Dodgers third-base coach Bowa knows Phillies, and their fans

ST. LOUIS - Larry Bowa was home in time to watch the parade down Broad Street on Halloween afternoon.

"It was awesome," the Dodgers third-base coach said Saturday, minutes after the Dodgers won their NLDS against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. "It brought back a lot of memories."

It was the first parade in a quarter-century. It was the second in the history of the Phillies. Now, the 2009 Phils are alive for another, this time into November.

If they do parade again, they will have to beat the Dodgers again. Los Angeles is better than the team the Phils overpowered in the NCLS last year. The Phillies? Well, they are still the champions, a team that has won every time it has had to win this year.

When the Phillies are on, they don't just win. They crush teams. The pressure on the pitching is constant.

In this still young postseason, the Phils have the best batting average and best slugging percentage. The Rockies were pitching great until the Phillies got done with them.

"You can go zero, zero, zero with them and then they put up a 5," Bowa said. "They don't put up a 1. They don't put up a 2. Then, you go zero, zero, zero, 4."

The Phillies led the National League in runs (820), home runs (224) and slugging percentage (.447). And the top of the lineup is terrific on the bases.

"It's an explosive lineup," Bowa said. "You leave a crack in the door open, they kick it in. You make an error, they kick it in. You walk two guys, the guy hits a bomb. They're the most explosive team in the National League."

In dispatching the Cardinals in three games, the Dodgers pitched around St. Louis star Albert Pujols. That is a strategy they won't be able to employ against Phillies slugger Ryan Howard.

"We can't treat Ryan like Pujols because they have too many weapons," Bowa said. "But that's how you would treat him if they didn't have as many weapons as they have."

There are all those 30 home-run guys and all that speed, a unique combination in today's game. It is why the Phils' lineup is so feared. There is never a moment to relax.

"You pitch around Howard, you've got [Jayson] Werth," Bowa said. "You've got [Raul] Ibanez. You've got Jimmy [Rollins] and [Chase] Utley at the top. [Shane] Victorino. They've got speed. They've got great defense. You've got to get to the bullpen and you wouldn't say that this year. It's a scary team."

After being fired as Phils manager in 2004, Bowa spent a year as an analyst for "Baseball Tonight" on ESPN. After 2 years as Joe Torre's third-base coach in New York, he went west with Torre last year.

But he still lives in the Philly suburbs. "That's my home," Bowa said. "That's forever."

And, even though the 2008 Phils went through his team to the World Series, that didn't mean Bowa wasn't happy with the final result.

"The fans deserve that," Bowa said. "I told these guys, 'You don't want to go there and play because they're diehards.' These are polite fans [in St. Louis], very polite. I think it makes you tougher when you play there [in Philadelphia]. They're just good fans. I know they're mean at times, but that's the way the Northeast is."

And the players that Bowa managed, they deserved it, he said.

"You know what I liked about it," Bowa said. "I had [Pat] Burrell, I had [Brett] Myers, I had Jimmy Rollins, a little bit of Utley, not a lot," Bowa said. "I don't want to say anything or pat myself on the back. I took over a team that was terrible. We came in second [and third] place 4 years in a row. We came up short, no question. But to see those particular names [winning] . . .

"When I first took the job and was talking to them, I said, 'You guys have no idea what it is to go down Broad Street in a parade. And Jimmy kept saying, 'Yeah, right.'

"When we played them the first time [this year], he goes, 'I know what you're talking about.' They tasted it and they want to do it again. They're going to be a tough team."

It isn't just the lineup that concerns Bowa. Now it is the confidence this team has. These players really believe they are going to win. And, if you don't think that matters, you've never been in a competitive environment where confidence often is in a photo finish with ability.

If there is one player who exemplifies what the Phillies have become, it has to be Howard. There is nobody in baseball quite like him.

And just think, if Jim Thome doesn't get hurt in 2005, maybe Howard never gets his chance.

"I had Howard for a month," Bowa said. "You could see this guy was something."

Did he see all this?

"Not 50 [home runs], but I knew he'd hit 30 to 40," Bowa said. "I didn't think he'd be that devastating offensively, but he's a force."

He is and so are the Phillies. You take a two-run lead into the ninth inning. That still might not be enough.

And nobody knows that better than the third-base coach of the Dodgers, the man at the edge of the dugout when some of this core began to win more than it lost, an admirer from afar of the talent and, starting tomorrow, a man who will have a very good view of a team that he, more than almost anybody, knows is capable of putting up crooked numbers in any half of any inning. *