Halladay: Early finish to Phillies' season 'bittersweet'

Roy Halladay's postseason routine will be a little different this year.

When he was with Toronto, late part of October for Halladay meant resting and watching the World Series. He still will put his feet up, but now that his first taste of the postseason ended bitterly, the Phillies ace might watch something besides Joe Buck and Tim McCarver tomorrow night.

"I normally do watch [the World Series]," Halladay said yesterday, 2 days after the Phillies' season ended with a thud. "But I don't know if I will this year. I think you're still licking your wounds a little bit."

The Phillies might develop sandpaper tongues in the time it takes to heal the damage done by the Giants, who finished off the lackluster Phillies on Saturday in six National League Championship Series games. Yesterday was locker-cleanout day, and those around talked about the stinging disappointment of not getting to the World Series after leading the major leagues with 97 regular-season wins and carrying a rotation poised to be one of the greats in baseball history.

Instead of hearing about preparations for a third consecutive World Series, the only sounds coming from the Phillies clubhouse was masking tape being pulled from its rolls and packed storage trunks being shut.

Riiiiipppp. Thump.

"This is definitely the most fun I've ever had, but it is definitely bittersweet," Halladay said. "You look at the goals we had as a team and you come up short of that, it's tough. But what we accomplished as a team . . . The whole year was a dream come true for me, really. Obviously, we would have loved to have won it all, but it's hard to dwell on that after the year we had. There was so much good stuff happen that, as time goes on, the good will outweigh the last night. It was everything I ever hoped it would be."

Factor in the postseason and Halladay pitched a career-high 272 2/3 innings. The last were the six gritty frames he tossed in Game 5 against the Giants, which turned out to be the Phillies' final win of the season. It was revealed afterward that he injured his groin in the second inning.

He said yesterday he does not need surgery and could have pitched in the World Series had the Phillies advanced. He will fire up his usual postseason regimen (with or without the World Series on the flat-screen) with simple arm-strengthening and cardio exercises in November. Halladay will intensify things by throwing again in early December at the Phillies' spring training complex in Clearwater, Fla. The next time he gets on a mound, he said, will be in February.

"Moving forward, there are parts of the season you are going to enjoy, parts you are going to remember," he said. "But I think the one thing that's gonna stick out there is you still want to try to win. I think that - more than anything - is going to be the overwhelming thing for me this winter. If we would have won it, I would have retired. I don't know. To be able to have that anticipation moving forward is going to be the overwhelming thing this winter."

Halladay, who was joking about retiring, by the way, has hit just about every high-water mark a pitcher could. He pitched a perfect game in May, another no-hitter in the playoffs and is the leading candidate to capture his second Cy Young Award. Halladay turns 34 on May 14 and still will be the anchor to a pretty good starting pitching staff.

"To have such a good season, not only personally but as a team, and then realize I'm still short of the goals I had going into the season, it keeps you motivated," he said. "There's still a lot there that I want to accomplish. Like I said earlier in the season, I feel like, personally, I've been able to accomplish everything I wanted to. But there are still things that I want to accomplish as a team and winning the World Series is a big part of that."

No matter how much money he is paid or how crowded his trophy case gets, Halladay still longs for a ring. It is why, more than ever, watching the World Series this year will be much more difficult.

"Once it starts, maybe it'll be different," he said. "It's definitely going to be tougher, that's for sure. Knowing that you're two games away from being there yourself, that could make it tough." *