Congrats, Fightin' Phils. I Was Wrong Yet Again.

Ah, October… the leaves changing color, the cool crispness of the autumn air, the almost surreptitious development of visages on pumpkins, the promise of happy holidays… yeah, right. It’s been 95 degrees here until recently and I’m broke, the country’s broke, the world is broke and the best team didn’t win the World Series – didn’t even make it to the World Series. No, I’m not talking about our beloved Dodgers, or even the Halos. I’m talking about the Cubs and The Red Sox. The Cubs were undone by an untimely slump and the Red Sox were undone by a great team with a lot of heart – the Tampa Bay Rays.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES, your 2008 World Champions. Winning their first title since nineteen hundred and eighty, Phillie is an excellent team, but they aren’t as good as Tampa Bay. Yet, they were able to win 2008, and they were able to win the Fall Classic in a cold, rainy and windy 5 games. The Phils are an Utley, a Howard, a Hamels, a Rollins and a Lidge away from being terrible. That’s right. 5 good players. The rest, including Burrell, Werth and Victorino, are simply strong role players. The Rays, on the other hand, have Longoria, Upton, Crawford, Pena, Iwamura, Navarro, Shields, Kazmir (though he had a bad 2nd half) Garza, Balfour, Price – a better cast of young stars. So, why did they get punked? Many reasons:

Reason #1: Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena went bye-bye for the entire series, each going one for the World Series. Longoria fanned, like, 9 or 10 times. Absurd. When your 2 best hitters take a powder during the most important stretch of games you’ve ever played, what can you do?

Reason #2: Their defense went bye-bye. They’d played solid defense all year and picked a bad time to do their circus clown imitation.

Reason #3: They were grossly out-managed. I’m a big fan of Joe Maddon, but he was very Joe Torre & Mike Scioscia-like in this series. He made an array of odd choices, including letting the shaky Kazmir start Game 5 instead of the well-rested Shields. He constantly shuffled his right fielders, initially leaving power hitting Eric Hinske off the W.S. roster. Rocco Baldelli should’ve played everyday in my opinion, not Gabe Gross and Ben Zobrist. Floyd and Hinske would’ve been my only 2 choices for DH in the first 2 games. The final straw, of course, were his moves and non moves during the suspended Game 5. How does he not go with his young, hard throwing phenom David Price to start things off? I would’ve thrown Price until he got into trouble, then gone to Balfour, Bradford, Wheeler and the rest of my trusty bullpen. Odd.

Reason #4: Their youth showed. Lots of poor at bats and nervousness from their pitching staff.

Reason #5: The umpiring. It was perhaps the worst I’ve ever seen in the World Series. So many obvious class just completely blown. Most of them going against Tampa Bay. The strike zone for the games in Philly heavily favored the Phils’ pitchers. It was a joke. The plated umps, Fielding Calbreath or whatever his name is, was especially horrible. It actually meant the difference in Game 3, and possibly, Game 4.

Reason #6: The weather. The Rays were taken out of their game. Forget the rain. No World Series should be allowed to be played in 40 degree weather with a wind chill factor below 40. It’s not real baseball. I don’t favor moving the Fall Classic to a neutral site like some idiots, but I feel you have to wait out the weather.

Reason #7. The confusion over the Rays’ name. Come on, already. You guys have a sting ray patch on your shoulder, but you have a ray of sunlight on your jerseys. So, which “ray” is it? You have to decide. I’m surprised you don’t also have a silhouette of Ray Charles on your other shoulder. Maybe Ray Romano? What about a finite straight line? That’s called a ray, isn’t it? In order to be champions, you need to decide which kind of ray you are.

At any rate, Cole Hamels has been amazing. Chase Utley, my favorite player, did it with guile and defense and Ryan Howard finally made an appearance. They will NOT repeat next year. The Rays, on the other hand, could easily be back. They’re still cheap and they’re still quite young. They’ll only get better. What a team.

So, the Dodgers, according to Times baseball writer, Bill Shaikin, will likely not be among the highest bidders for Manny’s services, nor will they be for the services of CC Sabathia. If this is the case, the Dodgers will not contend in ’09. The Hot Stove league starts Monday and there’s talk of the Dodgers going after the Angels free agent closer Frankie Rodriguez. If that’s who the Dodgers are going to spend their money on, you can forget it. From what I know of K Rod, he holds the Major League saves record, but he can’t hit or play the outfield or start games. As far as I’m concerned, it’s Manny or bust. Frank McCourt, you MUST SIGN MANNY!

I hear there’s an election next week. Personally, I think it’s a crime to hang effigies of Barak Obama on your tree out front, but it’s perfectly acceptable to hang effigies of Sarah Palin. Happy Halloween.