Lidge voted Daily News Sportsperson of the Year

BASEBALL IS A game of failure. This is a truism that has been repeated over and over until its edges are worn from use. Baseball is a humbling game. That's the mantra. Nobody can expect to survive the grind of the longest season without being tripped up. That's what we've been told.

What, then, do we make of what Brad Lidge did for the Phillies this season? How do we grasp it, understand it, place it in its proper spot in the sporting cosmos?

Forty-one times during the 2008 season, the lanky righthander with the paralyzing slider went to the mound to protect a late lead. Forty-one times the Phillies soon followed his arrival by tumbling out of the dugout to celebrate another win. It happened seven more times in the postseason, including the final out of the World Series when he got Eric Hinske of the Tampa Bay Rays swinging to preserve a 4-3 win, then dropped to his knees, arms spread in triumph. That's 48-for-48. Perfect.

For that, for going 2-0 with a 1.95 earned run average, for providing an image of joy that became an instant classic even as this venerable city exploded in celebration, and for doing it all with the same equanimity with which he dealt with the down times that helped convince the Astros to trade him to Philadelphia in the first place, Lidge has been voted the first Daily News Sportsperson of the Year by the paper's sports staff and other experts.

He received 13 of 35 first-place votes and 133 points in a list that, not surprisingly, was dominated by the Phillies. Manager Charlie Manuel (12 first-place votes, 100 points), lefthander Cole Hamels (7, 93) and first baseman Ryan Howard (26 points) rounded out the Top 4. The only other candidates to receive first-place votes were Jamie Moyer and Pat Burrell.

"It really is a big deal and very cool for me," the gracious 32-year-old closer said from his Colorado home. "I mean, our team is full of MVP-caliber players. And to be considered in terms of this vote to be at the top of that, it's quite an honor, for sure.

"So this is a great honor, because it helps me put the year in context, too. You feel like you've done some great things. You're not sure exactly where it stacks up. So this makes you feel like you've accomplished something really big."

Yes, Lidge accomplished something really big. And the whole idea of what he did - perfection! - is only now beginning to sink in. That blown save in the 15th inning of the All-Star Game, after warming up a half-dozen times, has long since been expunged.