, the 22-year old right-hander just shrugged.

Yeah, sure, he seemed to say, it was really good that I didn’t lose the game that would have been the 10,000th loss in team history. Then again, it didn’t seem like Kendrick really cared about all of the fuss. For one thing Kendrick is 4-0 in his six big league starts for the Phillies so it’s not like he contributed anything to three centuries of baseball futility in Philadelphia.

“He’s done his part,” fellow rookie Mike Zagurski mused to a couple of scribes while relaxing in front of his locker with an amused look on his face as more than a few reporters scurried about in a vain attempt to get someone, anyone to say anything about the Phillies and their 10,000 losses.

But why would they? The elder statesmen of the team are Jimmy Rollins and Pat Burrell who have had nothing but winning seasons since their first full seasons in 2001. Sure, there was that 80-81 year in 2002, but in every season since – save for 2004 – the Phillies have been in the playoff mix all the way to the last week of the season.

Like Burrell and Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard know nothing about playing for a losing Phillies club. Ask them about the frustration about missing the playoffs on the last few games of the season and they have a full range of experience. But being on a losing team? They haven’t been there.

That doesn’t make them too different than nearly every other player to ever pull on the Philadelphia uniform, though. Better yet, the players who actually have been to the playoffs as a member of the Phillies is as select a group as a collection of Nobel Laureates. Actually, the Phillies with playoff experience are a more select group. After all, they give out a bunch of Nobel Prizes every year and at the current rate the Phillies go to the playoffs once every 13.8 years.

That is, of course, if form holds up and they miss out again this season.

Perhaps the point is that since 1883 the Phillies have provided a much more esoteric definition of what winning and losing is. Maybe for the Phillies and their fans victories come in small packages, like that game at Dodger Stadium in 1990 where they scored nine runs in the ninth to win 12-11? Maybe the measure of a true victory is one in which the odds and trends are tipped ever-so slightly for a brief and fleeting moment in time? Aren’t those victories more exhilarating any way? You know, proving people wrong just that one time before returning to the old song and verse…

After all, by now all the followers of the Phillies ought to know that tune by heart.

What's going to work? Team work!

If you’re like me and hang in the pre-school/toddler set, no doubt you are quite familiar with The Wonder Pets! For the uninitiated, The Wonder Pets! is an animated TV show in which three schoolhouse pets – a guinea pig, turtle and duck – hang around in the classroom during school hours, but get into adventures and life-saving capers when the kids are away.

The hook for the show is the theme song with the refrain that goes:

Wonder Pets! Wonder Pets! We're on our way,
To help a baby [featured animal], and save the day.
We're not too big,
And we're not too tough,
But when we work together we've got the right stuff!
Goooooooo Wonder Pets! Yaaaaaaayyyyyyy!

That very song and the theme of The Wonder Pets! show was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard about the Phillies’ valiant effort to pitch in a help the grounds crew at Coors Field yesterday.

By now most followers of the Phillies know what happened. One of those crazy Colorado rainstorms barreled in to Denver and halted the game. But before the crew could get the tarp secured on the field, the wind had swallowed up a handful of people.

“Three guys went underneath, one guy came out, and I was like, ‘Where's those other two people?’” pitcher Adam Eaton told reporters. “Then, I saw their arms come out, and their eyes were as big as plates.”

But before anyone knew what was going on, the entire Phillies team tore onto the field and saved the day.

We're not too big,
And we're not too tough,
But when we work together we've got the right stuff!



Who was nowhere to be found during the entire scene? The Rockies.

“We saved two or three guys there, didn't we?” Charlie Manuel told reporters.

Regardless, this one goes right up there with Maurice Cheeks singing the anthem with that girl in Portland. And to paraphrase Jim Thome, this is what I call “good karma.”

Then again, what's it say about baseball players as a whole if something basic as helping out people in need is lauded in the national press? I guess people normally think baseball players walk around and kick puppies... wait, that's Michael Vick.

For the record the nastiest hailstorm I had ever seen was on the way up Trail Ridge Road outside of Estes Park in the middle of August. It was 85 and blindingly sunny when we left the house to go up Trail Ridge Road, but less than an hour later we were getting pelted with hail the size of canned hams.

***
I missed the end of today’s Stage 2 of the Tour de France because I wanted to get my run finished before the mercury got too far over 90 degrees. That last part didn’t really work because it got hot fast this morning and as a result of my rush to get out the door, I missed the finish where it seems as if there was a crash with about two kilometers to go.

Here's the Belgian TV look at the pile up:



According to reports, Fabian Cancellara went down hard and scraped up his Yellow Jersey, but the top sprinters -- Robbie McEwen, Tom Boonen, Erik Zabel, Oscar Freire, and Robbie Hunter – were in front of the trouble. As a result, Team Quick Step, paced by Boonen, had a deftly maneuvered leadout in motion before the wreck that sewed up the stage for Gert Steegmans.

Yes, it was quite appropriate that two Belgians finished 1-2 in the stage that went from Dunkirk in France to Ghent in Belgium. Better yet it was team leader Boonen leading a teammate to his first ever stage win.

“All year he does work for me,” Boonen said. “I wasn't going to pass him on the line and rob him of a chance for glory.”

A high school friend was an exchange student in Belgium for a year and from what I can tell they all love cycling, sweets and strong beer. Sounds like the Belgians are good people.

Plus, the greatest rider ever is from Belgium.

Stage 2 Final
1.) Gert Steegmans, Quick Step-Innergetic, Belgium
2.) Tom Boonen, Quick Step-Innergetic, Belgium
3.) Fillippo Pozzato, Liquigas, Italy
4.) Robbie Hunter, Barloworld, South Africa
5.) Romain Feillu, Agritubel, France
6.) Robbie McEwen, Predictor-Lotto, Australia
7.) Erik Zabel, Team Milram, Germany
8.) Heinrich Haussler, Gerolsteiner, Germany
9.) Oscar Freire, Spain, Rabobank
10.) Sebastien Chavanel, Française des Jeux

Overall
1.) Fabian Cancellara, Team CSC, Switzerland
2.) Andreas Klöden, Astana, Germany
3.) David Millar, Saunier Duval-Prodir, Great Britain
4.) George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, USA
5.) Bradley Wiggins, Cofidis, Great Britain

Word is that Cancellara injured his wrist in the crash and Hincapie has a nice cut on his knee. Alas, they race again tomorrow. This time they go from Waregem in Belgium to Compiègne, a French city north of Paris. It’s 146 flat miles that are sure to end with another sprint.

How much longer will Cancellara remain in Yellow and when will the contenders like Vinokourov, Leipheimer and the rest make their move? As it looks now, Vino is in prime position to end the decade-long American dynasty.

***
Speaking of the American dynasty, no new news on the Floyd front, but there was a story of note in the San Diego Union-Tribune by Mark Ziegler that we will get into with more depth tomorrow.

For the record, I asked around to newspaper veterans about Ziegler and have been greeted with the same response each time: “He’s good… very thorough.”

He also seems to be one of the few American sportswriters who has even the slightest clue about the issues of doping.

***
I was at the Barnes & Noble this afternoon and noticed that there are a ton of cycling magazines and every single one of them are worlds better than the running magazines. Why can't running be cool, too?

All we need is one more...

Here’s the amazing thing about the Phillies sitting on the verge of 10,000 all-time losses, and it’s not the fact that the Phillies have lost many more games than teams older than them. Certainly the fact that the Phillies are a good seven years older than the Cubs, Braves and Reds and have completely lapped the field in lifetime losses.

No, the remarkable part isn’t the 10,000 losses, a milestone the Phillies can reach with just one more defeat. The remarkable part is that in 124 years the Phillies have won the World Series just one time.

That’s 1-for-124.

Hard to believe, Harry.

***
More than any other regular old Saturday, London appeared to be the most happening place on earth yesterday. Aside from the Wimbledon finals won by Venus Williams or the men’s semis in which Nadal and Federer advanced to today’s title match, there was the Live Earth show at Wembley that featured the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, the Foo Fighters and the Beastie Boys.

London, apparently, was a better alternative than taking the private plane (and large carbon footprint) to the Meadowlands. Let’s see – London or North Jersey? Yeah, tough call.

Of course while all of that was going on, Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland and the CSC team carved up the streets on his way to a dominant victory in the prologue of the Tour de France.

Needless to say, the Tour de France is an interesting idea. Perhaps a Tour de France that starts in California and finishes in Times Square would be just as interesting an idea. Get together the best riders in the world and get them across the United States – how cool would that be?

Maybe they can even do it Cannonball Run style?

Digressing, Cancellara, the world champion time trialist and classics specialist, obliterated the field by 13 seconds and will be in Yellow when the first stage goes the 126 miles from London to Canterbury. My guess is that he won’t have it for very long. In fact, I doubt CSC will try too hard to defend it during Stage 1.

However, during the flat 126 miles (like riding from Lancaster to Philadelphia and back) the sprinters like Cancellara lined up and shadowboxed for the long straightaway rush to the finish. But the Versus coverage was touting Aussie veteran Robbie McEwen throughout the stage as one he could/should contend for even when he fell off the back of the peloton and seemed as if he had been dropped.

Dramatically, though, McEwen made it very interesting.

McEwen, according to Phil Liggett, took an “incredible risk” to get back to the front. In fact, McEwen was nowhere to be found as the sprint began with a kilometer to go. He had to go from the back of the pack, all the around to make his final surge for the win.

Easy like Sunday morning.

Tomorrow the Tour de France goes to France and then leaves again in another flat stage from Dunkirk to Ghent, Belgium covering 104.7 miles.

Prologue Top 12:
1) Fabian Cancellara, Team CSC, Switzerland, 8:50.74
2) Andreas Klöden, Astana, Germany, 9:03.29
3) George Hincapie, Discovery Channel, USA, 9:13.75
4) Brad Wiggins, Cofidis, Great Britain, 9:13.92
5) Vladimir Gusev, Discovery Channel, Russia, 9:15.99
6) Vladimir Karpets, Caisse d'Epargne, Russia
7) Alexandre Vinokourov, Astana, Kazakhstan, 9:20
8) Thomas Dekker, Rabobank, Netherlands, 9:21
9) Manuel Quinziato, Liquigas, Italy, 9:23
10) Benoit Vaugrenard, Française des Jeux, France, 9:23
11) Dave Zabriskie, Team CSC, USA, 9:23
12) José Ivan Gutierrez, Caisse d'Epargne, Spain, 9:23

Stage 1Final
1) Robbie McEwen, Predictor-Lotto, Australia, 4:39:01
2) Thor Hushovd, Crédit Agricole, Norway
3) Tom Boonen, Quick Step, Belgium
4) Sébastien Chavanel, Française des Jeux, France
5) Romain Feillu, Agritubel, France

Overall after two days
1) Cancellara
2) Klöden
3) David Millar, Saunier Duval-Prodir, United Kingdom
4) Hincapie
5) Bradley Wiggins, Cofidis, United Kingdom

Note: McEwen was among the riders caught in the big bottleneck which was caused by a flat tire in a narrow pass of the road. According to reports, McEwen went down and injured his wrist -- it kind makes his rally a little more spectacular.

Here it is:



***
I never understood why local TV news gave the weather report so much air time. After all, it’s just wind they’re talking about. Really, all those maps and dopplers and hype just to talk about the wind.

All it is is wind, people!

But after watching this, I know why:

Oh what a relief it is

To be fair, it wasn’t an ideal situation for Phillies reliever Geoff Geary. With no outs in the seventh inning and nursing a three-run lead, Geary was brought into the game with the bases loaded and nowhere else to go for help.

A little more than an hour later, the three-run lead was a three-run deficit, and Geary was bounced from the game and credited with a blown save while his ERA jumped 69 points. For Geary the outing personified his troubles at home where his ERA 7.71 and opponents are hitting a lusty .333 off him.

But the troubles get deeper for Geary. In his last eight appearances, the right-hander has a 12.27 ERA, which comes on the heels of seven straight outings in which he didn’t allow a single run.

But here comes the really troublesome part for Geary – he has inherited 35 runners this season, which is the second most in the National League. That means when Geary gets into a game, chances are there are already runners on base for him. The fact that he has allowed just nine of those 35 to score is not so bad considering that all three of his inherited runners scored last night.

“I think one of the biggest things that shows up is that we don't give up one, two or three runs,” manager Charlie Manuel said after last night’s game about his relievers. “We give up five, six, seven, eight. I think that's what's showing up. In the seventh inning there, even if they take the lead at 4-3, we've still got plenty of time to win the game.”

No, the 3-for-3 is actually quite awful and it would be difficult to categorize Geary’s season as “good” at this point. But there is a reason why Geary has been in 36 games this season and could top 80 appearances for the second year in a row, and it’s not simply because Manuel doesn’t have any other options.

Pitchers don’t rack up 80-plus outings by being the only choice for certain situations.

***
During his career, Geoff Geary has only contributed four losses to the Phillies’ 9,992 lifetime defeats. That many losses are definitely way too many for just one generation to achieve.

Regardless, the stories to mark the Phillies’ milestone 10,000 lifetime loss are beginning to trickle out in anticipation for the big day, which has even piqued the interest of the national media. In the latest issue of Sports Illustrated a pithy chronicling of some of the more interesting quotes that were delivered after a handful of losses through the years.

I particularly enjoyed the story related from Rex Hudler on former manager Terry Francona.

***
Remember Wally Backman? He played briefly for the Phillies in the early 1990s after making his name with the Mets during the 1980s.

Anywho, Backman actually was hired to manage the Arizona Diamondbacks a few years ago before getting relieved of his duties a few days after his hiring when it was revealed that he had spent time in jail for DUI and pleaded guilty to harrassing a female friend of his family in 2001, and accused of spousal abuse by his ex-wife. He had also filed for personal bankruptcy in 2003.

These days Wally is a long way from the Major Leagues and is managing the South Georgia Peanuts in the independent South Coast League. A few days ago it appears as if Wally had a bit of a problem with the umps and it made the papers…

***
Speaking of making the papers, my Uncle Jim is in pretty good shape. He’s a champion power lifter, was a decent runner and bicyclist, and still is an all-around sharp dude with a personality and sense of humor to match.

What makes this so notable is that my Uncle Jim is dead…

Well, not really. But according to the federal government, my uncle, Jim Johnson is a dead man and he’s spent the last four months trying to prove that he is, indeed, alive.

Check out his story that made the papers and while you’re at it, send him a card to let him know he’s the healthiest dead guy walking around.

***
Finally, an interview with Floyd Landis has been set up for Friday afternoon before his book signing and talk at the Barnes & Noble in Lancaster. Needless to say, it should be a pretty good time…

Let’s just hope that talking to Floyd is nothing like talking to Barry Bonds.

***
Meanwhile, it didn't take Lance Armstrong too long to answer the charges levied in David Walsh's latest book that was drawn on in a Sports Illustrated piece yesterday. Stealing a page from Landis' "Wiki" defense, Armstrong puts all of his information out there for everyone to see and draw their own conclusions.

Check it out here.

The Bat vs. The Rat

Where do we start with this one? After three games in which the Phillies appeared to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory only to rally late to win – and sweep! – the hated New York Mets, it appears as if the Phillies are in this for the long haul.

More interestingly, the Phillies pulled off the sweep while Tom Gordon and Brett Myers were on the shelf and the rest of the gang in the most beleaguered bullpen in the National League stepped up.

Like Antonio Alfonseca notching saves in all three victories.

Like Mike Zagurski throwing a scoreless ninth inning of a tied game after Billy Wagner had blown his first save since last year. That’s not counting the playoffs, of course. As we all remember fondly, Billy blew one in the NLCS against the Cardinals, too.

Like Ryan Madson working three hitless innings in the thick of the games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

Like Geoff Geary pitching himself into and out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning of Wednesday night’s victory.

Phew! Who are these guys and what did they do with the Phillies?

Jokes (kind of) aside, the series against the Mets at Shea had a few moments that will certainly find their way onto Video Dan’s end-of-the-year highlight DVD. Chase Utley’s game-winning homer in the 11th to win Tuesday’s game will be there right next to Jimmy Rollins’ three-run blast in the seventh inning of Wednesday night’s game.

But Pat Burrell’s homer to ruin Wagner’s streak of 31 straight saves is the coup de gras. That one was actually kind of fun(ny). For some reason – and I have no idea why – I take a perverse pleasure in watching Billy Wagner blow a save chance. Maybe there’s something deep there, who knows. Certainly I have nothing against him even though he doesn’t like to be asked about his slider.

Perhaps he doesn’t like to be asked about the 3-2 fastball he fed old pal Pat Burrell, either. After the game, Wagner kind of gave Burrell a backhanded little slap regarding the homer that helped the former Phillie closer and so-called “rat” snatch defeat from a gift-wrapped save.

“He has a one-path swing, and I just put it right in its path,” Wagner offered after the game.

If that’s the case (and it very well might be) does that mean Wagner is not a very smart pitcher? Chances are if he decided to bounce a 3-2 slider that Burrell would have flailed away with his customary rear-out swing that we’ve all come to know so well.

Instead, that one path swing pushed the Phillies to within five games of the lead in the NL East. With exactly 102 games to go, I’m going to suggest that the Phillies need to win 62 more to earn a playoff berth. That’s a .608 winning percentage and there are only four teams in the Major Leagues playing better than .608 ball.

Yes, the Phillies are in it, but they still have a lot of work to do. Another sweep on the road in Kansas City would be a good place to start.

Meanwhile, it was interesting that skipper Charlie Manuel acknowledged that the umps got the call on David Wright’s solo shot off Cole Hamels in the sixth correct before arguing it and getting tossed for the fourth time this season. According to witnesses, the umps had to have watched the replay on the big video screen at Shea Stadium after it was replayed over and over again in slow motion.

Speaking of annoying, is there a more annoying player than Wright or Paul Lo Duca? Lo Duca, of course, seems to annoy a lot of people – at least that’s what has been printed in the papers. But I don’t know what it is about Wright… certainly he is a terrific ballplayer and seems to have surpassed Scott Rolen as the marquee third baseman in the game, however, if my son(s) ever have an interest in playing baseball and want to know how the game is properly played, I’ll direct them to watch Rolen.

Wright just seems to have a Danny Ainge quality to him.

Again, maybe that’s just me.

***
Aside from the shoulder surgery and the fact that he hasn’t been able to focus on being a full-time pitcher, Phillies’ draftee Joe Savery seems like an interesting guy. Based on a conference call with the lefty from Rice University yesterday, the kid sounds confident and expects to be pitching for the Phillies relatively soon.

“I really believe that either by late next year or Opening Day of '09,” he said. “The bottom line is I've never focused on pitching. I relied on athleticism. I'm really excited about the opportunity to focus on pitching and being around professional instruction.”

The Phillies have a track record of not rushing prospects to the big leagues so it will be interesting to see where Savery lands when he signs and how quickly he develops.

***
Is anyone else excited about Jim Thome’s return to Philadelphia next week?

***
Don't ask me how because I have no answer, but I dug up this little nugget about Cole Hamels this afternoon... all I can say is bless that kid.

Bonds hits town again

Typically, Memorial Day is a significant milestone during the baseball season. As the days begin to get hotter and the cooler evenings are spent with a game glowing from a TV fans finally can gauge what they are watching.

Is it a team that is going to keep one’s attention through June, July and the Dog Days of summer with the hope of late-night games in the autumn? Or is a team that is better left for the days when one simply needs to watch a game?

Here in Philadelphia it appears as if the Phillies will keep the collective interests piqued past Labor Day. Whether or not that results in games around Columbus Day or closer to Halloween is still to be determined.

But away from the everyday minutia and rhythms of the team trying to end a 14-year playoff drought is the historical. You know, the types of things that occur once in a lifetime or perhaps once every quarter century or so. The things that baseball fans as well as the larger fabric of the sports’ world deems significant enough to place one of those “Where were you when…” plaques on the memory.

They happen so rarely. In my lifetime I can remember Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb’s record for the most hits in September of 1985. Then there was Cal Ripken Jr. breaking Lou Gehrig’s unbreakable consecutive games streak in September of 1995. I was too young to remember Hank Aaron slugging home run No. 715 in April of 1974, but there is a good chance I’ll be in front of a laptop, television or at the ballpark on the day Barry Bonds surges past Aaron with No. 756.

Having had the chance to watch Bonds come up through Arizona State on rebroadcasts of college games during the early days when ESPN was digging for programming to fill the spots between episodes of Vic’s Vacant Lot and Dick Vitale, to his blossoming to a perennial MVP in Pittsburgh, this should be a major event.

Should, of course, is the operative word.

Yet like a lot of folks who follow baseball closely and even the most casual of fans, Bonds’ ascent to become the all-time Home Run King is more of a nuisance than significant event. It’s more spectacle than a historical event. Just like most fans I don’t know if Bonds surpassing Aaron should make me angry or just join in with the chorus of yawns that seem to be echoing from every spot on the map outside of the seven square miles surrounded by reality called San Francisco.

Certainly the debate over the importance of Bonds’ taking over the home run record is better served in the hands (and brains) of smarter people than me. That much is evident. So too is the reaction that Bonds will receive when he arrives in Philadelphia with the Giants for the four-game series to be played at Citizens Bank Park this weekend. Certainly Bonds will hear louder boos than J.D. Drew ever heard in his travels to play against the Phillies.

Nevertheless, instead of summer where baseball fans should rally around a significant milestone in the long history of the game, they have decided to ignore its biggest villain. Warranted or not, Bonds has slipped through the sports’ fans consciousness until he shows up in their hometown. Then they come out to boo.

But then again, even the commissioner of baseball says he hasn’t decided whether or not he will be on hand to witness the crowning of the new home run king. That, in itself, is odd. Since Bud Selig is presiding over the game during the so-called steroid era, he should be there when its poster boy breaks one of the game’s most sacred records.

It’s also possible that Bonds will inch closer to the record, too. Standing at 746 as of this writing, computer projections indicate that the record will fall before Independence Day. But unlike the Framers who gathered in Philadelphia on that sweltering day in July of 1776 whose place in history was never in question, it doesn’t appear as if Bonds’ legacy will be liberated from the clutches of public doubt any time soon.

Be careful for what you wish for

The New York papers are getting a lot of mileage out of Jimmy Rollins’ proclamation that the Phillies were the team to beat in the NL East. Like a sadistic zoo keeper poking an angry bear with a stick, the New York scribes have been prodding everyone about the Phillies’ chances in 2007. David Wright has chimed in. Billy Wagner, to a degree, did too.

Don’t think that Mets won’t use Rollins’ words as bulletin board fodder during the dog days of the season. Athletes, after all, will use anything available for motivation.

Be that as it is, Murray Chass of The New York Times was seen lurking around the Phillies’ camp where he did some poking and prodding of his own. Don’t think for a second that the players didn’t know where Chass was from and what he was doing.

Aside from attempting to eke out answers from Chase Utley, Aaron Rowand and Ryan Howard, Chass also cornered former Phillie Randy Wolf, who he labeled a “neutral observer.” In the story, Wolf said:

“The Phillies are going to be a strong team. But you can’t argue with what the Mets did last year. It was like the Braves before that. Until someone dethroned them, they were always the team to beat. Now the Mets are the team in control of the National League East. They’re obviously the one to beat.”

Looking into those words there is one element that people might be sleeping on a little bit in the supposed dog fight between the Mets and Phillies… aren’t the Braves still in the NL East?

Last I checked the Braves won the division 14 out of the last 15 seasons (14 in a row until the Mets finally broke through). During that decade-and-a-half there were a handful of seasons where pundits called one team or another the one to beat. Remember 2003 when the Phillies got Jim Thome and Kevin Millwood in the same month? I recall Pat Burrell saying after he signed his big contract (the one he is still cashing in on) that winter that the Phillies were the team to beat. Actually, Burrell was asked, “Are you guys the team to beat this year?”

He said: “We gotta be, right?”

Well…

The Phillies were the team to beat in 2004, too. Heading into the season that team was stocked with new additions Tim Worrell and Billy Wagner stabilizing the bullpen and joining Thome, Millwood, Bobby Abreu, Rollins and an assorted bunch of veterans.

During the last weekend of the season the manager of that team was fired.

Go figure... it's warm in Florida

Let’s start with what you are going to see in the first dispatches from the Phillies’ training camp in sunny Clearwater, Florida. They pitchers will be doing the requisite calisthenics and running along the outfield grass. They will be images of them smiling and laughing while playing catch – maybe even a whoop or holler from a hitter as the crack of the bat gives off the aurality of a shotgun report as a line drive rockets toward US-19.

It’s fun just imaging it.

But then it happens. Some TV reporter – or maybe even a coach or player – will come on the screen with a Cheshire-cat grin as they inform viewers that the current temperature is 68 degrees and the weekly forecast is only calling for temps in the mid-60s.

“Getting a little chilly down here,” someone will condescendingly spit through that grin.

Frankly, those moves are nothing more than the refuge of an ultimate hack, so get ready for it. Just resist the urge to shout back at the TV, “Hey Hack, I guess you’re trying to point out that it gets warm in Florida. Right? Gee, I didn’t know that. Guess what? It snows in Pennsylvania during the middle of February. Sometimes it even gets cold and I didn’t even have to get the meteorological society stamp of approval to figure that one out. Now get back to your 30-second ‘report’ while I sit here and wait for the 17 minutes of weather in a 22-minute ‘news’ report.”

Thanks for indulging that little rant. I do it so you don’t have to.

Anyway, here are the other stories you can expect to read (and then hear) about this week from Clearwater:

Pat Burrell’s health, outlook for 2007, whether he can “protect” Ryan Howard and his thoughts on Mike Schmidt’s assessment of his game. No, there will be no shortage of Pat Burrell reports this spring/season.

The bullpen – specifically, who is the set-up man. Will Antonio Alfonseca or Ryan Madson be able to fill that role or will the Phillies have to make a trade to get that much-coveted reliever?

Who is the odd man out in the rotation? Is Jon Lieber on the block or is Adam Eaton going to the ‘pen? To a lesser degree, can 44-year old Jamie Moyer continue to rack up the innings and be an effective fifth starter?

Better yet, can 23-year old Cole Hamels continue to pitch as well as he did to close the 2006 season or is he doomed to suffer another injury? Has Brett Myers really “matured” or will he resort to his old habits when the new contract and season settles in?

Ryan Howard and the long-term contract issue… Let’s see if he turns out to be more like Willies Stargell and McCovey than Joe Charboneau or Bob Horner.

Charlie Manuel’s contract. In the last season of a three-year deal most fans would be content to let the skipper walk away. However, most fans don’t go into the Phillies’ clubhouse.

Who is going to be the every day catcher?

Who is going to be the every day third baseman?

Most importantly, are the Phillies really ready to challenge the Mets and the Braves in the NL East?

So many questions and a lot of fun trying to figure out the answers.

Phillies Round Out Rotation with Eaton

Pat Gillick has not been very shy about expressing his disdain for the current crop of free agents on the market. Actually, Gillick was a bit underwhelmed by his choices last year, too, when he said his priority was to find a top-of-the-rotation starter for the Phillies.

“Sometimes we can get everything we want, but sometimes nothing materializes,” the Phils’ GM said.

Nonetheless, another year has passed and Gillick and the Phillies still have not made any changes at the top of the rotation. Jon Lieber, Brett Myers, Cole Hamels and Jamie Moyer hold down the same spots as they did at the end of the 2006 season. The only difference is that Adam Eaton, the club’s first-round draft pick in 1996, will finally start a season in the Phillies’ rotation.

Of course there was a decade of climbing through the minors, a trade to San Diego and then another to Texas before finally getting his chance to pitch for the Phillies, yet Eaton is finally here after the official announcement of his new deal with the team that drafted him.

Eaton, still just 29 years old, is guaranteed $24.5 million over the next three seasons, the team announced on Thursday afternoon. The oft-injured right-hander joins the Phillies after starting just 13 games for the Rangers in 2006 after undergoing surgery on the middle finger of his pitching hand last April. In that Baker’s dozen of starts, Eaton went 7-4 with a 5.12 ERA, but has gone 18-9 over the past two years and 37 starts.

Eaton also had elbow surgery in July of 2001 that kept him off the field until September of 2002. Meanwhile, Eaton missed a few starts in 2005 with a strained middle finger on is right hand before having surgery on it in April of 2006. In all, Eaton has been on the disabled list six times during his career.

Regardless, the Phillies just committed three seasons and $24.5 million to a pitcher who has never had an ERA lower than 4.08 or thrown 200 innings in any of his seven Major League seasons. In fact, Eaton has made more than 30 starts just twice.

“We’re very happy to have Adam in the fold,” Gillick said in a statement. “He stabilizes our rotation and will complement the rest of our staff nicely.”

So unless there is an unforeseen trade or signing, the Phillies rotation for 2007 is set. That, however, doesn’t mean Gillick doesn’t have some work to do before the team heads to Clearwater in mid February. Or even the winter meetings in Orlando, Fla. next week.

“We’ll have to wait and see. We have a few lines out there trying to acquire what we need,” Gillick offered during a conference call on Thursday evening. We want to go out fishing and we have a few proposals out there. We’re looking for some bullpen help and a hitter.”

The Phillies’ needs certainly do not need to be decoded. With five starters with Major League experience, four outfielders and five infielders, the Phillies are set in those aspects. The bullpen, on the other hand, is incomplete and Gillick says he wouldn’t mind bolstering the team’s catching (Mike Piazza?) in addition to acquiring that much-talked about hitter (Mike Piazza?).

Let's make a deal?
But outside of landing Eaton and part-time third baseman Wes Helms, Gillick has whiffed as if he were Pat Burrell with two on and two outs. The team was interested in 40-40 man Alfonso Soriano until the Cubs came in and offered him an eight-year deal that made him the second-richest Chicagoan behind Oprah.

With Soriano gone, the team was rumored to be one of a handful of teams in the mix for Carlos Lee until he decided to go to Houston for six years and $100 million. After that news dropped, Gillick claimed the Phils weren’t so involved in bidding for Lee despite the fact that the slugger was as steady performer during his career. Sure, there are/were fair concerns over Lee’s fitness and attitude, but if Gillick and the gang are looking for protection for MVP Ryan Howard as they say they are, the new Astro would have fit in nicely in Philadelphia.

But for six years and $100 million?

Secretly, or maybe not so secretly, Gillick and the Phillies brass must have breathed a sigh of relief that Lee signed such an obnoxious deal with the Astros. While publicly downplaying the market, Gillick has a few built-in excuses and the luxury of being sane (and right) for not shelling out the mega years and bucks for Soriano and Lee. After all, Burrell already has one of those crazy deals.

And as far as trading that crazy deal to another team… well, good luck.

“We don’t have a lot to trade,” Gillick said. “We have the four outfielders (Burrell, Aaron Rowand, Shane Victorino and Jeff Conine), and the five infielders (Howard, Helms, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Abraham Nunez). We need to add. We don’t have the surplus to trade.”

Besides, published reports indicate that Burrell will only waive his no-trade clause to go to the Yankees, Red Sox or a west-coast club.

So there’s another strike. Mix in the rescinded multi-year offer to reliever Joe Borowski over reported arm trouble revealed in a team physical and Gillick is fouling off some tough ones.

“I’m not really sure with what’s going on out there is everyone is looking for the same commodity,” Gillick said. “Everyone is looking for a starter. Unless someone can trade for a reliever for a starter or a starter for a reliever I can’t see a lot of action going on. If you have some pitching you don’t want to give it up.”

That goes for the reserves in the minor leagues, too. Gillick said the team would be reluctant to deal away a prospect like Gio Gonzalez for a short-term fix.

At the same time, Gillick says one of those proposals the team has dangled out there has not been offered to former Reds closer David Weathers.

Needless to say, there’s work to do.

“We’re optimistic, but I can’t make any assurances or commitments that [anything is] going to happen,” Gillick said.

But at least for now, Gillick and the Phillies can be satisfied that some of holiday shopping is taken care of with Eaton’s arrival. Plus, with the re-acquisition of the team’s 1999 Paul Owens Award winner, the Phillies staff might not have changed at the top but it’s better than it was when 2006 began.

“I don’t look at the other teams in the division or the league, but from where we were from the beginning of the ’06 season we have five starters who have [Major League] experience. We have starters with experience,” Gillick said. “We didn’t have that last year.

“From the quality standpoint we have a better rotation that we had at the beginning of last year. What we have to do is work on the bullpen.”

Pitchers and catcher report in 11 weeks.

Blast from the past II

Note: In our continuing "Blast from the past" series, here's the story from July 29, 2002 when ALCS MVP was traded to the Phillies. As everyone remembers, there was another player or two involved in that deal, which makes the story a lot longer. This one is a beast, so clear your schedule and order in if you want to attempt to delve through.

'I've Died and Gone to Heaven... ' Phillies Deal 'Excited' Scott Rolen to St. Louis
After months of speculation, tons of rumors and lots of innuendo, the Phillies have finally traded Scott Rolen. Once viewed as the rightful heir to Mike Schmidt's throne at third base and as the cornerstone of a franchise on the way up, Rolen left town after an acrimonious season-and-a-half where the luster was chipped away from the city's one-time golden boy.

And Rolen, as stated in an interview with ESPN.com's Peter Gammons, could not be happier about the trade.

"I felt," he said to Gammons upon hearing the news about the trade on Monday night, "as if I'd died and gone to heaven. I'm so excited that I can't wait to get on the plane (Tuesday morning) and get to Florida to join the Cardinals."

For Rolen, Triple-A reliever Doug Nickle and an undisclosed amount of cash, the Phillies have obtained infielder Placido Polanco, lefthanded pitcher Bud Smith and reliever Mike Timlin, general manager Ed Wade announced in a spare conference room in the bowels of Veterans Stadium on Monday.

But more than receiving three players in return for the game's best defensive third baseman, the Phillies have ended a once-happy marriage that seemed destined to end with a ceremony in Cooperstown and his No. 17 hung on a commemorative disc beyond the outfield wall.

Instead, it ended in a soap-operatic mess filled with more whispered back-biting than an episode of Dynasty. With the dust finally clearing, the Phillies have lost their best player and receive a lefthanded pitcher in Smith who threw a Major League no-hitter last Sept. 3 but is still only in Triple-A, a one-time closer in Timlin who is eligible for free agency at the end of the season and might again be dealt before the season ends and an infielder in Polanco who is more akin to line-drive hitting Marlon Anderson than the powerful Rolen.

And it marks the second time since 2000 that the Phillies have lost a player worth the price of a season ticket. Almost two years to the day, Wade dealt Curt Schilling to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Travis Lee, Vicente Padilla, Omar Daal and Nelson Figueroa. Since the deal, Schilling has won a ring and composed a 45-14 record.

Once Spring Training was in full swing, Wade knew Rolen was not going to be a Phillie in 2003.

"I knew in Spring Training that we had a zero chance to get anything done," Wade said.

In brokering the deal, Wade admits that the Phillies are giving up a lot, but he's more interested in the players the team has now opposed to the players they once had.

"We did not replace Scott Rolen with an All-Star, Gold Glove third baseman, but we did replace him with a very good baseball player, and we got some other guys who should help us,'' Wade said.

In adding Rolen, Cardinals GM Walt Jocketty believes his club has added the piece of the puzzle needed to finish off the rest of the NL Central. With a five-game lead over the second-place Cincinnati Reds, Rolen not only picks up a lot of ground in the standings, but also seems slated for his first-ever appearance in the playoffs. This fact should satisfy Rolen, who said during a cantankerous press conference at the beginning of spring training that the Philles were not committed to winning.

"We are very pleased and excited to add Scott Rolen to our lineup," Jocketty said in a statement. "He is an All-Star, a proven run producer and an excellent defensive player."

In a quickly assembled press conference in which only Wade spoke, the GM broke down his side of the negotiations and relayed Rolen's feelings about the deal. After returning to Philadelphia from Atlanta where Rolen belted a home run in a victory over the Braves (wearing a throwback, powder-blue Phils uniform, no less) on Sunday, the new Red Bird was trying to figure out how to get to Miami where he will make his debut against the Marlins on Tuesday.

"He said he appreciated the opportunity and the organization and wondered where he goes from here and how he gets there," Wade said. "He was fairly single-minded in getting his gear and getting on an airplane and making sure that he was with the Cardinals in Florida in time for the game [Tuesday]."

Like Rolen's last season in Philadelphia, Wade said the negotiations with the Cardinals were quite tempestuous with each club making concessions. According to Wade, trade talks between the Cardinals and Phillies broke down without a deal at 11 p.m. in Sunday night and that as of Monday afternoon, the Phils were currently negotiating a deal with an unnamed team until the Cardinals jumped back into the fray.

"We were one phone call away from Scott not being a Cardinal and going somewhere else," said Wade.

The Phillies' GM faced the prospect of getting nothing for his star if Rolen stayed in Philadelphia. If the new basic agreement between players and owners includes a redesign of the the First-Year Player Draft, it's possible that it will eliminate compensatory draft picks for teams that lose free agents.

"At some point you have to say the deal that sits in front of me is good enough that it outweighs gambling that something better is going to be out there 48 hours from now," said Wade. "The players were right."

According to Wade, the deal was finalized at 5 p.m. on Monday and was announced officially at 6:30 p.m. With Monday being an off day in the National League, all players will be with their respective teams by Tuesday. Smith will report to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and will start either on Wednesday or Thursday.

Still, Wade says the deal occurred because the Phillies were very aggressive. Some teams, he claims, "moved out of the process because of the ebb and flow of the labor situation." He categorized the Cardinals as one of those teams as well as six others that he claims he was talking to.

Rolen had been the subject of trade rumors after deciding not to negotiate on a multi-year extension that Wade categorized on Monday as a "lifetime deal." The Phillies report that they were anticipating giving Rolen a 10-year contract extension last November that could've been worth up to $140 million. Rolen ended up signing an $8.6 million, one-year deal in January that kept him and the Phillies away from an arbitration hearing, but made it clear he wanted to become a free agent after this season. That decision forced the Phillies to make a move or risk losing him for nothing.

"I regret the outcome," Wade said. "We were very serious about the offer we made and when that didn't work out we tried to get him to sign a two-year guaranteed contract with player options. We regret the outcome but don't regret the way we approached him."

In reality, the Phillies never offered the 10-years and $140 million they keep touting. Instead, it the guaranteed portion of the offer was six years, $72 million. The deal stretched to 10 years and to $140 million only if one included all the options and incentives and buy-outs in the package, all structured in the club's behalf.

Surely it's not a deal to sneeze at, but nowhere close to the "lifetime" contract Wade and his minions keep throwing out there.

Art of the Deal
Rolen did not sign an extension with the Cardinals, so he remains eligible for free agency. However, when rumors reached fervor on Saturday, Rolen said he would be interested in signing a contract extension with the Cardinals.

About signing, potentially, with the Cardinals, Rolen said on Saturday that the Red Birds were one of the teams he would consider.

"We all know that is a situation I'd be willing to talk about," Rolen said on Saturday.

On Monday, he was a lot less ambiguous with his comments as told to Gammons. Growing up in Jasper, Ind., Rolen says he went to two parks as a kid — St. Louis and Cincinnati.

"I was there at Busch with my dad, sitting in the stands wherever we could get a seat, watching Ozzie Smith," Rolen said. "It may be the best place to play in the game, and it's the place I always dreamed of playing.

"As I said, I've gone to heaven."

And dropping him in the middle of the Cardinals' powerful lineup looks like hell for opposing pitchers. When the Cardinals come to the Vet on Aug. 16 for a three-game set, Rolen should bat fifth in a lineup that looks something like this:

Fernando Vina, 2b
Edgar Renteria, ss
Jim Edmonds, cf
Albert Pujols, lf
Rolen, 3b
J.D. Drew, rf
Tino Martinez, 1b
Mike Matheny, c

Signing potential free agents hasn't been a problem for the Cardinals, who play in front of well-mannered fans in a baseball-crazy city. In the last five years, the Cardinals traded for potential free agents Jim Edmonds and Mark McGwire and convinced them to stay in St. Louis long-term.

However, while Wade says there were numerous suitors all clamoring for Rolen's services, ComcastSportsNet.com sources indicate otherwise. According to one well-placed baseball executive, if a deal with the Cardinals wasn't consummated, Rolen would still be wearing the red-and-white Phillie pinstripes.

"I really searched for another team that was interested and I couldn't find one," the source says. "The Phillies were trying to create a market for Rolen that didn't exist."

Originally, rumors circled that the Phillies were going to receive Double-A prospect Jimmy Journell, who is rated as the Cardinals' top up-and-comer by Baseball America. However, a source says that Journell was never part of any deal. Instead, the source says, the Cardinals were not going to make a deal with the Phillies unless Timlin — a free agent when the season ends — was included in the deal.

But Wade says it was Smith who was the "deal buster."

"He was the key part of the deal," Wade said.

Like the other rumors, it was reported that a deal with another club would not occur if the Phillies had to pay the remainder of Rolen's contract or if he couldn't work out a contract extension with an interested club.

Not at all true.

"I wish I kept a list of all the misinformation," Wade said.

The Players
Polanco, 26, is hitting .284 with five homers and 27 RBIs. He batted .307 last season and .316 in his first full year, in 2000. Wade said he'd play third base and bat second in the Phillies' lineup against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night.

Polanco is a slick fielder who plays three infield positions and leads third basemen in fielding chances. However, he has played too many games at short and second to qualify for the league lead. A prototypical contact hitter, Polanco has struck out just 26 times in 92 games this season.

Smith, who pitched a no-hitter in his rookie season last year, was sent to Triple-A Memphis on July 20 after going 1-5 with a 6.94 ERA in 11 appearances, including 10 starts. The 22-year-old lefthander was 6-3 with a 3.83 ERA in 16 games last year.

In his last outing in the big leagues on July 19, Smith allowed eight runs and nine hits in 4 2/3 innings in a loss to the Pirates.

Smith is best compared to Randy Wolf.

"He's a surplus prospect," Wade said.

Timlin is 1-3 with a 2.51 ERA in 42 appearances and is holding righties to a .197 average. The 36-year-old righthander is in the final year of a contract that is paying him $5.25 million this season. In 1996 he saved 31 games for the Toronto Blue Jays and has saved 114 games during his 11-year Major League career. However, this season he has blown two saves working primarily in middle relief.

Timlin won two World Series' with the Blue Jays and appeared in two games of the 1993 series against the Phillies.

Nickle, 27, was 3-5 with a 2.97 ERA and seven saves in 34 games — one of them a start — at Scranton this season. He appeared in four games — 4 1/3 innings pitched — for the Phillies this season and has made 10 career major-league appearances.

Glory Days
When Scott Rolen came to Philadelphia as a fresh-faced 21-year old, he was too good to be true. He played hard, possessed Midwestern, homespun values and spoke about fair play and hard work. If he was going to do something, he said, he was going to do it all out and to win.

Philadelphia fans immediately latched onto the quiet kid from Jasper, Ind.

After winning the Rookie of the Year Award in 1997, Rolen signed a four-year, $10 million deal with the idea that he was going to be a Phillie for life. In fact, Rolen signed for far less than he could have gotten because he believed the Phillies were on the right path and he was enamored with the idea that he was going to be like his kindred spirit, Mike Schmidt, and spend his entire career in Philadelphia.

But all those losing seasons caught up with Rolen. So too did the firing of mild-mannered manager Terry Francona, who is a close friend of Rolen's. Meanwhile, Rolen's quiet nature in a city full of loud and sometimes abrasive sports fans, wore thin on both sides. Sensitive and thoughtful, Rolen chose to do his talking on the field or in the clubhouse — nowhere else. Philly fans wanted their rough-and-tumble athletes' personas to translate to a give-and-take relationship with the city that Rolen was not willing to have. His family (and his dogs, Enis and Emma) came first and nothing else was a close second.

When prodigal son and fan-favorite Larry Bowa was hired as the team's skipper, many speculated when he and his sensitive third baseman would clash. It didn't take long.

In June of 2001 during a series against Tampa Bay, Bowa told the Philadelphia Daily News that Rolen's recent futility at the plate was "killing us." Rolen took the criticism not as constructive but intended to embarrass him and had it out with the manager before a game against the Devil Rays.

"I came in here with the intent of kicking your ass," Rolen reportedly told Bowa as he walked into the manager's office that day.

Their relationship remained strained ever since and the soap opera began in earnest.

Later that year, Phillies executive assistant and manager of the hard-boiled manager of 1980 World Championship team, Dallas Green, told a radio station that Rolen was OK with being a "so-so" player and that his personality would not allow him to be a great player.

After the season, Rolen summed up the 2001 campaign as the worst he ever went through and cited Bowa and Green as the main culprits in his dissatisfaction. His ire manifested itself during an edgy press conference to kick off spring training.

There, Rolen held a press conference to explain why he opted for free agency questioning what he thought was the team's commitment to winning.

"Philadelphia is the [fourth-largest] market in the game, and I feel that for the last however long, the organization has not acted like it," Rolen said in February. "There's a lack of commitment to what I think is right."

Rolen pointed out that the Phillies, who entered the season with a payroll around $60 million that ranks in the bottom third of all Major League franchises, were notorious for allowing players of star quality walk away when their contracts are about to expire. It happened two seasons ago with Curt Schilling and he wasn't so sure it was going to stop now, he said.

"Part of my whole problem is that I look around and see Bobby Abreu, I see Pat Burrell, I see Doug Glanville and Mike Lieberthal and this is the core that's been talked about for three or four years," Rolen said then. "These are unbelievable ballplayers. But three years from now, when everybody becomes a free agent or arbitration-eligible and it's time to re-sign everybody, I want to turn around and see Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell and Doug Glanville and Mike Lieberthal. To me, what history shows, I will not be able to do that."

Not unless they are playing for the Cardinals.

What followed over the next six weeks were a few public discussions with Bowa and a miserable slump in May and June that turned his .284 April into a .240 average by the end of May. In June, an unnamed teammate reportedly called Rolen a "cancer" and that his status was a distraction to the team.

However, things haven't been all bad for Rolen this season. He started in his first-ever All-Star Game and is on pace to drive in over 100 runs for the second year in a row and third time of his career and belt 25 homers for the fifth season in a row.

But the constant circus around his future was starting to drain him, he told Gammons.

"I think I must have been asked more questions than the rest of the team combined," Rolen said. "It was crazy. In spring training, all the way back to the winter, it was that way. Before the All-Star break, I know I was a little down. I shouldn't have been, but having people leaning on both my shoulders all the time drained me.

"People would tell me that I needed to be more selfish, to play for numbers. But that's not the way I know how to play. I'm not good at playing for numbers, I'm not good at playing for myself. To go from last place to first is more than I ever could have dreamed."

The Future
Even with Polanco in the fold, Wade says the Phillies go into the offseason in a position they haven't been familiar with in almost a decade.

"We go into the offseason for the first time in nine years potentially looking for a third baseman," Wade said.

For now, Wade says his concern is to build for the future and not look into the past that saw superstars Curt Schilling and now Rolen leave amidst acrimony.

"I don't think we did anything to necessarily make the player unhappy,'' Wade said. "We're always trying to do things the right way. We're always trying to make our players comfortable. We're always trying to compensate them fairly. We're always trying to bring teammates around that they are comfortable playing with and gives us a better chance of winning.''

He certainly has given Rolen that chance now ... problem is, it isn't in Philadelphia.

E-mail John R. Finger

Blast from the past

Note: Watching Jeff Suppan win the MVP of the NLCS made me remember the 2003 season when the veteran right-hander almost became a Phillie. Upon some digging through the archives, I unearthed this story from July 31, 2003 about why Suppan ended up in Boston, and then ultimately St. Louis. Anyway, here's a little trip down amnesia lane.

Wade Stands Pat as Trade Deadline Passes
As the trade deadline passed with nary a whisper, general manager Ed Wade sauntered from the batting cage to the Phillies' dugout like a fifth grader asked to come to the board and figure out a math problem in front of the whole class. Sure, he absolutely knows the answer, but he isn't too jazzed about showing everyone his logic.

On Thursday, before the game against the Dodgers at the Vet, Wade had to explain how he thought the Phillies were better by not pulling the trigger on a rumored deal with the Pirates in which starter Jeff Suppan would have come to Philadelphia. Instead, Suppan ended up with the Red Sox, while highly coveted starter Sidney Ponson — who the Phillies never showed an interest in — went from the Orioles to the Giants.

Meanwhile, Wade stuck to his guns. During the past two days, the general manager told reporters that he believed his club was good enough to go to the playoffs without making a deal. With 55 games left in the season, we'll all get a chance to see if Wade's logic fits.

"We assessed our needs and said, 'we like our pitching. We're second in the league in pitching. Our bullpen is second. We went out and added [Mike] Williams because we wanted to add strength to strength and another experienced arm,'" Wade said. "We have the third best record in the league, sixth best record in baseball, second leading ERA, third in defense."

However, it does seem as if Suppan would make the Phillies' rotation better. The right-hander is 10-7 with a 3.57 ERA this season, with three complete games and two shutouts during an ongoing five-game winning streak. He shut out St. Louis, 3-0, on Monday.

Had Wade been able to pull of the deal, Suppan would have supplanted Thursday night's starter Brandon Duckworth in the rotation. With a 3-5 record and a 5.16 ERA, Duckworth's season has been a parade of setbacks and bad outings. Once a promising prospect that flashed stretches of brilliance during his three seasons in the big leagues, Duckworth is obviously the weak link of the team's staff.

Nonetheless, by not making a deal to acquire another starter Wade has given the maligned right-hander a vote of confidence.

"I think that Brandon is the kind of guy that if other teams had him, he wouldn't be the fifth starter," Wade explained. "He wouldn't be the guy that gets skipped in the rotation because of off days. Obviously, we need him to step up and pitch like he did in his last start and that would be more than enough for us."

Wade says the Phillies and the Pirates had been talking since the beginning of the week, but the talks broke off Thursday morning. He also said that Yankees GM Brian Cashman called and offered third baseman Robin Ventura to the Phillies late Wednesday night, but the offer was nothing more than a cursory one.

The same can be said for a rumored deal that would have sent Brian Giles from the Pirates to the Phillies. Ultimately, the asking price was too much and the Pirates had other places they could shop.

"[Pittsburgh GM David Littlefield] indicated that they had another deal that made more sense," Wade said. "People that we were talking to said they had alternatives. It was never just a one-on-one situation where we were the perfect fit."

The problem, it seems, was the asking price. Wade was not willing to part with stud prospects Gavin Floyd and Cole Hamels, or Triple-A pitcher Ryan Madson. According to reports, it would have taken Madson and another minor leaguer to get Suppan, and Wade as well as manager Larry Bowa acknowledge that several teams had called about a deal involving the studs.

"Some teams don't even ask [about Floyd and Hamels] because they know we'll say no," Wade said. "Untouchable is a very strong word, but in the circumstance in which we were dealing here, we weren't going to move them.

"We think that Ryan Madson is going to be a major-league starter for a long time and he's very close. You also have to project time tables of when they're going to arrive and he's very close."

Said Bowa on Floyd and Hamels: "I don't like to use the word untouchable, but it would have been stupid to trade those two guys."

In the clubhouse, Bowa relaxed and joked with reporters while watching the up-to-the-minute deals teams were making around the league. Periodically, Bowa would announce how much time was left before the deadline and was quick to point out that he was not disappointed his GM failed to make a move.

"It's not like someone said, 'hey, you are going to get Joe Schmoe and it's 90 percent going to happen.' And I was all pumped up and Eddie came in and said it didn't go through," Bowa said. "There were never any false pretenses. Eddie has been straight and honest."

Regardless, public outcry has been that the Phillies needed to make a move before the stretch run. Some suggest that if Wade had been able to make a deal, it would have had invigorated the fans and maybe the players.

"I'm sure that sentiment exists. That sentiment may exist with some players in the clubhouse. It's human nature to want to be the best you can be. It's human nature to want the club to turn out to be the '27 Yankees. [But] you can't operate like that," Wade said. "With all due respect to the fans or anybody else, I think we pay as much attention to the composition of our club as anybody."

Not that anyone else will ever get to see.

Injury update
After straining his groin running the bases in the first inning of Wednesday night's victory over the Dodgers, Jim Thome sat out of Thursday's game. He said he was available to pinch hit and should be back in the lineup on Friday.

Meanwhile, David Bell took batting practice for the first time since going on the disabled list with an injured back on July 12.

Reliever Rheal Cormier was unavailable to pitch Wednesday night because of back spasms. He reports that he feels "fine."

Other notes
Hector Mercado cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on July 21 when the Phillies acquired Mike Williams. He has accepted an assignment to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and has 72 hours to report.

Bowa taped a segment for ESPN's "Hot Seat" before Thursday's game. The minute-long appearance features sports figures answering quick questions. Bowa says he was asked to give the first impression that came to his mind when he heard certain names. To "Tug McGraw," Bowa responded with "flake." To "Scott Rolen," Bowa said "the best defensive third baseman I have ever seen."

Insert your own comment here.

E-mail John R. Finger