Charlie Manuel

Ryan Howard felt a tiny pinch Sept. 18 when a team physician's needle penetrated the numbed surface of a left heel that had been throbbing red-hot for weeks. Within seconds, the syringe's milky mixture of cortisone and painkiller rushed warmly into the tiny, inflamed bursa sac at the base of the slugger's Achilles tendon. Howard and the Phillies were rolling the dice. They hoped the cortisone would ease the pain and, after a brief rest, return him to form for the fast-approaching postseason.

The Phillies had squandered so many chances Saturday night until a 90-foot sprint by Jimmy Rollins. When the shortstop's right foot touched first base, he spread his arms to signal safe. First-base umpire Paul Emmel agreed. Rollins clapped his hands and pumped his fist. They had pushed Boston to the brink of snapping. Then Shane Victorino swung at a first-pitch fastball from Alfredo Aceves and a wave of good vibes plopped into Red Sox shortstop Mike Aviles' glove. "I would swing at that every single time," Victorino said.

Phillies fans have been breathing rarefied air during the last five years: a string of division titles, a pair of trips to the World Series, a sun-kissed parade down Broad Street, and an annual influx of All-Stars who wanted to be in Philadelphia, who were excited to wear red pinstripes, to play alongside Chase and Ryan and Cole, the homegrown heroes. It was surreal. It was joyous. But now you can't help but wonder: Is it over? Yeah, yeah — the Phillies finally had a decent week where they were able to string together a couple of wins against the Padres, Astros and Cubs.

His teammates would have to wait one day for the celebratory cigars because Jimmy Rollins never came to Citizens Bank Park on Monday. Instead, he spent the night with his wife, Johari, and their newborn baby girl. Rollins, 33, became a father for the first time. In baseball terms, that meant a lineup shuffle for Charlie Manuel. He left the lineup on his desk for longer than usual, with hopes Rollins would appear. But the baby was born in the "wee hours" of the morning Monday, so Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said it was best for Rollins to rest.

For the first time since late February, the Phillies have six days without a baseball game. But the players must remain sharp while management considers several important decisions before the World Series begins Wednesday. Before the team's two-hour workout at Citizens Bank Park yesterday, manager Charlie Manuel, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., and other staff members sat for the first of many meetings. Among the most pressing decisions: how to configure the starting rotation, whether to include Brett Myers on the roster, and how to be productive with all the time off. On the first point, Cliff Lee, the ace in the division series and National League Championship Series, likely will start Game 1, Manuel said yesterday.

Charlie Manuel hates finishing second, as he did in the Manager of the Year voting - to Lou Piniella, whose Cubs won five more games but spent $20 million more than Manuel's Phils. He won't mind finishing second in this race. Especially not to Brad Lidge, the closer whose perfection meant validation for Manuel, so often ridiculed, so seldom appreciated, and now, forever, a Winner. Manuel believes in roles for his bullpen, and he stuck to his formula. Manuel believes in winning with power, especialy in a park where even minimal power is magnified.

Reunions can be fun. Watching Brian Dawkins hug his former Eagles teammates and fight back tears as he talked about the late Jim Johnson's profound impact on his career was one more grand moment for the man who used to serve as the needle that inflated the energy level at Lincoln Financial Field. Reunions can be painful. Watching 41-year-old Jim Thome play baseball this season has been excruciating. Thome, of course, was the man who by simply signing a contract restored enthusiasm for a franchise that had fallen into a dark abyss.

ATLANTA - Once upon a time, Jim Thome was the Phillies starting first baseman. He appeared to be cemented into that spot for the foreseeable future because of his production and the fact that he was a great teammate. Oh, yeah, and because he was guaranteed a lot of money for a lot of years. Then he got hurt, Ryan Howard got his chance and Thome was traded. Jayson Werth was almost an afterthought when he first came to the Phillies. He played well enough to convince the Phillies to platoon him with Geoff Jenkins going into the 2008 season.

As a hitting instructor, Charlie Manuel helped the Cleveland Indians score more runs than any other team in the last half-century. Now the club wants him to be the manager who brings Cleveland its first World Series title since 1948. The Indians hired Manuel as manager yesterday, ending a search that took general manager John Hart outside the organization but wound up back at the Indians' dugout. Manuel has never managed in the major leagues but is a favorite amomg players in Cleveland and has worked for the last six years as the Indians' hitting instructor.

Charlie Manuel isn't as brainy as Steve Jobs, as brash as Donald Trump, or as bizarre as Ted Turner. He doesn't do pie charts, power lunches, or peer appraisals. And the last time we saw him in a suit, that gaudy pin-striped number he wore to the 2008 victory parade, he looked more upstart mobster than upper management. But don't let the Phillies manager's down-home demeanor and syntactical struggles fool you. While his Citizens Bank Park office might not have a Wharton diploma on its walls or any of Tom Peters' books on its shelves, he possesses the leadership savvy and skills of the chief executive officer of a Fortune 500 company.

ST. LOUIS - Seems only 2 weeks ago we were writing the obituary for this Phillies bullpen. Actually, it was only 2 weeks ago. But things have changed, good things, as a matter of fact, as Thursday night's 10-9 victory over the Cardinals continued to bear out. It was May 9 when Ruben Amaro Jr. decided to make a line change and call up lefties Jake Diekman and Raul Valdes from Triple A Lehigh Valley after watching his bullpen's latest...

ST. LOUIS - Chase Utley took two sessions of batting practice before the Phillies' game Thursday night against the St. Louis Cardinals and manager Charlie Manuel liked what he saw. "I was encouraged with the way the ball was jumping off his bat and how nice he was swinging," Manuel said before his team opened a four-game series against the defending World Series champions at Busch Stadium. "And any time he goes out and takes ground balls, I get encouraged by that. " Utley's BP sessions may have been encouraging, but his work in the field was limited and that's the part of the game that causes the second baseman's creaky left knee the most pain.

His teammates would have to wait one day for the celebratory cigars because Jimmy Rollins never came to Citizens Bank Park on Monday. Instead, he spent the night with his wife, Johari, and their newborn baby girl. Rollins, 33, became a father for the first time. In baseball terms, that meant a lineup shuffle for Charlie Manuel. He left the lineup on his desk for longer than usual, with hopes Rollins would appear. But the baby was born in the "wee hours" of the morning Monday, so Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said it was best for Rollins to rest.

Phillies fans have been breathing rarefied air during the last five years: a string of division titles, a pair of trips to the World Series, a sun-kissed parade down Broad Street, and an annual influx of All-Stars who wanted to be in Philadelphia, who were excited to wear red pinstripes, to play alongside Chase and Ryan and Cole, the homegrown heroes. It was surreal. It was joyous. But now you can't help but wonder: Is it over? Yeah, yeah — the Phillies finally had a decent week where they were able to string together a couple of wins against the Padres, Astros and Cubs.

The mist turned into rain, but that was not reason enough for a mass exodus Monday night from Citizens Bank Park. No, not yet. Then John Mayberry Jr. flied weakly to right, ending the sixth inning and the Phillies' failed rally in a 2-1 loss to the Washington Nationals. "Let's get out of here," one fan said to another in the ballpark's club seats. And so they left, as did many others. This brand of Phillies baseball is no more frustrating than when runners reach base and are primed to score.

Forty-two down is the answer to how many games the Phillies have played so far this season. Twenty-one across is the answer to the Phillies' number of wins and losses. This is not a crossword puzzle, but the Phillies have heard their share of cross words during this puzzling first month and a half of the 2012 season. They heard more during and after Sunday's listless 5-1 interleague loss to the Boston Red Sox at Citizens Bank Park. With their needle stuck again at .500, the Phillies lost ground to every team in the National League East and lost most of the momentum they had gained during a six-game winning streak that consisted mostly of victories against the dregs of Major League Baseball.

When Mike Aviles smacked the third pitch Cliff Lee threw Sunday, he had done something no Red Sox hitter had accomplished in 99 years. Aviles had bashed leadoff home runs on two consecutive days to ignite Boston's offensive explosions. In 1913, a man named Harry Hooper did the same thing. Upon his retirement from baseball, he campaigned for Franklin D. Roosevelt and was named postmaster of Capitola, Calif. No, it has not been that long since Lee has won a game, but it's beginning to feel like it. After a 5-1 drubbing by the Red Sox, Lee is winless through his first six starts of a season for the first time in his career.

The Phillies had squandered so many chances Saturday night until a 90-foot sprint by Jimmy Rollins. When the shortstop's right foot touched first base, he spread his arms to signal safe. First-base umpire Paul Emmel agreed. Rollins clapped his hands and pumped his fist. They had pushed Boston to the brink of snapping. Then Shane Victorino swung at a first-pitch fastball from Alfredo Aceves and a wave of good vibes plopped into Red Sox shortstop Mike Aviles' glove. "I would swing at that every single time," Victorino said.

Charlie Manuel wouldn't come out and say he deserved his one-game suspension as a result of his nose-to-nose altercation Tuesday night with umpire Bob Davidson, but the Phillies manager wasn't publicly criticizing the decision, either. As it turns out, both Manuel and Davidson got the night off Friday. Both received one-game suspensions stemming from an on-field incident in the top of the eighth inning of Tuesday's 4-3 Phillies win in 10 innings over the Houston Astros at Citizens Bank Park.

Joe Blanton reached for his helmet and bat without hesitation. Maybe, if he avoided Charlie Manuel or Rich Dubee in the dugout, he could extend his outing beyond the seventh inning Monday. Manuel stopped Blanton before he escaped. "How do you feel?" the manager asked his fifth starter. "Good," Blanton said. So he batted. Even as Blanton cursed when Manuel finally emerged with the hook in the eighth inning of a 5-1 Phillies victory over Houston, there was so much to be happy about.