Bob Ford: Dodgers' GM knows a good story

Along the way, with a lot of credit to manager Joe Torre for keeping the team together, veterans like Jeff Kent, Nomar Garciaparra, Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones were moved aside to make way for younger players.

It wasn't a pretty process. The Dodgers were five games under .500 on Aug. 29 before going 19-8 the remainder of the season. They capped that by sweeping the Cubs in the division series and now return to Citizens Bank Park to deal with the memory of a four-game sweep that was part of their August swoon.

Colletti will have other memories to deal with. He hasn't been back to Philadelphia since Vukovich died of brain cancer just before the start of the 2007 season. There is a picture of Vukovich on his office desk and one of the "VUK" patches worn by the Phils last year. He sees those every day.

"I've had the opportunity to come back, but I just couldn't," Colletti said. "It's going to be an emotional thing for me. One of the first things I'm going to do is walk to that Wall of Fame area in center field and look at his plaque."

So Ned Colletti is back in town in time for the hockey season once more. There are other things on his mind right now. He promises to remember the journey, though. Philadelphia has been both a beginning and an end for him in the past. This week, it will be one of those again, but it's too soon to say which.