Sunny times in Philadelphia

Through the haze of firework plumes that gradually were dissipating above Citizens Bank Park on Friday night, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. appeared on the scoreboard video screen like an apparition from Oz, bidding the customers good night and good news.

Amaro announced to the crowd that the Phillies had traded for outfielder Hunter Pence, a deal the team hopes is the last piece to the 2011 championship puzzle. The fans roared their approval, and why not? Their team is going for it all, and no one is going to complain about that.

The next morning, through a different haze, the shimmering heat waves on the practice field at Lehigh University, the fans looked away from the field and toward the locker room and saw the slow approach of another apparition. It was a 6-foot-5 veteran quarterback signed for the singular purpose of giving the Eagles insurance in their own search for a championship.

Already, the fans had seen new all-pro cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie on the field. They had heard of the signing of Nnamdi Asomugha, another all-pro at that position, and the most sought-after free agent in the NFL. Trades had been completed, signings were coming one after another. And now, here was Vince Young, another flesh-and-blood indication that their team was also leaving no pebble in its path.

"This," Young said a few minutes later on Saturday morning, "is a dream team."

At the moment in which July bends into August, the dreams of baseball and football teams can still turn into nothing more than apparitions of greatness that are proven to be mere mirages before the year is out. The truth usually comes sooner in baseball, but it can catch up to football by the end of October as well.

Whatever the outcomes with the Phillies and Eagles in the 2011 season, both teams have fully dismissed their previous reputations as spare spenders and careful cutters of corners. They have carried big sticks through the player-acquisition process and haven't even bothered to walk softly.

The Phillies targeted Pence and landed him from among a clutch of other suitors, for the price of two well-regarded single-A prospects and a couple of lesser players. The prospects could turn into something someday, but there are also very important somedays just ahead of the Phillies right now.

"I think the front office knows that we're in a special time here in Philadelphia," second baseman Chase Utley said.