How the Phillies reached the top

The 2006 season was Pat Gillick's first as Phillies general manager. He previously had been the GM in Toronto, Baltimore and Seattle. All three teams made the playoffs and the Blue Jays twice won the World Series.

Amaro described the firing of Wade, who remains a close friend, as "unfortunate." He also recognizes that Gillick added something to the mix. "Pat's brilliant and makes all the right moves and has been doing it for 35 years," he said.

The Phillies broke their streak of three straight second-place finishes in Gillick's second year, finishing with a furious rush as the Mets collapsed.

"We pushed hard at the end of '07. We were lucky that New York was not playing well, obviously. All that stuff," Amaro said. "It was kind of like an order of progression there. Guys got a little more confident each year and started to believe in themselves a little bit more each year. And it kind of culminated last year in the World Series victory.

"And it's carried over to this year. Not to the point that they're throwing their gloves out there and saying, 'OK, we've got this handled.' And Charlie and his staff deserve a lot of credit for not allowing that to happen over a long period of time."

Amaro took over as GM when Gillick retired at the end of last season. He now oversees a baseball team with a lineup that includes Rollins, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jayson Werth, Shane Victorino and Raul Ibanez. A lineup, in short, that he would not have cracked in his playing days.

"On this team I'd be down on the end of the bench over there with my pompoms on. That's where I'd be," he said with a laugh. *

Daily News columnist Rich Hofmann

contributed to this report.