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Phillies eye taking a bite into the Big Apple

PHILADELPHIA – They want the Yankees. Nobody in the clubhouse of the National League champions would say that quite yet, because baseball is too unpredictable to make such an assumption, but as they kicked back in their chairs and sipped tequila and puffed on cigars, it dawned on the Philadelphia Phillies: The dream World Series is one game from a reality.

Sure, a tango between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees would've been a beauty, though mainly because of Joe Torre's return to the scene of his triumphs and travails. Scuttle that. Ain't happening. Not after the Phillies completed their five-game NL Championship Series dismantling of the Dodgers with a 10-4 victory Wednesday night that put them four wins from becoming the NL's first repeat champions since the Big Red Machine in the 1970s.

Should the test come against New York, which can lock up the American League pennant against the Los Angeles Angels tonight, it would make for the most compelling World Series since … when? Boston-St. Louis in 2004? Bigger. The Subway Series in 2000? Wider appeal. Not since 1996, when the Yankees made their first World Series in 15 years and beat an Atlanta Braves team with four future Hall of Famers, has baseball been gifted such a plot-thick, compelling face-off for the right to wear diamond-covered rings.

Two cities 100 miles from each other, two fan bases equal in their rabidity, two teams loaded with stars, two franchises that met for the championship more than half a century ago. And one Eastern Seaboard that could collapse on itself from anticipation and excitement.

"It might be so crazy it'd fall into the ocean," Phillies third baseman Greg Dobbs(notes) said. "It would be wild. Absolutely wild."

Actually, it didn't take a Phillies-Yankees World Series for that much. Outside of Citizens Bank Park, the remnants of an ocean's worth of guzzled beer created a silver-can road out to Pattison Avenue. Broken glass, brown and green, glistened under the street lights. A lonely Adidas sandal sat amid the debris, and surely its owner didn't care about orphaning his footwear, because the Phillies were in the World Series again. The freaking Phillies.

Or the futile Phillies, as they were regarded for so long. Police here had it easy. They didn't have to congregate downtown in Center City, dozens upon dozens mobilizing the area, some on bikes, more on foot. Now the Phillies give their home city a reason for debauchery, as opposed to the past, when it grew out of disappointment and disillusionment.

It's impossible to dislike this Phillies team. They won the World Series last year, reloaded by acquiring Cliff Lee(notes) and Pedro Martinez(notes) midseason, shooed aside the favored Dodgers again and acted calmly – well, relatively so – when center fielder Shane Victorino(notes) squeezed the final out. The Phillies' infielders, particularly first baseman Ryan Howard(notes), didn't join in the dogpile. They got their fix last year.

Granted, the 2008 World Series was anticlimactic by most standards. Weather postponed the clincher. Tampa Bay wasn't exactly a rousing opponent. The best teams want to vanquish the biggest names, and for anyone from the NL, that means the Yankees.

"The billion-dollar payroll," starter Cole Hamels(notes) said.

"More championships than anyone," Howard said.

"They've set the benchmark," Dobbs said.

Black pinstripes vs. red pinstripes. CC Sabathia(notes) vs. Cliff Lee. Alex Rodriguez(notes) vs. Howard. Derek Jeter(notes) vs. Jimmy Rollins(notes). Fans' civility vs. their instinct to kill one another.

"It's everybody's dream," Hamels said, "to play in the World Series at Yankee Stadium."

It remains a dream, of course, for now. The thousands of fans who stayed to fete their Phillies started an old-fashioned staple of Boston: the "Yankees suck" chant. They held signs asking for New York and wore T-shirts needling New York and said a little prayer before they went to bed asking for New York. All with the knowledge that those very Yankees only five years ago blew an even bigger advantage than the 3-1 lead they hold on the Angels.

"Right now, that series isn't over," Howard reminded, and, yeah, way to be a buzzkill, dude. No need to dump on the fantasy.

Just know: If New York does win, and Game 1 of the World Series takes place in Yankee Stadium on Oct. 28, the calls about East Coast bias hyperbolizing the series will fall on deaf ears. This isn't about geography as much as it is passion. New York is one of the final remaining baseball towns, and while Philadelphia still bleeds green for the Eagles, there are enough converts to make the argument that the Phillies' success is returning their blood to its natural color.

"We've got something special going on here," Werth said. "I read a quote from J-Roll the other day that said we're not scared of anybody. That holds true."

Even the big, bad Yankees, with their $1.5 billion stadium and $200 million payroll and half-billion-dollar spending spree in free agency last offseason. Success makes them the Evil Empire again, even if they're a good – and, likewise, likeable – group. To those outside New York, a Yankees uniform is like a scarlet letter, and Joe Girardi must manage 25 Hester Prynnes.

The Phillies, then, fall on the desirable side of the good-vs.-bad battle. The Yankees haven't won a championship since 2000, and so there is the realization they aren't always some robotic, impermeable, four-championships-in-five-years machine. And Philadelphia can go blotto by sending the Yankees home without a title again.

Some understood that and played low-key Wednesday. Victorino spent the majority of the champagne celebration in the back of the clubhouse, away from the spray. He wore a glum face. His elbow, hit by a pitch earlier, hurt. And anyway, he told a Phillies employee wondering why he wasn't partying, "I'd rather celebrate the next one."

And that's how the Phillies really feel. Whether it's the Yankees or Angels, they believe they will win again. They wonder, in fact, why people say they are the only team capable of beating the Yankees. They're the defending champions. Perhaps, one player said, it should go more like: The Yankees are the only team capable of beating the Phillies.

Eh, whatever. That's all talk. Soon enough they'll play and instead show who can do what. On this night, it was about the NLCS and a Game 5 victory, about Werth's two home runs and Victorino's blast and Brad Lidge(notes) using the postseason to find himself and Howard accepting his series MVP trophy. They talked like old men sitting around a card table, puffing away on stogies and drinking expensive liquor, reliving war stories that happened moments earlier.

They grinned and rejoiced and resolved to wait. Good things come to those who do, remember. Hopefully as soon as tonight.