"Valdareeeeeeee . . . Valderaaaaaaa . . . Valdareeeeeeee . . . Valderaha-aha-aha-aha . . . "

A little sexier than the prosaic "Let's go Mets" and "Utley sucks" chants that will fill the heavy air of Shea Stadium the next three games while the Phillies and Metropolitans tilt at the windmill of first place in a three-way East race tighter than Pat Burrell's grimace when he is lifted for an infielder late in a close game.

The Mets play at the Bank Aug. 26-27, then the Phils are at Shea the weekend of Sept. 5-7. That begins a scary run through a stretch minefield that includes 16 of the final 19 games against the Marlins (six), Brewers (four) and Braves (six). Their reward is a final home weekend against the Nationals.

Mano a manos between neck- and-neck contenders is all about pitching matchups, of course, about throwing your ace out there with a lot riding. And isn't that why No. 1 starters make the big money?

In the mid- and late-1970s when the Phillies and Pirates were battling to the death on a regular basis, Steve Carlton matched up with the Bucs 13 times from 1976 to '78. Five of the matchups were against reed-thin, puff adder-nasty righthander Bruce Kison. His nickname - not without good reason - was "The Assassin." That's the way it was. If Danny Ozark had ever set up his rotation to have Lefty skip the Pirates, The Wizard would have gotten a fish in a brown paper bag with his room- service cheeseburger.

But at least we have a compelling matchup tonight, a rare ace- against-ace hookup of lefthanders, the Phillies' Cole Hamels, the Mets' Johan Santana. Kind of gives you goose bumps just saying it, right?

Hamels vs. Santana . . .

Wait . . . You're telling me what? Hamels pitched Sunday in the equatorial heat and humidity of Dolphin Stadium, getting a no-decision after losing a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth, the Phils eventually losing, 3-2, in the 11th?

Well, it turns out a committee that apparently included Charlie Manuel, pitching coach Rich Dubee, general manager Pat Gillick and assistant GMs Ruben Amaro and Mike Arbuckle decided that because Hamels went into the All-Star break with the most innings pitched in the National League, he needed more than his normal 4 days of rest between starts.

Hamels had pitched the Sunday before the All-Star break. So he could have opened the Marlins series Friday night on full rest. Ah, but the Katzenjammers decided that all innings and no rest make Cole's fastball a dull boy, settling on a rotation where their orchid of a lefthander would have that extra 48 hours to rebloom.

The plan would have had firmer stems to stand on if Hamels had gone along with it.

After another well-pitched no-decision, Hamels told our David Murphy he felt rusty pitching on a week's rest. "It's one of those things where I think the time off definitely hurt me," Cole said. "My whole body was a lot tighter. Because of that, I couldn't really push it. I know if I would have pushed it, I probably would have been on the disabled list."

So, the honor of facing off with the two-time American League Cy Young Award winner falls to rotation newbie Joe Blanton, already a minor folk hero as the Anti-Eaton. At least there appears to be a little mojo at work here. Blanton has faced the Mets in 15 interleague innings and has yet to surrender a run.

The hulking righthander reminds me of a somewhat bigger and slightly fitter Rick Reuschel, a wonderful Cubs pitcher of the Phils' golden years who camouflaged his athleticism - Rick could flat hit and fielded like a third baseman - with a few layers of flab.

Reuschel was a tireless workhorse who ate innings as if they were a seven-course meal. I think Blanton would like to test the rarely charted waters beyond the seventh inning if the culture permitted it.

But a culture driven by

coaches at every level spouting unproved dogma aimed at decreasing arm injuries has made the starting pitcher - once the hub of the baseball wheel - a second-class baseball citizen. Meanwhile, the arm surgeons do not lack for work.

An e-mailer Sunday wrote that he remembered listening to the radio on a day in 1952 when Robin Roberts fell behind the Boston Braves, 6-1, in the first game of a doubleheader. The date was Sept. 6 and manager Eddie Sawyer's pitching cupboard was bare. The Phils won, 7-6, in 17 innings. Roberts added to a streak of consecutive complete games that would reach 28 in the 1953 season.

There is a nobility to those now-stunning numbers and to the extinct concept of exceptional men with exceptional arms doing heroic things.

Maybe Cole Hamels will run into Robin Roberts some March day at the Phillies' Florida complex, where the diamond facing southeast bears his name. He can ask Robby if there were ever days during that amazing string of complete games connecting a 28-victory season to a 23-victory season that left him feeling as if he couldn't get loose enough to push it . . . *

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