Unlike Dodgers' Dope on a Rope, Phillies Have Heart

PHILADELPHIA -- They wear red for a reason. The Phillies have become the lifeblood of successive Octobers, a team with a heart bigger than Rocky Balboa, a gang with an edge like south Philly, a cause that doesn't crack like the Liberty Bell or Donovan McNabb, all managed by a country savant who sounds a bit like Ricky Bobby. Bruce Springsteen played across the street the other night, and when the folks discovered that Dodgers manager Joe Torre was watching a fellow sixty-something rock the house, they busted into a "Beat L.A.!" chant that could have drowned out Jungleland.

There is much to love in Citizens Bank Park, a warm and cozy yard in a hard, crusty town. There was much less to admire in the National League Championship Series about the Dodgers, feeding directly into why the Phillies completed a 4-games-to-1 romp Wednesday night, this while rowdies tried to climb greased lightpoles and frothed to finally resolve a lifelong inferiority complex against New York in the World Series. All you need to know about the Phillies is that every player crowded on the top step of the dugout when it mattered most, symbolizing the unity and camaraderie of the first team to win a repeat NL pennant in 13 years.

"We have one more step," said Ryan Howard, the series MVP. "Then we got action."

"What an amazing group of people," said general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., pointing at the players as they surrounded a makeshift stage after the 10-4 slaughter. "You guys in this city deserve to have this group of great, great people."

"I'm not standing here without those men right there," said Charlie Manuel, the manager, who was serenaded with "Charlie! Charlie!" chants from fans who originally didn't know what to make of him or his drawl. "I can get used to it. We got one more to go -- and we're going to get it!"

And all you need to know about Manny Ramirez, the fast-fading star of Mannywood? Oh, he was taking a shower when it mattered most.

"I feel great. I feel like I accomplished all I wanted to accomplish," Manny said early this morning after the Diodgers were eliminated feebly and he had done little to prevent that fate -- in the year of his steroids bust.

We'll have several days to explain why Phillies vs. Yankees might be the hottest (and coldest) Series in years, a matchup between the bloated Bronx behemoths and the defending Series champions from the Pennsylvania shadows. What needs to be performed today is the burial of Ramirez, the steroids fraud who has shrunk into an ordinary hitter since his 50-game suspension and officially needs to remove himself from our baseball lives. The only reason we tolerated his petulant, goofy, self-absorbed act -- all that Manny Being Manny garbage -- is because he was one of the greatest hitters of our lives, the all-time leader in postseason home runs, a clutch slugging machine. But his legend has turned to mush this autumn, just as it had started to over the summer, and he departed the stage he once owned with some very puny numbers in these playoffs: in 32 at-bats, he had one homer, four RBI and six strikeouts. In the NLCS, he hit .263 and had one extra-base hit.

Which is why his failure to stay in uniform and watch his teammates in the dugout late in Game 4, when the Dodgers were blowing the series in the ninth inning, is all the more galling. When Torre removed him for defensive purposes for the bottom of the ninth, Ramirez should have realized this was the defining moment of his team's season. If Jonathan Broxton retired the Phillies, the series would be tied. If not, the Dodgers would be down 1-3. Wouldn't Manny want to be with his teammates, sweating it out with them, willing them with his dreadlocked presence?

Nope. He preferred to retreat to the clubhouse, strip down and take a shower, making him just another dope with soap on a rope. He didn't see any of the drama, as he recounted to the media, presumably shampooing while Jimmy Rollins was slashing a liner into the right-center gap and turning a 4-3 Dodgers lead into the killer blow.

"I come out of the game early, I take a shower," Manny explained.

So you didn't see the Rollins hit live?

"No, I was in the shower," he said.

You didn't even see it on TV?

"I caught the highlights," he said. "Everybody started coming in and they turned the television off. After a loss like that, it was quiet in here. But everybody got over it. It's baseball, you know. The Philadelphia Phillies are playing better, what can you do. Jimmy Rollins is one of my favorite players. I love him. He's small, but he can play. I'm not surprised he was the one who got it done. They play great, they're pitching good and they're getting the key hits at the right moment.

"You can't bring it back."

Therein lies the problem: Manny doesn't love the game; he only loves himself.
Nor can you bring back the moment of being there, in the core of the fray, something cherished by every player who loves the game. Therein lies the problem: Manny doesn't love the game; he only loves himself. It was painful enough earlier that night when he did one of his half-hearted jogs toward a ball hit against the left-field wall, the sort of laziness that got him run out of Boston. Now he was showing himself to be less than a good teammate, pulling the kind of stunt that not even Barry Bonds would pull in a postseason game. Torre, at least publicly, had no choice but to defend him, knowing anything less than stated support might prompt Ramirez to stage a wildcat strike. "I think the way it turned out, it probably doesn't look good," Torre said. "But it's nothing different than he has done before. When we get a lead late in the game, and I've taken him out, whether it be for defense or we have a big lead, when we go up to shake hands after the game, he's in his street clothes. So it's really nothing different than he's done before. I don't think it's disrespect or anything."

So what exactly is it, then? Where he was going at midnight in Philly on a Monday night? "He's a cool customer. As we say, Manny is Manny," Torre said. Let me speak for a sports nation in declaring that phrase as stale and passe. Manny Being Manny no longer works when he lacks the bat speed to get around on an inside fastball. You had to laugh when the Philly fans in left field, who had been chanting "YOU TOOK STEROIDS!" at him all three nights, changed their tune with a lopsided lead:

"TAKE A SHOWER! TAKE A SHOWER!"

He did just that, like all the Dodgers after their second straight NLCS loss to the Phillies. And now that Ramirez has been exposed as another scandalous juicer, it's time the Dodgers cut ties with him entirely, as the Giants did successfully with Bonds. It won't be as easy as saying goodbye: He has the option to make $20 million with them next season, with $10 million coming in 2010 and the rest spread out over three years. But if he thinks he can make more elsewhere -- and he and his agent, Scott Boras, are just egomaniacal enough to try -- Ramirez can void the contract and become a free agent. The Dodgers should do everything in their power to point him to the American League, where he'd be a nice, aging designated hitter in a town that needs a gate attraction (Cleveland).

They were better in his suspended absence with Juan Pierre, who hit .318 with 21 stolen bases and 21 RBI. When Pierre was in the starting lineup, the Dodgers were 46-30, far better than after Ramirez returned to the lineup July 3. With the sudden uncertainty of a uniquely Californian ownership mess -- Frank and Jamie McCourt have separated, with the husband claiming he owns the team outright and the wife claiming she owns 50 percent -- the Dodgers won't be in the mood to have a broken-down 38-year-old around. His shower scene pretty much confirms that he doesn't care about championships. Remember what he said in his last LCS in Boston, when the Red Sox trailed 3-1? "It doesn't happen, so who cares?" Ramirez said. "There's always next year. It's not like it's the end of the world."

Just what a diehard fan wants to hear in his moment of agony, huh?

It's difficult to forget such comments upon watching Ramirez fail in the fifth. After the Dodgers had chased starter Cole Hamels, Manny came to bat with a 6-3 deficit, two out and runners on second and first. If he hits his 30th career postseason homer, it's a tie game and the series perhaps returns to Dodger Stadium for Game 6. But Ramirez grounded out to the pitcher, Chad Durbin, and the fans mocked him a little more.

They now can move on to tormenting Alex Rodriguez and Kate Hudson, assuming the Yankees dispose of the Angels. It could be a classic Series, from a possible Cliff Lee vs. CC Sabathia collision in Game 1 to the fun fact that the Phillies led the NL in come-from-behind wins while the Yankees led the AL in the same category -- and, of course, walk-off wins. You'd never know that this franchise has lost more than 10,000 games, more than the Chicago Cubs. The Phillies are flying so high, with 18 wins in their last 23 postseason games, it's possible they'll become the first repeat Series champions since the Yankees three-peated from 1998 to 2000. Can they trump the pinstripes, prevent the Yanks from winning their 27th title? The Phillies have the same potent lineup. With Lee, their critical midseason acquisition, they have a dominant starter, which is vital if Hamels continues to struggle. In the end, you're way much more comfortable with the great Mariano RIvera as your closer, though Brad Lidge has regained confidence and has yet to blow a save this postseason.

"They have a flair for the dramatic, we have a flair for the dramatic," Greg Dobbs said. "They don't give up, we don't give up. More often than not, they've come out on top and more often than not, we've come out on top, too."

But the Phillies really don't want to talk about the Yankees. "I don't ever try to compare ourselves to anybody else, you know what I mean?" said Shane Victorino, who homered and had three RBI. "Definitely, you pay attention to what they're doing, but we have to worry about us and not worry about anyone else. I think that's what we do so well. We only worry about the Phillies."

"Big games call for big times," said ex-Dodger Jayson Werth, who homered twice. "Hopefully, we can keep it going. We've got four more games to win."

Rarely have we seen a team enjoy itself so much. The bliss was etched on their faces during a clubhouse party that was fun but restrained. After all, they already know the feeling of winning it all. "I love everything about it," Manuel said. "There was a time when I was a kid, I used to like to hunt and fish and things like that -- I'd give up all that for this."

He tried to explain his leadership motto. Tell me if it makes any sense. "To be totally relaxed, you've got to stay focused, and it gets back to excellence over success," Manuel said. "If you strive to be the best, then the success will be there. And baseball is a long season, and if you do your best, and we play for that one day -- and we're going to play today to win the game tonight. That's what we came to the ballpark for."

Oooo .... kayyyyy. "We've got players who buy into that," he said. "We've got guys who like to have fun. We've got guys who every now and then, they might tick you off a little. But for some reason, between the players and my coaching staff and myself, we all buy into which way we want to go, and I give them all the credit in the world -- the players."

That makes much more sense. The Phillies ache to win. They love each other, love the game, love being at the park every day, love coming from behind to win (as they have 44 times), love walk-off victories (19 times) and are loving life. "If we were a car, we would be, right now, probably in trouble with the law," said Pedro Martinez, the shrewd late-season pickup whose latest battle with the Yankees will be a sight to see. "Because this team really speeds up, and never slows down. We're more of a NASCAR-type of team -- we're in the driver's seat."

Manny Ramirez? He abandoned the L.A. joyride and took a shower. "They were better than us," he said afterward. "You saw what they were capable of doing." We also saw what Manny was capable of not doing -- being a leader, a force, a man.

He'll have an entire winter to wash off the grime of a very dirty season. This was the year when Manny Being Manny became uncool.