We've been putting up with it all season, and the season before, and...

I mean, this is the guy who, in his first year managing the Phils, claimed he sometimes forgot about the double-switch. Not "forgot that this would be a good time to do one", but "forgot it *existed*". Questionable decisions? Sure, but that's just Charlie. Gillick cleaned house among assistant managers and hired three new ones to keep an eye on the guy.

Let's just say I'm not a fan of Charlie. I'm happy he has a light touch and the club is playing their hearts out for the guy, but the manager of a World Series club should be one that is able to strategize a few extra wins for your club, not nearly cost it victories.

Why is that? A curious baseball-ism that springs to mind when I see the syntax in Kign's column.

...Because of the unbearable amount and quality of the commercials, both for the Fox TV shows and the national advertisers.

Why are the Super Bowl commercials so COOL and the World Series commercials so LAME? I've only seen the Miller High Life guy twice so far and am ready to take a keg of the stuff and give him a Gatorade shower!

Re: Chris Coste...well, it'll be fun to compare + contrast the Phils' DH'ers with the performance of the Rays' pitchers at CB Park.

Shouldn't we also be asking, considering all the passable lefties on the bench, why Howard was starting at all. It seems like everyone but Manual's figured out he can't hit lefties at a major league level. I know he's a "proven run producer" and all, but it's not like he'd be the first star to take a seat against pitchers he couldn't handle. I remember the Indians regularly benching Jim Thome against tough lefties in the nineties.

The Phillies bench is THIN... when i looked at the lineup and realized Pedro Feliz was starting at 3rd, my heart sank. There are too many holes in the lineup, which is why leaving men on base is going to be an ongoing theme for them this series.

And the previous poster is right -- though of course you can't sit Howard. He looks like David Ortiz revisited, right down to the exaggerated shift he hits into (when he's not striking out). The problem's in the head, though, not the wrist.

Every so often I wonder what it would be like if the professional leagues took a page from little league playoffs, where they often have rules that if you win a round (league, region, district, whatever) you can pick up 1 or 2 players off teams that didn't win. I know it's never going to happen, but it would be kinda fun to see who got picked up, who didn't, who got dropped to make room, and how they got used in the games.

That's the nice thing about baseball. There is plenty of time to wonder about such things.

If that's what it takes to get the Cubs into the Series...

Yes, Bruntlett isn't much of a hitter. We know that. My wild guess is that Charlie Manuel knows it too.

The problem, according to you is that he didn't get a hit in his only at-bat of the game. Uh, care to try to prove that if Gross or anyone else had been at the plate, he would have gotten a hit? Did you actually watch the game last night? How many Phillies failed to hit with two outs and men in scoring position? Oh that's right, about half a dozen including Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell twice each. Jimmie Rollins can't seem to get on base at all. So Bruntlett's the problem? How do you figure?

The answer to your question, "why's he in the league?" is equally simple - he can play any position on the diamond except pitcher. Baseball teams consist of 25 players. That's 8 starting position players, plus 11 pithers and six others. One of the others has to be a back-up catcher. That leaves a maximum of five guys to fill all the other positions, to fill in when a regular starter sprains an ankle, to be a late-inning defensive replacement for a slow-footed or mediocre regular, etc. In short, guys like Bruntlett play an incredibly valuable role in baseball which is why, if you look around, you'll see that every team has one or two utility guys. Bruntlett, contrary to what you claim, is an extremely good infielder and has a lot more speed than Burrell whom he typically replaces.

If you don't have anything better to say than to try to tag Eric Bruntlett with the Phillies clutch hitting woes, stick a sock in it.

I'm pretty sure I heard the announcers talking about Coste as the back-up catcher. Apparently he is much better at catching and/or trapping Lidge's nasty sliders. If i heard correctly, that is why he was used as a DH, then to catch in the bottom of the 9th with Lidge doing what he does best.

I could be wrong. But if not it would at least explain the decision.

GO PHILS

It's almost like he's trying to get traded to the Red Sox, growing that unbearable beard. He was one of the hotter Phillies (a very good looking team) before he grew that monstrosity.

But back to seriousness. Does MLB increase the time between half-innings for the World Series. I'm a big fan of TiVo, even for live sporting events. And when I was clicking my 30 second advance, I had to click it 6 times, not the regular season 4 times.

So by my count. With the game starting after 8:30 and the extra 17 minutes of commercials over that time, the game is virtually guaranteed to end near or after midnight for the East Coasters. Are they trying to drive away their fan base?

Why are we subjected to 30 minutes of crap (I'm talking to you, Backstreet Boys) and drivel before the first pitch. My poor mother who watched virtually every Phillies game (except the West Coast Games) this year has to get up for work at 6 AM. She's pissed off and she has every right to be.