Obstacles to a World Series rematch

Thursday, November 5, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

Charlie Manuel quoted a general after Game 6, in pronouncing that the baseball world has not seen the last of the Phillies. "I'll tell you something -- we will be back," Manuel said. "As MacArthur said, I guess, we will be back."

He didn't get the words exactly right, but the sentiment is dead-on. It's well within reason to think the Phillies and Yankees will face each other in the World Series next year, although the league champions each have hurdles to overcome beyond the Angels and the Braves and Dodgers and Red Sox and Rockies and other teams. Here are eight issues standing between the Phillies and Yankees and a rematch for next year:

  1. Cole Hamels has to find himself. Maybe it was the enormous increase in innings from 2007 to 2008, or maybe it was because his offseason of 2008-09 was shortened by banquets and interviews and other stuff, or maybe it was because he was never quite right physically after straining his elbow in spring training. But no matter how you look at it, he was just not the same, and some of the same Philly fans who believe he was a hero in 2008 are now sure his meltdown in Game 3 is the reason the Phillies lost the World Series in 2009. Remember, Hamels is just 25 years old; he will now have the opportunity to rest and reflect and rebound, and if he can bounce back, he and Cliff Lee would make a devastating combination at the front of the Philadelphia rotation.

  2. The Yankees need to patch up the back of their rotation. Joe Girardi successfully navigated the postseason with only three starting pitchers, but now the Yankees will have to make choices and decisions. The guess here is they will continue to work to develop Joba Chamberlain as a starting pitcher, and they might do the same with Phil Hughes. New York must decide whether to tender a contract to Chien-Ming Wang -- and the guess here is that it won't -- and whether to pursue another starter through a trade or through free agency.

    3.  
     

    For the rest of the ways the Phillies and Yanks can create a rematch, you must be an ESPN Insider.
  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

Links

Subscribe

RSS RSS Feed

Recent Updates

Archive

More