Phil Sheridan: Already, Phils are in rarefied company

LOS ANGELES - Back in the City of Angels (and Dodgers) for another National League Championship Series, we pause a moment to recognize what the Philadelphia Phillies are doing.

They may or may not win a second consecutive World Series title. It will take four wins against a tough Dodgers team and four more against an even tougher American League champion. It could be early November before we know for sure.

But we do know right now, with certainty, that the Phillies deserve credit for a successful Year After. A repeat title would be wonderful - a thing unimaginable to the average Philadelphia sports fan just over a year ago - but these Phillies have already proved themselves worthy champions: 2008 was no fluke. It was a beginning.

"You have to understand this team," shortstop and oracle Jimmy Rollins said as the champagne dried on his uniform Monday night in Denver. "We don't play this game to walk away at the beginning of October and say, 'Great season, see you in spring training.' "

As former Inquirer colleague Jayson Stark pointed out on ESPN.com, the Phillies became just the fifth NL team to win a World Series and then win a playoff series of any kind the next year. The most recent was the 1996 Atlanta Braves. Before that, it was the last NL team to repeat as champion, the 1976 Cincinnati Reds.

"The Big Red Machine," Rollins said. "Hopefully they can call us the Little Red Machine."

Before the Reds of Rose and Bench, you have to go back to the 1920s to find another NL team to do what the Phillies accomplished by beating the Colorado Rockies. A grouch might point out that a number of AL teams have done it or that there was only one postseason round, the World Series, for decades. That's nitpicking. What the Phillies are doing is rare enough to warrant savoring.

"We understand why it's called defending now," Rollins said. "In the regular season, you're playing ball. In the postseason, if you make it, you're defending. If the champ is around, everyone is going to try to knock off the champ. Right now, we're still standing."

There are a million possible pitfalls that make repeating difficult: injuries and inflated egos, creeping complacency or just plain bad luck, the emergence of another powerful team.

"Egos are put second," Rollins said. "Not even second. Maybe fourth. Winning's first, having fun second, talking about each other third, and maybe ego after that. That's a good thing. That's what it takes to win. That's a team."

It is all part of a change in culture that Rollins started talking about last year.

"This organization hadn't won since 1980," he said. "There's a lot that you want to stand up for. You want to change the way people see the Phillies as an organization. We want to be known as a winner. We want to start a legacy, I guess you can say. Everybody knows New York. Everybody knows Boston. That's all you hear about.

"We're just trying to take a little piece of the block."

It is something to think about, the Phillies joining elite franchises like the Yankees and Red Sox, the Dodgers, and, for many years, the Braves. There was a time, after that 1980 championship, when the Phillies could have established themselves as a perennial power. But owner Ruly Carpenter sold the team, and the franchise's foundation eroded to the point where it was being run like a small-market team in one of the country's largest cities.

That changed with the opening of Citizens Bank Park and the emergence of this homegrown group of stars: Rollins, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Cole Hamels. General manager Pat Gillick was brought in to run the baseball operation in a big-time way, and he passed the baton to Ruben Amaro Jr. after last year's Series.

To his immense credit, Amaro conducted business this year as if the Phillies were still trying to break that 28-year drought. He replaced streaky Pat Burrell in the lineup with steady Raul Ibanez. He made the best deadline trade in baseball, adding Cliff Lee to the rotation. Even the low-risk signing of Pedro Martinez was the kind of thing you'd expect the Yankees or Red Sox to do.

Aggressive but smart. Talented but hardworking. Accomplished but not satisfied. It all applies to the front office as well as the players, the manager and the coaching staff.

When's the last time you could say that about the Phillies?

"You have to understand what it's like playing in Philadelphia," Rollins said. "You're playing in a city for a bunch of fans that are never going to be satisfied and that are never going to let you settle, never let you get comfortable. They want a winner every year."

For the moment - a moment worth relishing - Philadelphia has one.

at 215-854-2844 or psheridan@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/philsheridan.