The Right Stuff
They all did their jobs, players compensated for each other’s weaknesses, and the egos didn’t get in the way.
This championship can't be distilled to one reason, one player, one play, one decision or one game. Everyone from the front office to the last man on the bench - has Matt Stairs' homer landed yet? - had a hand in the effort.
It started years ago with the drafting of homegrown talent in Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell, Ryan Madson, Brett Myers, and a kid named Cole Hamels. Sixteen clubs bypassed the lefthander in 2002 after he had missed the previous season with a broken arm. Mike Arbuckle made a gutsy pick, and Hamels blossomed into a big-game stud right before our eyes this month.
A season is 162 games, with no one more important than another. The Phillies don't win a division title without the early contributions of Utley and Burrell. They don't win without Rollins' September surge and Howard's late thunder.
They don't win without production from role players Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth and Greg Dobbs, castoffs from other teams who became important pieces here, or without Pedro Feliz's glove and big hit Wednesday night.
And, of course, they don't win without pitching. No team does. The Phils had Hamels, the brilliant youngster, and Jamie Moyer, the brilliant veteran. Myers, down and out in the first half, proved to be one of the best second-half pickups a team could wish for. And speaking of pickups, how about Brad Lidge and that slider that Carlos Ruiz blocked fearlessly? Lidge anchored the best bullpen in the National League with a perfect season. He set the bar high for Madson, J.C. Romero, Chad Durbin and the underappreciated Clay Condrey.
The Phils won because they believed they could do so, even at 31/2 games behind the Mets with 16 to play. That belief started with the man who never stopped believing in them, manager Charlie Manuel.
They said they would benefit from the experience of last year's quick playoff exit, and that wasn't just lip service. They never panicked, and when the postseason started, they walked with the demeanor of a team that belonged.
They won because of themselves, but you, the folks who made up that record attendance of over 3.4 million, helped. From April to October, when the Phils were 7-0 at home in the postseason, you electrified Citizens Bank Park, and the home team fed off that energy.
It crackles one more time today, in the victory parade.