National League Championship Series

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.

It would be easy to dismiss the smartly dressed woman sitting behind home plate in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series as disinterested. Wearing a red jacket and faux fur scarf, this woman put on her reading glasses and perused the November issue of Elle Decorating magazine during the early innings. She didn't even stand to watch a game-tying home run by Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz, didn't scream out "Chooch" with the rest of the crowd as it rose around her. She never saw the blast reach the seats.

CHARLIE MANUEL knew the end was near for Pat Burrell after a conversation last fall, when the former Phillies slugger indicated just how much pain his foot was causing him. "He had a bad arch and trouble with his heel," Manuel said. "I think it got to a place where he actually couldn't play defense or run anymore. I think that was a big reason. He still wanted to play and he still loves to play. " Yesterday, multiple news organizations reported that Burrell has decided to retire after 12 seasons in the majors, nine of them with the Phillies.

THE PHILLIES CLINCHED the NL East championship on Wednesday, but it was only this past weekend that they learned they would have "home field advantage": The Phils will play three games of the five-game National League Championship Series with the Colorado Rockies at Citizens Bank Park. The first game is Wednesday. That's how we see it, too: A major advantage of living in this region is having the exciting Phillies as our home team. It's a "home advantage" for all of us.

"Daily News Live" kicks off Comcast SportsNet's coverage of Game 5 of the National League Championship Series at 5 p.m. today. Host Michael Barkann will be joined by Paul Domowitch and Mark Kram, of the Daily News. "SportsNite" follows at 6:30, followed by "Phillies Pregame Live. " Gov. Rendell will join the panel of Barkann and former Phillies Mitch Williams and Ricky Bottalico. Leslie Gudel and Marshall Harris will report from Los Angeles. "SportsNite" returns at 10 p.m., followed by "Phillies Postgame Live" immediately after the final out.

Comcast SportsNet will replay six crucial games from the Phillies' world championship run with a series called, "Miracle on Broad Street: 2008 Phillies Championship Journey. " The series begins tonight at 7 o'clock with the Sept. 27 game against the Washington Nationals, when the Phillies clinched the National League East title. Other games, beginning with air date: Dec. 14, 7 p.m.: National League Division Series, Game 2; Shane Victorino hits grand slam off CC Sabathia.

Joe Torre said he met with Jonathan Broxton immediately after Game 4 and again yesterday, mainly to reiterate his faith in the young closer. Broxton might have needed the boost, since he now has seen the Phillies score the game-winning runs twice with him on the mound, first in Game 4 of the 2008 National League Championship Series, then again Monday. "This kid, this closing thing, this is something new to him," Torre said. "I did this role last year," said a sullen Broxton, 25, who has logged 50 of the 55 saves to his credit in the past two seasons, and has pitched in 308 major league games.

National League Championship Series Phillies vs. Los Angeles Dodgers Best of seven Phillies lead series, 2-0 TV: Fox29. Radio: WPHT (1210-AM), ESPN (950-AM) WUBA (1480-AM) Spanish GAME 1: THURSDAY Phillies 3, Dodgers 2 WP: Hamels (2-0) LP: Lowe (1-1) HR: Burrell, Utley GAME 2: YESTERDAY Phillies 8, Dodgers 5 WP: Myers (2-0) LP: Billingsley (1-1) HR: Ramirez GAME 3: TOMORROW, 8:22 P.M. Phillies (Jamie Moyer, 0-1)

Davey Johnson will return as manager of the New York Mets in 1989, the New York Daily News reported yesterday. The announcement should come shortly after the World Series, the newspaper said. By then, Johnson and Mets general manager Frank Cashen will have hammered out a deal to keep Johnson with New York and manager-in-waiting Mike Cubbage with Tidewater, the team's triple-A affiliate. The Daily News quoted Mets officials as saying that Cashen and Johnson have already held informal talks about next season and, according to one source, "it's just about 100 percent" that Johnson will return.

The Phillies and San Francisco Giants, the two winningest teams in baseball, meet three times this weekend at Veterans Stadium. The series, which could be a preview of the National League Championship series in October, features two of the top power hitters in the league - Giants outfielder Barry Bonds, who was last year's Most Valuable Player, and Phillies catcher Darren Daulton, last season's RBI leader. The series, which began last night, continues tonight at 7:35 and Saturday at 3 p.m. and concludes on Sunday at 1:35 p.m., when boys 14 and under will receive a free batting practice jersey.

TAMPA, Fla. - There is nothing theoretical about playoff expansion for the Phillies. No one understands that, or how precious the opportunities are, better than Roy Halladay. He spent most of a brilliant career playing for a Toronto team that went to spring training every year with little or no chance of reaching the postseason. He came to the Phillies for a chance to change that, to compete on the biggest stage. Two years in a row, he got there. Two years in a row, a supposedly lesser team upset the Phillies and went on to win the World Series.

CHARLIE MANUEL knew the end was near for Pat Burrell after a conversation last fall, when the former Phillies slugger indicated just how much pain his foot was causing him. "He had a bad arch and trouble with his heel," Manuel said. "I think it got to a place where he actually couldn't play defense or run anymore. I think that was a big reason. He still wanted to play and he still loves to play. " Yesterday, multiple news organizations reported that Burrell has decided to retire after 12 seasons in the majors, nine of them with the Phillies.

As Jim Croce, that Phillies fan from Upper Darby, cautioned long ago, you don't spit into the wind. Why seed black clouds that, even on the sunniest Philadelphia sports day, are hovering not far away? Why prod cruel fate when, after creating decades of devastation, it's sleeping at last? Why mess around with baseball karma? I'm still trying to figure out why, on the 34th anniversary of Black Friday, with the skittish 2011 Phillies desperate for a season-saving Game 5 victory, club officials decided to commemorate the lowest moment from one of the franchise's lowest points.

Nervous? Anxious? Trouble sleeping Thursday night? That's what these elimination games can do to a person. Do or die. Win or go home. It all sounds so scary, and no doubt a large portion of frantic Phillies fans are out there are already gnawing at their nails in anticipation of Friday night's Game 5 at Citizens Bank Park. Some free advice: Embrace this moment and enjoy the ride. Roy Halladay is pitching and the Phillies are at home. That combination makes them the favorite to win and advance.

ST. LOUIS - They sat at five tables eating tacos, and the general sentiment was that this is not the meal to eat immediately before a flight home, where the fate of the season rests in one game. Mexican - not champagne and beer showers - was the postgame meal Wednesday in the visitors clubhouse at Busch Stadium. There was no celebration, no smiles, no looking ahead. One hundred and two wins, the dream pitching staff, and a season of unparalleled expectations were whittled to one game.

ST. LOUIS - One game. After riding their stellar starting pitching to the best regular season in franchise history, it all comes down to one game for the Phillies. Their 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday set up a decisive Game 5 at Citizens Bank Park on Friday night. Roy Halladay will pitch for the Phillies. His close friend and former teammate, Chris Carpenter, will start for the Cardinals. If you love baseball, it is a perfect scenario - two of the best pitchers in baseball facing off in a game that will send one team to the National League Championship Series and one team home.

ST. LOUIS - One game. After riding their stellar starting pitching to the best regular season in franchise history, it all comes down to one game for the Phillies. Their 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday set up a decisive Game 5 at Citizens Bank Park on Friday night. Roy Halladay will pitch for the Phillies. His close friend and former teammate, Chris Carpenter, will start for the Cardinals. If you love baseball, it is a perfect scenario - two of the best pitchers in baseball facing off in a game that will send one team to the National League Championship Series and one team home.

ST. LOUIS - The Phillies' opening-round playoff series against the St. Louis Cardinals has been everything you want in baseball, but it sure hasn't been easy. The Phils took the hard way to a win again on Tuesday, waiting until late in the game to break a tense deadlock and using one of their least-probable weapons to do so. Everyone who had Ben Francisco in the Pick The Hero pool, please step forward. The Phillies still had to withstand three St. Louis rallies before putting away the 3-2 win, but who expected anything less stressful?

THE IMAGE of the Philadelphia sports fan as a little over the top, quick to find fault and just as quick to express that displeasure with long and loud boos, occasionally obnoxious and always hyperopinionated is absolutely true. It's also only half the story. We are just as extreme in the opposite direction. When players and teams show heart and hustle and grit and determination, mirroring the lunch-pail image the region has of itself, the resulting adulation is all out of proportion as well: Fred Shero, before the Flyers won their first Stanley Cup: "Win today and we walk together forever.

Hello again, everybody, and welcome to City of Palms Park where your Philadelphia Phillies today play the Boston Red Sox. It's the first Grapefruit League meeting of the year between the teams that will face each other once more this spring, in interleague play at the end of June and finally, with everything on the line, in the World Series.   CLEARWATER, Fla. - Almost all of the above is absolutely true. When the 2010 postseason got under way, complete with all the attendant hype and drama and incessant playing of "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas, the Boston Red Sox were marked absent for just the second time in 8 years.