PHAIR & PHOUL

Just wondering I: At the end of the 2006 season, the Phillies let manager Charlie Manuel dangle. They waited until after the last game was played before announcing that he'd be back to fulfill the final year of his contract.

At the end of that season, he signed a 2-year extension with an option for 2010.

A year after that, following the Phillies' World Series win over the Rays, that deal was reworked. The option year was picked up and another year was tacked on, tying him up through 2011.

So you have to think the only Phillies manager to take the team to four straight postseasons (and only the third in NL history along with Bobby Cox in Atlanta and John McGraw of the 1921-24 New York Giants) shouldn't go into next season as a lame duck. You have to think he'll get an extension this winter. Don't you?

Just wondering II: Charlie Manuel has been saying since spring training that he not only wants to go back to the World Series this year but would prefer to play the Yankees, which would give his team a chance to get even for last fall. Wonder if Tampa Bay is similarly hoping to play the Phillies for the opportunity to avenge 2008?

Counting ghosts: The Marlins' home-attendance tally will be finalized Sunday. And how does that involve the Phillies? Well, on that day Florida will officially announce how many after-the-fact tickets it sold to souvenir-hunters for Roy Halladay's perfect game there on May 29. It's known, however, that the number is more than 10,000 and will be counted just as if actual people occupied those seats. Which is pretty amazing considering that, going into last night, the Marlins had announced crowds of less than 12,000 a total of 13 times this season. There's a joke to be made here that as many people are willing to pay good money not to watch the Marlins as those who paid to actually go to many games, but that would just be cheap and tacky.

Still a big piece: Ryan Howard hit 58 homers his first full season, leading the league in 2006. The next 3 years he hit from 45 to 48 and finished in the top three. This season, with three games left, he has hit 31. That's tied for eighth in the NL. Part of the reason is that he spent time on the disabled list and has played in just 140 games (although he hit 47 in 144 games in 2007).