Dodgers, Phillies Meet In Philadelphia

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STEVE INSKEEP, host:

Baseball's version of the final four, the two League Championship Series is about to begin. Tonight in Philadelphia, the Phillies host the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tomorrow, the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox travel to, of all places, Tampa Bay where they will be playing against a surprising but very good Rays. Commentator John Feinstein has been following the baseball season. He's with us once again. John, good morning.

JOHN FEINSTEIN: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: Where are the Chicago Cubs?

FEINSTEIN: The Chicago Cubs are home licking their wounds once again. They haven't had a very good century, I guess, is a fair way to put it. They won more games than anybody in the National League. They had home field advantage. They promptly lost game one to the Dodgers. And to say that the city of Chicago went into panic after game one is a little bit like saying investors weren't happy in the last couple of weeks with AIG and Lehman Brothers.

And of course then they proceeded to get swept in three games. And you know what, Steve? Since that infamous Bartman game, when Steve Bartman the fan caught that foul ball with five outs to go to get to the World Series, the Cubs have not won a single playoff game, much less a playoff series.

INSKEEP: Wow. And also the Los Angeles Angels, who also had a great regular season, are nowhere. Is this normal to have the two best regular season records knocked out before the League Championship Series?

FEINSTEIN: No, it's highly abnormal, again because you get home field advantage when you have the best record. But just as the Cubs have all of their ghosts of the past, the Angel's do particularly with the Red Sox. So you go back to 1986 when they were leading three games to one in the 9th inning when Donnie Moore gave up the homerun to Dave Henderson. And this isn't funny at all. A couple of years later, Donnie Moore committed suicide, in part because of never getting over giving up that homerun. The Red Sox won that series. And since then, they've meet the Angels three times in the last five years in postseason and won all three playoffs. And by the way, the last two times they did it, they won the World Series.

INSKEEP: Well, let's talk about another team that won a playoff series. The New York Yankees are nowhere in these playoffs, but their former manager sure is.

FEINSTEIN: Yeah, Joe Torre is getting the best revenge possible, served cold. He went out to the Dodgers after the Yankees basically dumped him. The Dodgers had a great second half after they acquired Manny Ramirez who decided to play hard once he'd been traded from the Red Sox. And as I said, they swept the Cubs. Now they face the Phillies. They'll be underdogs again. But, again, in a short series, best of seven, this round as opposed to 162 games in a regular season, any underdog can win.

INSKEEP: Well, just tell me, is it possible then that you can end up with Manny Ramirez, the former Boston Red Sox star, playing against the Boston Red Sox in the World Series after these League Championship Series are over?

FEINSTEIN: That would be great theatre, wouldn't it? And Joe Torre going back into Boston after all those years as a rival of the Red Sox with the Yankees. But, yes, it's entirely possible, especially if Manny continues to hit. He hit 500 against the Cubs, hit a couple of homeruns. The Phillies are probably the favorites. They're probably the better team. But remember their postseason history isn't that great either. They've only won one World Series in their history, 1980. And they've got a lot more failures than successes in their past.

INSKEEP: And the Red Sox seem to be doing awfully well without Ramirez.

FEINSTEIN: It's amazing the way that trade worked out, because Jason Bay has definitely help the Red Sox. He's been a positive force in the clubhouse.

INSKEEP: He's the guy the Red Sox got for Manny Ramirez.

FEINSTEIN: And the fact that the Red Sox now are going for a third world championship in five years, Steve, I guess the curse of the Babe is really, really dead.

INSKEEP: John, thanks very much.

FEINSTEIN: Thanks, Steve.

INSKEEP: John Feinstein is a regular guest on this program. His most recent book is "Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember."

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