LOS ANGELES - The Phillies gave Charlie Manuel the best kind of sympathy card last night. They made the night easy on him, sent him off to Virginia with a mix of heavy heartedness and happiness.
NLCS Most Valuable Player Cole Hamels pitched in and out of trouble for seven innings. Jimmy Rollins hit, finally, leading off the game with a home run. The middle of the order banged out four more, just the way Charlie Manuel drew it up. They even allowed his "son," Manny Ramirez, a parting home run, although that probably was not part of the list.
The Phillies advanced to their first World Series since 1993 with a 5-1 victory over the Dodgers, winning the National League Championship Series in five games.
"I've got to think," Manuel said amid the festive winning clubhouse, "that my mom's watching right now."
And, so, Charlie will be at his mother's viewing later today and her funeral tomorrow morning, a strange juxtaposition from the scene in the visitors' clubhouse at Dodger Stadium last night, a scene of champagne and hugs, a scene of pure happiness, and deserved pride.
But that's what baseball is: strange juxtapositions.
A manager who struggles mightily in front of a microphone, and yet is so at ease in small familiar crowds.
A guy who has been ridiculed too often simply for where he was born, yet a guy who still loves people everywhere.
"Charlie," Brett Myers said, "is just a good guy to be around."
There were people in this town who said the newspaper guys shielded him from harsh criticism because of that, took it easy on him when his moves didn't work out so well - when he had guys like Geoff Geary, Terry Adams and Tim Worrell haunting his bullpen.
Charlie should have used the lefty here.
He stayed with the righty too long.
"The players are the ones that make him look good or bad," said Ryan Madson, a holdover from those days who pitched a clean eighth last night. "You go out there and do your job, no matter what decisions he makes, you're going to make him look good."
Joe Torre knows this. He was ripped for his moves as the Yankees' manager when the Red Sox rallied to win four straight games in the 2004 American League Championship Series. He was ripped for his handling of his staff in Monday's pivotal Game 4, with the Dodgers losing a 5-3 lead in the eighth.
Why didn't he let Derek Lowe pitch another inning? He used up his lefties too quickly. He had too quick of a hook for dynamic Hong-Chih Kuo after just an inning and a batter.
"Look," said Lowe, who was surprised to be yanked after 74 pitches. "Joe didn't take me out because he thought the lead was going to be given up. He's a great manager."
He is, too. Of people. Torre has managed four World Series winners and been in six, but the decisions he made in this series backfired on him terribly.
In Game 1, he left Lowe in after Chase Utley's two-run home run and Pat Burrell hit the game-deciding home run.
In Game 2, he stayed with starter Chad Billingsley despite a streak in which nine of 10 Phillies reached base.
And then came Game 4.
"I don't think I can say I would do anything different," Torre said.
Imagine if that were Charlie. Imagine if he had made those moves with a club like the Dodgers and gotten those results. Some would be tearing into him in our city in a way that the well-spoken Torre wasn't and has never had to endure.
Especially if he then said afterward what Joe said.
But if you listened, that is what Manuel said, has been saying all along.
"I think probably the strategy part of baseball might be second, really, when you get right down to it," he said last night. "I think the biggest thing is being able to communicate. You've got to be honest and you've got to be consistent."
He did all three. The communication was sometimes choppy and cloudy on the big stage, but it resonated in a clubhouse that played hard for him, played right for him, simply played for him.
You and me? Well, these days everyone wants to give ol' Charlie a big Buena Vista hug.
One to share his happiness. One to lift that heavy heart of his, too.
"We've got one more step," Manuel said as he clutched the National League Championship trophy. "And then we'll have a grand parade." *
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