Rich Hofmann: Manuel's teams never lack heart

NEW YORK - You never get used to the suddenness of the ending. For the Phillies, it really does seem as if this has gone on for 18 months. The 2008 and 2009 seasons have always seemed joined somehow, inseparable, unforgettable. And then the Yankees flooded out of their dugout and it was over.

"It seemed like one complete season," Charlie Manuel said. "It seemed like it's just been a steady go. But it was good. Everything about it, when you're winning, is good."

These will always be remembered among the greatest of times in Philadelphia sports history, a six-game loss to the Yankees in the World Series notwithstanding. With their 7-3 loss to the Yankees, it marked a bitterly missed opportunity to repeat as champion, a failure to achieve immortality - but the perspective will arrive quickly. This team will always be viewed through the prism that is its manager. Even in falling short, even if he sees it as secondary, we will always talk about Manuel's heart, and about his team's.

And this proclamation: "I'll tell you something, we will be back. As MacArthur said, I guess, we will be back."

What Gen. Douglas MacArthur actually said, after the Philippines were lost in World War II, was, "I shall return." But, as Charlie would say, what the hell.

"We definitely can play with [the Yankees]," Manuel said. "Are they better than we are? For this series, they were. Whatever that means. They've got the trophy, we don't. We gave it up. But we're going to get it back."

He was standing in a hallway outside of his clubhouse, talking, looking back, his eyes occasionally tearing. Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of Manuel's hiring as the Phillies' manager. He is the first one to tell you that he has been supplied with a truckload of talent. He was laughing about it a couple of weeks ago in Los Angeles during the League Championship Series, about how people say this guy is a good manager or that guy is a good manager, about how he knows it is all talk.

"Hell, it's all about who's got the horses," he said, squinting into the afternoon sun.

But the truth is, Manuel has ridden herd on a revolution. Five years ago, this was not a likable team. Five years ago, this was not an admired franchise. Their reputation was for timidity. They lacked a personality. During his tenure, all of that has changed. He demanded only two things from them: that they play for nine innings and that they be themselves. The rest, he said, was on him.