- High Cheese: Free agency preview: Third Base
- Phillies have specific free-agent needs
- Bill Conlin: A massacre of baseball's records
THERE IS A SCENE in "The Godfather" where Vito Corleone has just called in the favor owed him by Amerigo Bonasero, the undertaker. He is to use all his powers to make the ambushed Sonny presentable for a traditional "family" viewing. He draws back the sheet covering his son and sobs for the only time in the film.
- Bill Conlin: No award for Happ, just a stellar season
- J.A. Happ's 2009 stats
- J.A. Happ is second in rookie-award voting
- Poll: Should Happ have won the award? (1861 votes)
GENE MAUCH used to say, "Close only counts in dancing and grenades, podnah."
Marlins hitting machine Chris Coghlan edged J.A. Happ, Charlie Manuel's Musical Chairs lefthander, by less daylight than you can see in one of those steamy "Dancing With The Stars" tangos. He won 2009 National League Rookie of the Year Award by a point total of 105-94.
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AS AN AFFRONT to the natural order of the universe and the laws of man, the Designated Hitter Rule is up there with the national health-care bill, a legislative dose of castor oil about to be stuffed down our throats, hate it or despise it.
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WHEN I'M KING of the world . . . The Phillies will give Pedro Feliz a little more respect than being tossed onto the market like a Cash-for-Clunkers auto . . .
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CLIFF LEE had just given up a first-inning run. That's like Tim McGraw starting off "I like It, I Love It" with a belch. It's like a Charlie Manuel sentence without an "At the same time" to bridge conflicting ideas.
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Bill Conlin: Ghosts of World Series past haunt Phillies
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ELIMINATION. It is the biggest word in baseball's minimalist lexicon. And the baddest. For the runner-up in the most grueling journey in team sports, there truly is no tomorrow. The night you lose for the fourth time in a World Series, there is an exquisitely painful finality. The winners half-drown themselves in champagne, most of it spray
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IN A WORLD SERIES comparison, a Tale of the Tape tradition dating to 1903 has matched the combatants by position.
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Bill Conlin: Manuel's champs have it all over Green's
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Bill Conlin: Twenty-nine years to the night that Tug McGraw flung both arms skyward in a joyous leap, then turned to await Mike Schmidt's airborne arrival, the 1980 Muleskinner stood on the mound.
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WHAT A DIFFERENCE a night makes, 24 little hours and six fewer runs. But the champagne will be on ice tomorrow night nevertheless with a home clinching in order.
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THE NFL has the Wildcat. Not to be outdone, MLB has enlivened the National and American League Championship Series with the Wildthrow.
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BEFORE THERE WAS Black Friday - Oct. 7, 1977 - the Phillies endured Soggy Saturday and Sunless Sunday. Sunday was the day general manager Paul Owens and manager Danny Ozark learned the real difference between a team that would win 101 games for the second straight season and a Los Angeles Dodgers team of similar talents.
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Bill Conlin: Phillies' manager's moves could go down in infamy
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WILL TERRIBLE Thursday be remembered by Phillies fans as a pitching version of 1977's Black Friday? The question hangs like a cloud of frozen breath in a walk-in freezer after an excruciating, 5-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies. It will be answered this weekend in a Denver ballpark where the fans will turn blue long before those mountains on a chilling Coors can.
MORE STORIES
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Bill Conlin: Phillies were in their element - wind and all
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Bill Conlin: Phillies clinch, now it's time for a laugh
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Bill Conlin: Bullpen issues led to 1964 Phillies collapse
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Bill Conlin: Lee and Lefty bear a striking resemblance
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Bill Conlin: Amaro needs to force Manuel to change Phillies closer
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Bill Conlin: Jerry Jones, you need a do-over at Cowboys Stadium
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