Kuzul

Very few, if any, saw this coming.

Yeah, the Texas Rangers are a damn good team.  But c’mon, this is the Yankees we’re talking about.  They’ve been penciled into the 2010 World Series since they won the 2009 Series.

But, as they say, that’s why they play the games.

To the uneducated observer, it would appear as though the Rangers were the perennial playoff team and the Yankees were the team that just won its first ever playoff series.

The fact that the opposite is true only makes what the Rangers accomplished that much more impressive.

First, let’s review my series preview (as you may recall, I predicted the Rangers in six).

I mentioned two key factors that would play a major impact in the outcome of the series: the rest factor and the star factor.

Boy did they ever.

First, concerning the rest factor, I noted that there was a legitimate possibility that the Yankees could come out flat, allowing the Rangers to jump out to an early lead at home.  Well, they did, but unfortunately for the Rangers, the bullpen couldn’t hold their 5-0 lead and the Yankees stole Game 1.  Still, the Rangers proved to themselves that they could beat the Yankees.  And that was all they needed.

Then, the stars.  This is where the series really took shape.  Bottom line: the Rangers stars were up to the task and the Yankees stars faltered.

I’ll recap this with a review of the key players for each team:

Rangers

Elvis Andrus – .333/.379/.407, 2 RBI, 4 R, 4 SB, 2 BB/3 K
Nelson Cruz – .350/.435/.800, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 6 R, 3 BB/6 K
Vlad Guerrero – .269/.269/.346, 3 RBI, 2 R, 0 BB/8 K
*Josh Hamilton – .350/.536/1.000, 4 HR, 7 RBI, 6 R, 4 SB, 8 BB/4 K
Ian Kinsler – .250/.333/.400, 3 RBI, 1 R, 2 SB, 3 BB/3 K
Michael Young – .333/.357/.444, 4 RBI, 3 R, 1 BB/7 K
Cliff Lee – 8 IP, 1-0, 13 K/1 BB, 2 H, 0 ER, 0.375 WHIP, 0.00 ERA

Yankees

Robinson Cano – .348/.375/.913, 4 HR, 5 RBI, 5 R, 1 BB/3 K
Derek Jeter – .231/.286/.423, 1 RBI, 2 R, 2 BB/7 K
Alex Rodriguez – .190/.320/.286, 2 RBI, 4 R, 1 SB, 3 BB/4 K 
#Mark Texeira – .000/.176/.000, 1 R, 3 BB/4 K
Phil Hughes – 8.2 IP, 0-2, 6 K/7 BB, 14 H, 11 ER, 2.423 WHIP, 11.42 ERA
Andy Pettitte – 7 IP, 0-1, 5 K/0 BB, 5 H, 2 ER, 0.714 WHIP, 2.57 ERA
CC Sabathia – 10 IP, 1-0, 10 K/4 BB, 17 H, 7 ER, 2.100 WHIP, 6.30 ERA

*Named ALCS MVP
#Injured in Game 4

As you can see, the Rangers came out and got the job done.  Some—Cruz, Hamilton and Lee—were nearly unstoppable, while the rest held their ground and came up big when it was most crucial.

The Yankees, on the other hand, got almost nothing out of their stars.  Cano was spectacular, but he got no help from the rest of the lineup and the only game the Yankees got good starting pitching (Pettitte in Game 3), they couldn’t muster up enough run support to pull out the victory.

Before I wrap this up, I want to note the stellar performances by Colby Lewis.  Lewis—who pitched in Japan the last two years—was dominant against a potent Yankees lineup, shutting them down to the tune of 9 hits and three earned runs over 13.2 innings, posting a 1.98 ERA and a 1.098 WHIP in two victories. 

Lewis’ ace-like performances took the pressure off Cliff Lee and the offense, and quite possibly was the key player in the series.

Now, the Rangers will rest, fine tune and prepare themselves for the biggest stage they’ve ever seen.  Their opponent in the World Series, be it the Giants or the Phillies, will have their hands full with this group.  It should be quite the spectacular sight to see the dominant rotation that comes out of the NL face off against this group of violent and deadly bats.

Baseball fans, we’re in for a treat.

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The clouds had started roll in and the rain had begun to come down. It left a lot of the fans in attendance at Rangers Ballpark wondering if Game Six of the American League Championship Series was even going to happen.

Just 10 minutes before the game was scheduled to get underway, the rains came to an end, the tarp was pulled off the field, and the game got underway.

A little over two and a half hours later, it was young closer Neftali Feliz staring down the barrel against former Ranger Alex Rodriguez.

Feliz had worked the count to three balls and two strikes, throwing nothing but fastballs up and a few more fastballs inside. So naturally, Rodriguez expected another fastball was coming his way.

He was wrong.

A perfectly placed curveball on the outside corner left Rodriguez staring with the bat still on his shoulder. It was a called third strike that sent the players and the fans in into a euphoric celebration and Yankee fans left wondering how they could lose to a team they felt was far inferior to their own before this series began.

The Texas Rangers weren’t impressed with the 27 World Series titles that the Yankees rolled in with. They weren’t impressed with the pinstripes that had become so famous over the many years the team has been in existence.

The Rangers earned this title tonight. To be the champ, you gotta beat the champ. They did just that tonight, knocking off the defending World Series Champions and will now await the winner of the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants series that should be finished by the end of the weekend.

This was a long time coming for a team that wasn’t expected to do much of anything. They were never expected to get this far. Not this team, not this year.

But the city of Arlington and all of the long suffering Ranger fans are celebrating on this Friday night. They are celebrating the first ever ALCS Championship in franchise history. They are still riding high from the celebration that took place not only at the ballpark but around several thousand homes, around the Dallas and Fort Worth metroplex.

There was even a celebration that took place at a certain wedding reception.

With the Rangers up 6-1 and the game heading to the ninth inning, several of us walked into a room with a big screen television and sat down to watch history unfold.

With every strike thrown and with every out put up on the board, the more the excitement built. Five pitches later, with the count at 3-and-2, Neftali Feliz threw a perfectly placed pitch that Rodriguez could only stare at.

This was a night that was a long time coming. The celebrations are still going on all around Dallas and Forth Worth and they are well deserved.

Fans of this team have waited for quite some time just to feel this kind of night. They’ve waited to be able to celebrate like this and they were ready for their team to have some time in the spotlight.

It was the perfect Cinderella story. The Rangers were the underdog and they beat the bully that thought every team would just lay down for. The bully that stole the lunch money and always came back for more.

Over the next few days, the players, coaches, and families will rest and wait for who their opponent will be next.

Most won’t talk to the media or answer questions about the series they’ve just been through. Most will want their time to be spent away from the spotlight and away from the cameras.

They are the ALCS Champions but they have an even bigger goal in mind. They have the World Series still to win and they want to bring that trophy home for the first time in franchise history.

They want the feeling of being at the very top of mountain. They want to know what it feels like to win the most coveted prize in the industry.

What happens next is anyone’s guess. They will either board a plane bound for Philadelphia or San Francisco sometime next week. They’ll take the weekend to relax and come down from the ultimate high of beating the hated New York Yankees.

This was a series they were next expected to win. But sometimes, Cinderella gets to stay at the ball, even after the clock strikes midnight.

As for the New York Yankees, they’ll board a plane either tonight or first thing in the morning for what is sure to be a very quiet ride to New York.

They’ll wonder what went wrong. They’ll wonder how they ever lost to the Texas Rangers of all teams. Weren’t they the bullies of Major League Baseball? Weren’t they the ones that were always supposed to advance in the playoffs no matter who they faced?

The story did not have the ending that they believe would be scripted for them. The money that was thrown into the team ends with yet another playoff exit, their ninth in the last 10 years.

While the Yankees sit on 27 World Series Championships, something their fans will let you know about every time they have the chance, they will be forced to watch this one from home.

They’ll be forced to watch the team that was better in this series. They were not the team doing the dominating, but the team getting dominated.

It’s back to the drawing board to figure out a way to make sure this doesn’t happen again next season. There will be moves made, trades worked out, and free agents signed. Because that’s what the Yankees do. They find their weakness, they throw money at the best player that can fix it.

The next battle between these two teams won’t have to wait for spring training. It will take place in just a few short months when free agency begins.

The Texas Rangers and New York Yankees, along with a few other teams, will begin wooing one Cliff Lee for his services for the 2011 season and beyond.

While New York will tell Ranger fans that they better get used to the idea of Lee being in pinstripes for the foreseeable future, there are some that believe Lee is going to stay put, and why wouldn’t they?

A far question that has been asked is, why would Lee sign with the team that the Rangers took down in the ALCS? If the Rangers win the World Series, why would he sign with the team that didn’t get there?

If he wants a chance to win, and believes the Rangers are well on their way to building a team that can win year in and year out, I believe Cliff Lee will be in a Texas Rangers uniform for years to come.

But, for now, Arlington, Dallas, and Fort Worth are buzzing from the events of this night. They are still celebrating something they never thought they would see, and they would much rather this night not end.

There’s still work to be done, there’s still preparations to be made, and there’s still an even bigger journey for this team to make.

The story isn’t over yet, but one more chapter has been written and has come to a close. How the final chapter will be written depends on how bad this team wants it.

If they put up the kind of effort they put forward in this series, there isn’t a team in baseball that can stop them. The World Series could be over before it even starts.

The Texas Rangers made history on Friday night, October 22nd, 2010. This is a night that will be remembered for a long time to come.

The only way this story is closed with the perfect ending is with this team bringing home a World Series trophy to Rangers’ ballpark.

Then, and only then, can the final paragraph and the final sentence be written to what has been an incredible story.

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The Rangers’ ballpark is quiet, at least for now.

Workers have slowly started to trickle in, the local radio station is doing their broadcast from the home plate entrance, the ALCS banners have been hung for fans to see as they start to file in, and the anticipation has begun.

This Friday night is far different from any other Friday night in Rangers’ history, because it’s on this Friday night that the Texas Rangers, and their fans, will be able to celebrate a franchise first.

An American League Championship.

For the first time, well, ever, this town has talked more baseball than football. For the first time in a long time, maybe ever, the Dallas Cowboys have taken a back seat to the Texas Rangers, and they’ll stay there through the World Series.

The fans that had jumped off the bandwagon, or those that hate baseball, have actually jumped back on the bandwagon, pretending they were there from the start.

But that’s OK. This area has always been known for bandwagon fans, so why should it be any different this year?

From the start of this series against the hated New York Yankees, this Rangers ballclub has been counted out, and most didn’t expect them to put up much of a fight. They expected the Yankees to do what they’ve always done.

Dominate.

What has happened from the very first pitch is something no one saw coming. Say what you want about “believing” in this team, but in the back of your mind you never expected the Rangers to be the ones doing the dominating.

If not for the top of the eighth inning in Game 1, the Yankees would have been staring at a four-game sweep. Instead, the series has shifted back to Arlington, with the Rangers up 3-2 after the Bronx Bombers picked up a 7-2 win in Game 5.

Colby Lewis will take the ball in what will be the deciding game for this team. The last time he toed the mound for the Rangers—Game 2—he gave up two runs through 5.2 innings in a 7-2 Ranger win.

On the flip side, for the New York Yankees, Phil Hughes will take the ball for the first time since he got run out of Arlington in a 7-2 Ranger win. Hughes gave up seven runs on 10 hits, lasting just four innings.

So tonight, the Texas Rangers’ mantra, “It’s Time,” will be put to the test.

Is it time for the Rangers to do something they’ve never done before in franchise history? Is it time for the most storied team in baseball history to exit the playoffs with a series loss for the ninth time in 10 years? Is it time for the Ballpark in Arlington to explode in celebration when the final out is recorded?

Those questions will be answered in just a few short hours.

If you ask me, I’m giving the Rangers the win tonight and watching as the Ranger fans celebrate. I’m ready to watch the fans—not only at the ballpark, but at sports bars and restaurants around the metroplex—to honk their horns, flash their lights, yell, scream, jump up and down, and generally celebrate their team’s ALCS win.

The Yankees, without question, have a storied past, but as they say so famously, “that’s why they play the game.”

You can tell whoever will listen how many World Series Championships the Yankees have. You can crack on the Rangers for being the cellar dweller of the American League for so long. You can stomp your feet and laugh at Ranger fans while telling them that Cliff Lee will sign with the Yankees after this season is over.

But while you’re doing that, just remember this: While you’re talking about “27,” Ranger fans will politely smile back at you and say “while that might be true, it’s our team that’s celebrating tonight while your team heads home to WATCH the World Series.”

So tonight, as Game 6 wraps up and Ranger players spray champagne—or ginger ale in the case of outfielder Josh Hamilton and pitcher C.J. Wilson—all over the clubhouse and all over the fans who have stayed in the ballpark to celebrate with the players, it will be a moment locked into Ranger history forever.

The City of Arlington will celebrate and the American League Championship Series will come to an end. The Rangers will be handed the ALCS trophy and they’ll get set to play the winner of the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants, which is slated to get underway on Wednesday night.

Enjoy this night Ranger fans. It’s been a long time coming, but it doesn’t make it any less sweet.

Texas Rangers, the 2010 ALCS Champions. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

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Did you ever think, in the middle of October, we’d still be talking about the Texas Rangers?

Normally this time of year is reserved for the Dallas Cowboys and football. Instead, the Cowboys have not only taken a back seat but they’ve been so bad that the Rangers have gotten top billing on just about every radio station in town.

Let me take you back to Opening Day here in Arlington, Texas.

A close friend of mine has his own radio show every Monday afternoon just a few blocks from the ballpark at Arlington. He asked me to come on and talk a little baseball and give my predictions for who would win each division.

While I didn’t call a lot of them right, picking the likes of the St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League Central and the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the National League West, one prediction I did make ended up coming true. It was the last prediction I ever expected to be right.

It wasn’t the easiest of picks and especially not against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. This was a team that had been the dominant force in the American League West for so many years. Not to mention winning the World Series back in 2002 and taking home five AL West pennants this decade, including four of the previous five years.

But I guess you could call it a hunch or maybe it was a little of the homer in me coming out. Though I don’t know how that could be seeing as I was a California boy born and raised.

There was something I saw in this roster. Something that I felt that told me the Rangers were going to be a team to be reckoned with this season.

They had added Vladimir Guerrero, former Los Angeles Angel, a guy that would take the Rangers apart when he would come to the ballpark as an opponent.

Next to him was a guy by the name of Josh Hamilton. He had a story that just about every baseball fan knew from his days as a young man, to the guy that blew thousands upon thousands of dollars on drugs and alcohol, to the man that’s turned his life around completely and has become one of the more prolific baseball players in the game today.

Along with Guerrero and Hamilton are guys like long-time Ranger Michael Young, young short stop Elvis Andrus, who I remember watching when he was with the team’s Double-A affiliate, the  Frisco Roughriders, second baseman Ian Kinsler and outfielder Nelson Cruz.

The team had the look of being able to do big things this season—I just never expected that it would get to this level.

What I also didn’t count on, from Opening Day to now, was the complete ineffectiveness of pitchers Scott Feldman and Rich Harden. Both of whom aren’t even on the Rangers postseason roster.

After finishing 17-8 with a 4.08 ERA last season, Feldman finished 2010 with a 7-11 record and a 5.48 ERA. As for Harden, this is a season he’d much rather forget. In 18 starts, Harden finished with a 5-5 record and a 5.58 ERA, by far his worst numbers in his career.

The guys that have stepped up are 24-year-old right-hander Tommy Hunter, reliever turned starter C.J. Wilson and 31-year-old right-hander Colby Lewis.

Hunter finished the 2010 regular season with a 13-4 record and 3.73 ERA, Wilson has been even better than that going 15-8 with a 3.35 ERA and Colby Lewis was 12-13 with a 3.72 ERA.

These three guys have been some of the biggest reasons the Rangers are where they are right now. But it was one big move at the trade deadline that has made the biggest difference.

A few days prior to Major League Baseball’s trade deadline at the end of July, the Texas Rangers slipped in front of the New York Yankees and stole away left-hander Cliff Lee all by offering up Justin Smoak, one of the Rangers’ top prospects.

The deal looked like it backfired on them after Lee struggled through his first few starts. However, after the Rangers took him out of the rotation and had him checked out by a doctor, he was given a few cortisone shots for what the team called a back issue and was given a clean bill of health.

Since then, Lee has been nothing short of unstoppable. Through three postseason starts, he is 3-0 with an incredible 0.75 ERA and has double-digit strikeouts in all three of his starts, including a 13-strikeout performance in Game 3 of the ALCS against the Yankees.

Now, with the Rangers up three games to one in the American League Championship Series, this franchise is one win away from their first-ever trip to the World Series.

After struggling to get past the Tampa Bay Rays in the first round of the playoffs, the Rangers have dominated the Yankees in every aspect of the game. If not for one bad inning in Game 1, the Rangers would be coming home with a four-game sweep of the defending champions. That in itself is far more telling of how this series has gone.

The Yankees bullpen has been, for the most part, ineffective, as has their ace CC Sabathia, No. 2 man Philip Hughes and the October disappearing act Alex Rodriguez, who has just two hits in 15 at-bats against Texas in this series.

What might make this win even sweeter for Rangers fans is reading an article like this from the New York Daily News, showing the kind of respect or lack thereof that was given to this ball club before this series started.

So as Dallas and Fort Worth, along with the outlying North Texas areas, get ready to celebrate tonight if the Rangers can wrap this series up, I sit here and wonder if this changes the dynamics of sports here in Texas.

With the new ownership in place and guys like Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg running the team, they are set up to be a franchise that can contend year in and year out.

With that in mind and the fact that the Dallas Cowboys have just one playoff win in over 15 years, could this slowly become more of a Ranger town than a Cowboy town?

Before you say no, don’t forget that this is one of the biggest bandwagon towns in sports. Those that were saying, “Who cares about the Rangers?” at the beginning of this season are the same ones that are wearing the “claw and antler” T-shirts and yelling, “Go Rangers” at the top of their lungs.

That’s a question that can be debated until the Rangers take the field for the 2011 season. But, for right now, these sports fans are throwing their support behind, and keeping their focus on, a team that deserves it.

There’s excitement in Texas and it has nothing to do with football.

The Rangers are one win away from the World Series. How do you like that?

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If not for one inning, the Texas Rangers would be staring at a three-game-to-none lead in the ALCS against the team that is supposed to dominate in the playoffs.

They’ve dominated 26 of the 27 innings played, and they’ve outscored the defending champion New York Yankees 21-8, including an 8-0 shutout on Monday night.

After most thought the Yankees would run right through the Rangers, this resilient young team has showed that they still have fight in them and that they are every bit as good as the potent Yankees lineup. What they’ve also proved is they have better pitching. As history has shown—especially in the playoffs—good pitching beats good hitting every day of the week.

With the Rangers up two games to one after the win on Monday night, they are playing well enough to wrap this series up before it ever shifts back to Arlington, Texas.

Here are 10 reasons why they’ll do just that on Wednesday, and why they’ll make the Yankees—and their fans—watch as the Rangers celebrate as ALCS Champions.

Begin Slideshow

Growing up around baseball, I was well aware of the history that came with the New York Yankees mystique. I was well aware of what that franchise had accomplished, and I’ve respected that my entire life.

However, that’s where my respect comes to a grinding halt.

With the 27 World Series Championships, all bought and paid for in full, come a certain amount of arrogance. Maybe not with every fan, but you know the ones I’m referring to.

I hate to liken this to football, but sometimes it’s the same kind of arrogance you might get with SEC fans. It’s apparently the best thing since sliced bread all while playing the likes of Jacksonville State, San Jose State and Louisiana-Lafayette.

I know that all Yankee fans aren’t like this. I know quite a few who are very contrite and very down to earth. If the Yankees win, they’re the last ones to rub it in your face or let you know, more than once a month, how many championships the Yankees have in comparison to everyone else in Major League Baseball.

With the 2010 American League Championship Series just a few hours from first pitch, you know there are going to be several articles published from just about every news source you could possibly think of.

They’ll be coming from the two cities represented as well as anyone who has an opinion or prediction on how this series will end.

But the one thing I didn’t expect was to read an article that was so far beyond the arrogance boundary that it actually made me take a stronger side in this series than I had planned on.

Living in San Diego for eight years of my life, and being a Junior Padre when I was a kid, my allegiance has always been to the San Diego Padres.

I’m not a bandwagon jumper, even though I now reside in Texas, so I was planning on just standing on the sidelines and watching this series strictly as a baseball fan.

Not anymore.

As I was driving home yesterday, I was listening to one of my favorite radio stations talking about this upcoming series. I heard one of the hosts read, verbatim, from an article that was written by the New York Daily News.

What I heard made me shake my head in disbelief. I couldn’t imagine that anything like this could be written from a professional source such as the Daily News. Could it?

I understand that the object of a writer is to reel his or her audience in and keep them captivated and keep them coming back. This most certainly did both of those.

In a portion of this article, New York Daily News writer Filip Bondy writes, “The Yanks should win this series just by throwing their pinstriped uniforms onto the field and reading from a few pages of The Baseball Encyclopedia.”

Bondy went on to say, “The Rangers are the oldest of three existing major league clubs never to have won a pennant. They should be ashamed to bring their media guides to the Bronx.”

Want one more excerpt from this lovely piece? I thought you might.

“Why are they even playing this series? Why don’t they just use the scores from ’96, ’98 and ’99?”

Since Mr. Bondy brought up the Baseball Encyclopedia, I’m going to dust mine off and open it up to the last eight years. Just to see how that “history” worked out for the Yankees.

In 2001, the Yankees faced the Arizona Diamondbacks in the World Series. The same “history” Bondy refers to held true in this series as well. In what was Arizona’s first trip to the World Series, the Diamondbacks stared the Yankees down, took Game 7, and the World Series trophy, thanks to a walk-off single in the ninth by Luis Gonzalez off Mariano Rivera.

In 2002, the Yankees were back in the playoffs and about to take on the then-Anaheim Angels in the American League Divisional Series. The Yankees had history on their side against a team that didn’t have a single World Series championship. Sound familiar?

The ALDS lasted four games with the Angels, the eventual World Series champions, moving on and the Yankees going home.

The 2003 season saw the Yankees finish with the league’s best record (101-61). After knocking off the rival Boston Red Sox thanks to a dramatic walk-off, series-winning home run by Aaron Boone, the Yankees were about to face the Florida Marlins in the World Series.

The Marlins had just one World Series Championship, coming in 1997, under their belt to the 26 that had piled up for the Yankees franchise.

Like the Angels and Diamondbacks before them, the Marlins stared the Yankees down and let them watch the celebration that took place as the Marlins won the World Series four games to two.

The 2004 season saw the Yankees make baseball history, but not the kind of history they want to be remembered for.

After getting through the ALDS, the Yankees took a commanding three games to none lead on their hated rivals, the Boston Red Sox, in the ALCS. That’s where history stepped in.

The Red Sox came back and won the next four games, making the New York Yankees the first team in North American sports history to ever lose a best-of-seven series after winning the first three games.

Boston would go on to win their sixth World Series title in franchise history.

For the next three seasons, from 2005 to 2008, the Yankees would be eliminated from the ALDS twice and would miss the playoffs in 2008 for the first time in franchise history.

So, from 2001-2008, they would make seven playoff appearances and two World Series appearances. In each of those playoff series, two of which came with the same number of World Series Championships as the Texas Rangers currently hold—zero, they lost them both.

The Yankees can throw their jersey on the field at Rangers Ballpark, but if they think the Rangers are going to back down just because they’re the New York Yankees, they have another thing coming.

The Texas Rangers are must more improved from the teams the Yankees knocked off in the late 1990s. They have pitching, they have the bullpen, and they have the offense to go toe-to-toe with the 27-time world champions.

The 2010 ALCS is not going to be the cake-walk that the Yankees experienced against the Minnesota Twins.

So, before shots are taken at the Texas Rangers because of their history and before you throw up bulletin board material, you might want to see how those other teams without a World Series title did against the Yankees.

And then maybe, just maybe, you’ll realize that history doesn’t always repeat itself.

Because, as the ever-famous saying goes, “That’s why they play the game.”

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With one game to go to decide who the New York Yankees will play in the American League Championship Series, it’s time to jump ahead a little bit and do some assumption work.

Assuming the Phillies get past the Giants for the NLCS title and the Yankees win the ALCS, how would the Phillies and Yankees match up in the 2010 World Series?

Both these teams having pitching and they certainly have power on offense. But what sets these two teams apart?

Let’s dive into a possible World Series matchup and take a look at who will take the World Series trophy home.

It’s the Philadelphia Phillies versus the New York Yankees.

Begin Slideshow

This three game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds wasn’t so much of a series as a statement. Like a man on a mission the Phillies, along with 25-year-old postseason veteran Cole Hamels, finished off the NLDS sweep and head back home to await their opponent.

The Phillies allowed the fans of Cincinnati to view just one home game after a 15-year wait without one. Not only did Reds fans wait 15 years for the team to get back into the playoffs, they were then forced to watch their team get no hits, blow a lead in game two, and get shut out in game three to cap it off.

This Phillies team is on a mission. They showed up to Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati with their bags packed, ready to return home to Philadelphia. A sign of extreme confidence from a team, who if they would have lost, would have had to unpack and stay another night in Cincinnati. Obviously, Hamels wanted to return to Philadelphia as he pitched like a man who was double parked. The 2008 World Series MVP went a complete game not giving up any runs while striking out nine Reds batters.

At one point, I made the comment that if this Phillies team were to play the 2008 Phillies team in a playoff series, the 2008 Phillies team would have gotten smoked. Little did we know in 2008 that the best of times for Phillies fans was ahead. Names like Eric Bruntlett, Geoff Jenkins, Jamie Moyer, and Joe Blanton all made huge impacts in 2008 but are either no longer on the team or won’t play a factor at all.

What can you say that hasn’t already been said about Roy Halladay? The future National League CY Young award winner waited his whole career for October 6th and didn’t disappoint, as he became just the second pitcher in major league baseball history to pitch a postseason no hitter.

After the game, he tipped his cap to the fans, did a few interviews, and then got back to work doing his postgame work outs. Just business as usual for the Phillies ace who said during a December press conference that he wanted to come to Philadelphia to pitch in the postseason. Making history is one way to make your postseason debut.

Not only did Halladay turn down several interview requests from major media figures but showed up to the ballpark on Thursday morning at 10 am. It was also his son’s birthday. Halladay’s work ethic has seemingly brushed off on a lot of the Phillies players and one of them has been Cole Hamels.

Hamels came into camp in shape and has matured a lot from the Cole Hamels that showed up in 2009. That Cole Hamels was out of shape and still soaking in 2008 instead of focusing in on 2009, and it showed with his results on the field. The Cole Hamels that was on the mound Sunday night in Cincinnati however was a Cole Hamels who is trying to back up what he said to fans during the 2008 World Series Parade. “I want to go down that street again, and again, and again.”

A funny thing has happened to a city that was once considered cursed. People walk around with a confidence in a team that has either never been there or hasn’t been in quite a while. The days of being worried about matchups are seemingly over. The days of being down late in ball games and knowing the game is over are over. The days of being disappointed by a team’s promises are over. This Phillies team has done nothing but instill faith in a city that has never had it from any of its other pro sports teams.

This Phillies teams has mended the broken hearts of Eagles fans who came so close in 2004 but fell just three points short. This Phillies team is making the Patrick Kane goal easier to accept with every pitch. This Phillies team has changed the mindset of an entire city that had started to believe it would always be the bride’s maid and never the bride.

Philadelphia will never be New York. We will never get the national recognition that New York does and will always be looked down upon by those who live in the big apple. But the Phillies have a chance to push their way into the national spot light with their postseason success. The Phillies became just the fourth team in National League history to play in four straight post seasons and if they can reach the World Series they would become the first National League team to reach three straight World Series since the 42-45 St. Louis Cardinals.

The word Dynasty is being talked about, and when I brought it up to a recent Yankees fan, they laughed. Spoiled with 27 championships, many of which they never saw, they said “call me when you win more than two rings.” But what defines success?

In 2007, success for the Phillies was just making the postseason and for many teams success is just that, a postseason berth. You get to display a flag for clinching a division title, and it’s not the easiest thing to make four straight postseasons. Many Yankees fans forget that, in 2008, they didn’t make the playoffs, but with a bolstered staff, they did indeed make it back to the Fall Classic and win No. 27.

The Yankees are a dynasty all to themselves and to compete with the Yankees when talking about Dynasty is like a midget competing with Dwight Howard in a dunk off. But when looking at the rest of the 28 teams in MLB the Phillies recent run of post season success might be classified as just that. It’s hard to get on top, but it’s even harder to stay there yet this Phillies team has managed to do just that.

While most teams fold under the bright lights that October baseball brings, it appears like this Phillies team shines under them. Bobby Cox and the Atlanta Braves are about to once again disappoint a fan base in Atlanta by making the playoffs and getting eliminated in the first round. If they are able to come back and win the next two games against the San Francisco Giants, I ask you Phillies fans, do they scare you? Do the Braves scare you more than the Giants or vice versa?

Call it confidence, call it being foolishly cocky, but neither scares me. The days of being scared of other teams is over, and it’s thanks to the team that plays in Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies are headed to their third straight National League Championship Series, and there is no doubt in my mind that I will soon be writing about how they are awaiting to see who their opponent will be for their third straight World Series. Like the Blues Brothers, this team appears like they are on a mission from God, and I can’t see anyone stopping them…can you?

THIS ARTICLE, AND MANY MORE PHILLY SPORTS ARTICLES, CAN BE FOUND ON CRACKEDBELLSPORTS.COM

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The Cincinnati Reds have been a dark-horse pick by a lot of fans for a few years and the team put it all together in 2010. Dusty Baker is now taking his third National League team into the playoffs.

Will this be the year he gets that ring?

The Reds offense, led by slugger Joey Votto and lead-off hitter Brandon Phillips, gets to face the toughest staff in the postseason in the Philadelphia Phillies.

If momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher then I love the Phillies’ momentum when they can throw out Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt.

The Reds are also a great story in that they were in the NL Central where the St. Louis Cardinals were prohibitive favorites. At the start of the season, I thought that there would be no way the Cards would not make the playoffs. Tony LaRussa dealt with a myriad of injuries and at the end of the season. They looked more like an old team than a title contender.

The Atlanta Braves are also a very nice story. They led the NL East over the Phillies for a good portion of the season until the Phils finally overtook them in September. Bobby Cox is back in the postseason in his final year as the Braves manager.

The collapse of the San Diego Padres was a real surprise in the last quarter of the MLB season. A team with a limited payroll that actually picked up some bats for their meek offense in July simply fell apart down the stretch. They did survive a 10-game losing streak with the lead but that skid allowed the San Francisco Giants to make up a lot of ground. 

The Giants and the Padres look like the same team: loaded with pitching but lacking in offense. Will the Giants get enough offense to get past the Braves in the NLDS?

It looks like the Braves and Phillies will meet in the NLCS. In 1993, the Phillies shocked the Braves in the NLCS so will the tables be turned 17 years later?

Why not? Look for the Braves to go on a magical run.

The American League was supposed to be dominated by the Yankees and Red Sox again. That has not been the case as Boston suffered through a horrible season of injuries. At a critical time of the season, the Yankees have big questions about their pitching.

CC Sabathia looks like a Cy Young winner but after that the Yankees might be in trouble. I am not going to worry about Mariano Rivera so if the Yankees do have late leads, they still have the hammer to close out the games.

The thing is, will they have late leads? The Twins are going to go without Justin Morneau but they have been without him since early July and they still played the best baseball in the fourth quarter of the season.

Morneau has been out with a concussion for three months. It really makes me fret for the NFL players who sit out a week after they suffer the same injury. I applaud the Twins and Morneau for putting safety first and the story worked out as the Twins are back in the playoffs.

But they have never beat the Yankees in the playoffs.

The Texas Rangers are back in the postseason for the first time since 1999. This is a franchise that has never won a playoff series and they get matched up with the Tampa Bay Rays. It is all about timing and Josh Hamilton’s injury could not have been at a worse time. This is a fun Ranger team that has a chance to make some noise and they have their best player returning from a rib injury.

No one ever said that life was fair.

Still, I like the Rangers to get past the Rays as Tampa Bay has no home-field advantage to speak of. They had to give away 20,000 tickets to “sell out” their moribund stadium after they clinched a playoff berth. Their catwalk also cost them a game this season and the rules have been modified to account for that quirk of Tropicana Field.

Now, the Yankees also have always beaten the Rangers in the playoffs but this is not the same Rangers team. I think that they will find a way to get past the Yankees as long as they don’t trail late in the game.

Josh Hamilton was the AL MVP but he won’t win it due to his late-season injury. I do expect him to have a huge impact in what will be a magical run by the Rangers.

I am a real sentimental guy and that makes it tough for me to go against Atlanta. I look for the Braves to finish off their magical season with a World Series win over the Texas Rangers.

Let’s now take one final look at the issue of parity in the MLB. 16 out of the 30 teams were at .500 or better. That is a very good sign of the health of the game. The Reds and Giants returning to the playoffs is also a good sign as well as the Padres staying in the race until the last day of the season.

The run of the Tampa Bay Rays is sadly coming to an end after this postseason. I do realize they have prospects aplenty in their farm system but losing the likes of Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena will have them in a temporary decline. Joe Maddon is a great manager and I hope he can keep this thing rolling in Tampa Bay.

The best farm system in baseball belongs to the Kansas City Royals. That means that the Royals might have a window opening soon to be relevant again. As a Cleveland fan, I do enjoy those windows and understand that we have to suffer through seasons like 2010 to get to those windows.

As a baseball fan, I sure wish that the windows for small market teams could stay open longer.

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Marquee pitching match-ups are what playoff baseball is all about. Men like Curt Schilling and John Smoltz built their legacies in the harsh crucible of October, and now a new set of aces is ready to take center stage and make that sort of impact themselves.

Some, like Texas Rangers ace Cliff Lee, have already established their postseason prowess. For others, like the Giants’ Tim Lincecum and Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay, 2010 will mark a long-awaited playoff debut. The intensity of duels like these put butts in seats, and draw those watching at home up onto their feet to pace the living room. When runs are as scarce as they may be in these contests, every pitch is crucial.

What follows are the five best playoff pitching match-ups of the first round. Baseball connoisseurs, bon appetit.

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