Bill Conlin | Phillies wisely act swiftly on skipper

Dave Montgomery and Pat Gillick will not regret extending Charlie Manuel's contract on the eve of Joe Torre's impending unemployment . . . OK, we're just talking baseball, right? First, congratulations to Charlie and may he serve out his extension in good health and may his athletes love him in 2009 as much as they do today. Montgomery and Gillick were wise to do a preemptive strike and re-up their skipper before the "Hire Joe Torre. Hire Tony La Russa. Hire Anybody" movement shifted into high gear. It hit the ground running yesterday after Torre sounded very much Monday night like a man who would soon be seeking a new baseball challenge.

Had Charlie still been quacking in the background if George Steinbrenner decided to spring the trapdoor on the most successful Yankees manager since Casey Stengel, there would have been a tidal wave of insistence that the Phillies' shakers and movers at least pick up the phone and see what Joe has to say. After all, we're talking - and mind you, we're just talking some ball business - Joe Flippin' Torre here. We're not talking Joe Girardi or Jim Leyland or any of the fortysomethings who are about to replace the pastime's old guard. This is a guy whose team averaged 96.7 wins in the 11 full seasons he managed (Joe's battle with prostate cancer cost him 35 games in 1999), not to mention four World Series rings, six pennants and 12 postseason appearances in 12 years. Joe has always liked the Phillies and the city. But, what's done is done. The players' benevolent security blanket will be shambling to the mound for two more seasons, stubborn as a Missouri mule and unshakable in his belief that "I know everything about baseball." We hope, Charlie, we hope . . .

When I'm King of the World . . .

Gillick will write the name Hank Blalock at the top of his third-base wish list . . . Sticking with the wrong-brother story line, when the Phillies took Cole Hamels out of San Diego County's Rancho Bernardo High with the 17th pick overall in the 2002 draft, they also took his slugging teammate, Jake Blalock, the bigger but not better younger brother of Hank, on the fifth round. A year later, while the Phillies were learning that Jake had a slider-speed bat and no position, Hank won the All-Star Game with a dramatic homer. He was an All-Star again in 2004 and slammed 32 homers with 110 RBI. Hank was just 23. Since then, his star has been clouded over by injuries and diminished performance. He wound up playing in just 58 games for Texas this season and produced just 10 homers and 33 RBI for his $4.8 million salary.

Meanwhile, Jake had been shipped to the Rangers with righthander Robinson Tejeda early in the 2006 season for rental outfielder David Dellucci. The low-minor leaguer was traded this year to the Royals, who released him in July. The Phillies signed Jake as a free agent and put him right back in Clearwater, where he had played in 2005. It's not often that the Phillies have had the wrong brother twice. This time, however, they might be able to have the wrong bro and the right bro, as well. The Rangers are said to be more than willing to find a trading partner for a still-young, All-Star-quality third baseman whose stock is down with an organization that is up to its 10-gallon hats in former Phils and collects them like pet rocks. You'd tune to the Rangers game on the MLB package and Marlon Byrd would be batting No. 3 and Vicente Padilla would be running 3-2 counts and starting pitchers Kevin Millwood and Tejeda would be sitting on the bench. You almost expected a closeup of Larry Bowa, neck veins bulging doing a Rodney Dangerfield eye-roll. Hey, we can have a Rancho Bernardo reunion in March. Hamels can bring the chiropractor.

When I'm King of the World . . .

The NFL won't dare eliminate that goofy sideline timeout coaches can call to ice a kicker as he is kicking the football . . . Timeout? Hell, yes. Ice the kicker? By all means. It's the American way. But calling it a split second before the snap, the ball in the air before the zebra blows the whistle? Do these Rules Committee foofs actually sit around their meetings each year and brainstorm ways to screw up their game? That said, do we really want to be deprived of the exquisite tension of Cowboys rookie thunder-leg Nick Folk, who is now a genuine Folk Hero in Jonestown, booming a game-winning, 53-yarder that was waved off, then doing it again? What an impossible ending to a flawed but frantic "MNF" game that the Bills kept winning right up until the final second, when they lost it on two long-distance field goals . . .

Final word to Barry Bonds: Your BALCO buddy Marion Jones finally womaned up. Time for you to man up, Sluggo . . .

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Send e-mail to bill1chair@aol.com. For recent columns, go to http://go.philly.com/conlin.