national league baseball

Philadelphia Phillies general manager Pat Gillick says he is retiring -- again.

But will baseball let him?

How long will an owner desperate to win wait before calling Gillick and making him an offer he can't refuse?

Remember, the man has retired three times previously but has been lured back each time. He's a baseball lifer. And he knows what it takes to win.

It's a funny game, baseball.

We don't mean "ha-ha" funny. We mean anyone can win. Just ask the Los Angeles Angels. Or don't. They surely aren't in the mood.

This was supposed to be the classic fish-out-of-water scenario, as the puckish TV ad suggested. Joe Torre doing yoga? Riding a wave? Pitching a screenplay?

Why, what's the quintessential New York guy doing in La-La Land, anyway? And how can he possibly function in such a laid-back environment?

Quite effectively, it turned out.

CHICAGO -- The tone was set in the bottom of the first inning Thursday night.

Alfonso Soriano spanked Chad Billingsley's first-pitch slider to left field for a single, energizing a cadre of Chicago Cubs faithful looking for any excuse to raise the roof and get their team back into the National League division series.

While a faction of the media has attempted to create a buzz about the future of Colorado Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, there never was a desire within the organization to make a managerial change.

Sometimes in sports, things work out exactly the way they're supposed to.

This is one of those times.

Joe Torre made it to October.

Hank Steinbrenner didn't.

LOS ANGELES -- Manager Joe Torre certainly knows how to finish, and his Los Angeles Dodgers apparently developed that mentality as well in becoming National League West champions.

Remember that bold statement the New York Mets were supposed to make this season, in the wake of last September's historic collapse? Well, they made it.

LOS ANGELES -- Manny Ramirez sat at his locker Thursday afternoon, holding court and savoring what must have been the weirdest pennant clinching he'd ever been part of.

How often, after all, do you clinch your division seven hours or so before you can actually pop the champagne corks to celebrate it?

"I found out from somebody in the elevator," he cracked.

Philadelphia reliever Brad Lidge never blinked.

His mental toughness questioned in Houston, where he became the scapegoat for former manager Phil Garner's failures, Lidge embraced the challenge of Philadelphia this season, winning over fans that take pride in an image of booing Santa Claus.