Magic Number

One day in early April, Dennis Eckersley and Bob Welch were getting in some pregame jogging. Suddenly, Welch turned to Eckersley and offered a prediction. "He told me I was going to get 49 saves this year," Eckersley said. "Can you believe that?" What was Eckersley's response? "I told him he was out of his mind. " That was April, and most people would have agreed with Eckersley then. This is October, and suddenly, Welch looks like Kreskin. The A's completed a four-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series yesterday with a 4-1 victory.

After the cameras had recorded their emotions and words, Sixers general manager Jimmy Lynam and Orlando GM Pat Williams turned toward each other and hugged like teammates. In a sense, they were. By lucking out big-time yesterday afternoon with his second consecutive No. 1 pick in the NBA draft lottery, Williams allowed for the likelihood of the Sixers getting the player they wanted, minus the hassles of media and fan second-guessing. Barring a trade that Williams himself called "very unlikely," and barring a sudden infatuation with a twin-towers concept or an unexpected problem with salary restructuring, the Magic will draft a power forward, probably Michigan's Chris Webber, or maybe, just maybe, Kentucky's Jamal Mashburn.

The Seattle Mariners are closing the season the way every team hopes it can. They are also on the verge of closing out the California Angels. "Earlier in the season, everything was going right for them," Tino Martinez said yesterday after the Mariners reduced their magic number to winning the American League West to three with a 10-2 victory over the Angels. "Now, it seems like everything is going right for us. " The M's got home runs from Jay Buhner and Ken Griffey Jr. They have a three-game lead over the Angels, losers of 27 of 36, with five games left on the schedule.

The Los Angeles Angels showed the Detroit Tigers what playoff teams look like. Torii Hunter homered to back Ervin Santana, and the visiting Angels beat the Tigers, 7-1, yesterday to cut their magic number to six for clinching their fourth AL West title in five seasons. Santana (15-5) struck out eight in 7 1/3 innings, allowing one run and six hits. "He's as consistent as any pitcher I've seen," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He's approaching 30 starts, and he's throwing as well as he did in start five or six. " Santana, who won his first six decisions this year, is 4-0 in seven starts since July 27. "It's about working hard," he said.

The Glen Mills Bulls hit more than 60 points twice last week, and the number was more than adequate for two wins. On Friday, the visiting Bulls stopped Del-Val League opponent Academy Park 61-56. Two days earlier, they traveled to Unionville, where they defeated the Indians, 62-50, in a nonleague game. The contest against Academy Park gives the Bulls four wins against three losses in the Del-Val. Overall, Glen Mills is 9-4. "It was a tough, close ball game. Academy Park is a much better team than its record indicates," said Craig Mellinger, the Bulls' assistant coach.

Villanova coach Rollie Massimino started conducting an All-America campaign for Harold Pressley last night. It was the least he could do for the 6-7 senior forward, who has been carrying this young team toward its seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament bid. Pressley scored 16 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked 6 shots and had 4 steals and 4 assists in 37 minutes as Villanova defeated an injury-plagued Boston College team, 67-57, in a Big...

Not long after Carl Mancini wrapped up his second straight Catholic League individual wrestling championship, the Bishop Egan senior began focusing on his next two goals: winning the National Prep Schools title and getting his 100th career victory. The math was simple enough. He would need six more victories, which was exactly the number of consecutive wins needed to secure the 125-pound title at Lehigh University last weekend. "I also could have gotten them if I had gone to the quarterfinals, lost and wrestled back," Mancini said.

In a game where the numbers mean so much, 100 regular-season wins will always represent something magical and rank among the game's special feats. Consider this: Since 1900, baseball's 30 existing teams have played a total of 2,234 seasons, and only 93 teams - 4.2 percent - have won at least 100 regular-season games. (Major League Baseball switched from a 154-game schedule to 162 in 1961 in the American League and 1962 in the National League.) The Phillies, in the midst of their own magical three-year run, have a chance to join that list of elite teams this season for two big reasons: talent and confidence.

Just one more win, and the Cleveland Indians will have formally put an end to four decades of bad baseball. Symbols of futility since the 1950s, the Indians clinched a tie for the American League Central championship last night with a 4-1 victory over the visiting Seattle Mariners. With one more win, or one more Kansas City loss, the Indians will win the division outright. They've already ensured themselves of at least a wild-card berth, guaranteeing their first postseason appearance since they were swept by the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series.

Jason Bartlett doubled in the tiebreaking run in the seventh inning, and the visiting Tampa Bay Rays took another step toward their first AL East title by beating the Baltimore Orioles, 4-2, last night. The victory reduced the Rays' magic number for winning the division crown to four, after Boston lost to Cleveland. Any combination of Tampa Bay wins and Red Sox losses totaling four would make the Rays champions of the AL East. After Boston lost, a roar resonated throughout the clubhouse.

Even though goalie Ilya Bryzgalov allowed five goals against the New York Rangers on Tuesday - his worst outing since Jan. 22 - the Flyers were encouraged by his return to the lineup. "You couldn't fault him for any of the goals. I'm not concerned at all," general manager Paul Holmgren said Wednesday. "It's good he got a game behind him and now he can move forward. " Bryzgalov had missed the previous three games with a chip fracture of his right foot. He said he expected the rustiness he felt Tuesday after not playing in eight nights.

On Friday, in an unusual giveaway, the Sixers handed fans commemorative pieces of the basketball court on which Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points. Not surprisingly, quite a few have already found their way to eBay. Some prices fetched wouldn't quite cover a family visit to a game at the Wells Fargo Center - counting parking, food and beverages - but $50 to $260 isn't bad for a 2-inch square of wood. Of course, it's not just any wood, but the floor on which a Hall of Fame legend, who went to Overbrook High, set an NBA record that no one has ever threatened.

Cliff Lee could do nothing but shake his head as Jose Lopez circled the bases in the ninth inning. The lefthander was in as much disbelief as the sellout crowd of 44,950. He was one strike from his seventh shutout of the season - and eighth straight win - when Lopez got all of a high cutter and ripped it into the left-field seats to pull the Florida Marlins into a 1-1 tie in the second game of Thursday's split doubleheader at Citizens Bank Park. "It was supposed to be a backdoor cutter, and I left it out over the plate, and he hit a home run," Lee said.

HOUSTON - Nights like these have been close to nonexistent for the Phillies this season: Nights when the clubhouse door stays closed a little longer; nights when the silence between the players hangs a little thicker; nights when Charlie Manuel addresses the media in a way that makes the media feel like he is addressing his team. It isn't just that they lost to the lowly Astros for the second straight night. The Phillies, even with their best-in-the-majors record and World Series aspirations, have lost too many games to remember this season.

MILWAUKEE - When the Phillies arrive at Miller Park in their suits and ties Sunday morning, there will be nothing special about it. Twenty games remain in this charmed season and Game No. 143 could merely represent the first checkmark on a list that has many unaccomplished goals. They can clinch a postseason spot Sunday by virtue of a victory over the Brewers and a St. Louis loss. That's because they won Saturday, a 3-2 10-inning affair with Milwaukee, for their sixth straight victory.

Detroit ace Justin Verlander is leading the America League in in wins (21), ERA (2.34), innings (223) and strikeouts (224). The right has a 42/3-inning lead over CC Sabathia of the New York Yankees and a 20-strikeout gap over Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners. "I never set goals," Verlander said Sunday. "Say a magic number of wins for a pitcher is 20, or 200 innings, or whatever it may be. I had accomplished a lot of those things before September. If that's a goal of mine, then I think subconsciously you're able to let down or ease off the accelerator because you've accomplished what you want.

Lady Gaga topped the million mark in first-week sales for her CD Born This Way , moving 1,108,000 copies. With that, the Mother Monster beat out Taylor Swift , the last pop star to top a mil when she moved 1,047,000 of Speak Now . But is Stefani Germanotta 's sales figure really as impressive as that of Wyomissing's own country-pop princess? Hardly. Born had an extra day to reach the magic number, since it came out on Monday, May 23, rather than on a Tuesday, when most new albums are released.

Doug Collins saw it coming, this balance-of-power shift in the National Basketball Association that has crystalized in these playoffs. The Los Angeles Lakers are out. So are the San Antonio Spurs. And with Miami's 97-87 win over Boston on Wednesday, so too are the Celtics. That is 10 out of the last 12 NBA champions out before the conference finals. And it is no wonder. The magic number is 40,000. Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Tim Duncan, and Paul Pierce have played more than 40,000 regular-season and postseason minutes in their careers.

MIAMI - If this was an Eastern Conference semifinals preview, then the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics showed what to expect. Few pleasantries. Pushing and shoving. And maybe a Game 7 in Miami. LeBron James scored 27 points, Dwyane Wade added 14, and the Heat moved closer to the No. 2 seed in the East playoffs Sunday by beating the sliding Celtics, 100-77. "It was a playoff-atmosphere type of game, from the fans to both teams' approach to what the game meant," Wade said.

Paul Holmgren flipped off the television. He was in South Jersey, watching his Flyers play in Ottawa, and decided he had seen enough. Holmgren was tired of seeing his team, losers of 13 of its last 19 contests, free-fall through the Eastern Conference standings. So he took matters into his own hands yesterday. Multiple team sources told the Daily News that Holmgren held a brief but very poignant closed-door meeting with all of the Flyers' players and coaches before their practice yesterday at the Skate Zone.