David Bell

ON A TRIPLE A baseball diamond somewhere in Louisville, Ky., Mike Costanzo stood among a throng of kids and felt his stomach churn as a lifetime's worth of jubilation and disappointment flashed through his head. An hour earlier, the 28-year-old third baseman had phoned home to Delaware County for his usual pregame chat with his father. "I'm batting cleanup," Costanzo told Mike Sr., who knew that his son had been waiting for such a promotion. The conversation ended, but not for long.

Signaling that they will be sellers as Monday's non-waiver trade deadline approaches, the Phillies last night sent veteran third baseman David Bell to the Milwaukee Brewers for single-A relief pitcher Wilfrido Laureano, a 6-foot-6, 170-pound righthander. Laureano, 22, was 3-2 with a save and a 3.96 earned run average in 29 relief appearances for West Virginia in the South Atlantic League. In 63 2/3 innings, he struck out 62, walked 36 and allowed 54 hits. Opponents were hitting .218 against him. The 33-year-old Bell was in the final year of a four-year, $17 million contract with the Phillies.

Larry Bowa would love to have Jim Thome with the rest of his everyday eight just once before the Phillies leave Florida and head to Philadelphia next week. OK, more than once would be even better. The first baseman, who was sidelined by a broken finger, hasn't been in the starting lineup since March 4, although he pinch-hit Thursday and is expected to be the designated hitter today against Boston in Fort Myers. Third baseman David Bell returned to the lineup this week after having been sidelined since March 11 with tendinitis in his right shoulder.

There had been talk yesterday afternoon that the Phillies should have set up 25 cots in their clubhouse - kind of "Revenge of the Nerds" - after they endured a 16-inning loss early yesterday morning at Citizens Bank Park. At least they could have slept a little more that way. "We were tired," said closer Billy Wagner, who picked up his 12th save in a much-needed 7-6 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. "We played 16 innings. We got home at 2:30. You spend four, five hours with your family and turn around and come back.

The Phillies' free-agent quest is getting more and more interesting. They will give first baseman Jim Thome a tour of their new ballpark site on Thursday, and they have zeroed in on Atlanta lefthander Tom Glavine as a top pitching priority. General manager Ed Wade said he talked to Glavine's agent several times last week, and he hoped to express the Phillies' high level of interest directly to the two-time Cy Young Award winner in a phone conversation today. Glavine, a free agent for the first time in his career, reportedly was offended when the Braves initially offered nothing more than a one-year deal worth $8 million plus four option years.

The Phillies pulled a pitcher with a 9.74 earned run average last night at Miller Park for a pitcher with a 13.03 ERA. Impossible? Have you seen Vicente Padilla and Terry Adams pitch lately? The Phillies blew a one-run lead in the bottom of the sixth inning in an 8-5 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers when Adams replaced Padilla and promptly loaded the bases. Four runs eventually scored. Manager Charlie Manuel, who had been ejected in the fifth inning, explained the decision by bench coach Gary Varsho and pitching coach Rick Dubee to replace Padilla.

For some time, Phillies manager Larry Bowa has talked about the real David Bell. Real, meaning healthy. Real, meaning clutch hitter, solid third baseman, and clubhouse leader. "The best team we have out there is with David at third base," Bowa said last week. Bell's health is one of the Phillies' few uncertainties with spring training arriving next month. In his first season in Philadelphia, back and hip problems forced him to miss almost the entire second half of the season.

Phillies third baseman David Bell completed the 243d cycle in baseball history Monday night when he tripled in the seventh inning against the Montreal Expos at Citizens Bank Park. Bell wasn't the first family member to accomplish the feat. He wasn't even the first family member to do it in Philadelphia. Bell's grandfather, Gus Bell - a four-time all-star - hit for the cycle for the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 4, 1951, against the Phillies at Shibe Park. Bell tripled off the right-field wall in the first inning and homered in the fifth to give the Pirates a 6-0 lead on their way to a 12-4 victory.

Phillies scouting director Mike Arbuckle, who is spearheading efforts to sign J.D. Drew, could attempt to resume negotiations with the reluctant No. 1 draft pick as early as today. It probably won't matter much, at least in the short term. The Phillies aren't likely to significantly alter their original offer of a $2.05 million signing bonus, a record for a drafted player. And every indication is that agent Scott Boras isn't ready to reduce his demand for a package worth at least $10 million while he pursues further legal strategies.

The Eagles aren't the only team that's going to end its tenure at the Vet with a sellout. Yesterday, on the first day that individual-game tickets for the coming season were put on sale, the Phillies sold every remaining ticket for their regular-season finale, Sunday afternoon, Sept. 28, against the Atlanta Braves. In less than nine hours, more than 30,000 tickets were sold for the game, according to John Weber, the team's director of sales. Customers purchased nearly 20,000 more for other dates.

ON A TRIPLE A baseball diamond somewhere in Louisville, Ky., Mike Costanzo stood among a throng of kids and felt his stomach churn as a lifetime's worth of jubilation and disappointment flashed through his head. An hour earlier, the 28-year-old third baseman had phoned home to Delaware County for his usual pregame chat with his father. "I'm batting cleanup," Costanzo told Mike Sr., who knew that his son had been waiting for such a promotion. The conversation ended, but not for long.

ST. LOUIS - Three-run homers hide a lot of blemishes, although it must be noted that they never had much luck disguising the hole in David Bell's swing. But the one Phillies pinch-hitter Ben Francisco belted into his club's Busch Stadium bullpen to decide Game 3 did exactly that. Francisco hit the third, but by far most important, three-run homer in this NL division series that, thanks to his career's most magical moment, the Phillies now lead, two games to one. As a result, no one in the victors' quietly confident clubhouse or among their relieved fans in Philadelphia was complaining about the Phillies' schizophrenic offense, the one that generated 15 runs in the series' first 12 innings and none - on just four hits - in the 12 that preceded Francisco's Matt Stairs-like moment.

Reprinted from Saturday's editions The Phillies offense Friday night was nothing like the one that had generated so much trade speculation. Then the Phils made the trade they hope will produce more slugfests to match Friday's 10-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citizens Bank Park. Coveted Houston all-star outfielder Hunter Pence was dealt to the Phillies for first baseman Jonathan Singleton, righthanders Jarred Cosart and Josh Zeid, and a player to be named. The Phils also received cash.

HE SAYS he is 100 percent. The back is back, the left elbow with the chips floating in it feels OK. Placido Polanco says he can pick up his kids just fine, can open doors without pain. "But if I swing a certain way, or I hit [the elbow], it goes back to maybe 70 or 60 percent," he says. "It depends on how hard you aggravate it. " He says this matter of factly, no hint of self-pity. Polanco turned 35 Sunday, and if he's learned nothing else during his three-team, 13-year, big-league career, it is that nothing can be taken for granted.

THE PHILLIES laid their wretched 1996 season to rest during a late-September weekend series at Shea Stadium in New York. In those dying days, manager Jim Fregosi posted lineups that included Ricky Otero, Desi Relaford, Jon Zuber, Wendell Magee, Kevin Sefcik, Bobby Estalella and, playing rightfield and batting fourth, a spare outfielder named Ruben Amaro Jr. Even the supremely self-confident future general manager recognized that having him bat...

YANKEES OUTFIELDER Nick Swisher never hit more than 24 home runs in a season until this year, only batted .219 in 153 games for the Chicago White Sox last season. He bats eighth for the New York Yankees, and made $5.3 million this season. His contract, which still has 2 years to run, calls for him to make $6.75 million next season and $9 million in 2011. Jayson Werth hit 36 home runs for the Phillies this season and knocked in 99 runs, a breakout year. Like Swisher, he hit 24 home runs the previous season, but batted .273, stole 20 bases and drove in 67 runs.

I was walking along Walnut Street near the University of Pennsylvania on Sunday when I became a target. "Faggot! You faggot!" a red-faced man was yelling at me from the passenger window of a silver sedan. He was livid. "What's the score? What was the score, you faggot?" Of course, I paid him no mind. Having been raised in New York City, I am a master of the "subway face" - the blank expression that is most appropriate when a weirdo is nigh. But then the car stopped about a block ahead of me at a red light.

The losses have piled up quickly, and they are starting to become difficult to count. That's not a good sign. "What have we lost? Three in a row? Four in a row? Something like that," Jamie Moyer said last night after the Phillies' 5-2 loss to the Oakland Athletics at McAfee Coliseum. Actually, it's six in a row. "The day off felt like a loss, too," he said. The Phillies are searching for somebody ? anybody ? to step up and stop the madness. It looked as if Moyer might be that man last night.