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I kind of like the whimsical nostalgic baseball piece once in a while. I didn’t particularly care for this one. It just seemed contrived, a bit over the top for me.

That being said, I think the Phillies handled themselves very well during this series with the Dodgers. Particularly with regard to the offense, the Phillies kicked the Dodger’s butts, but good.

Some will say the pitching was so much better, and that’s why. I don’t think so. The Dodger batters were swinging at pitches a little leager would have laid off of. I can’t remember how many times the Dodger batters had a zero and two count with no strikes in the zone on that screen display. And lest someone say that display wasn’t very accurate, I’d like to remind them that some of those pitches were just an inch or two off the ground and a good foot off the plate, and others were actually headed at the batter inside and were swung at and fowled off.

When it comes to defense, the Dodgers were playing out of position on a number of players. Right handed batters saw the Dodger third baseman playing 15 feet off the line. Sure enough, the ball was hit between him and the bag.

Ramirez had a ball go in the corner off a right handed batter in left, taking what seemed like an eternity getting to the ball. Then the batter was able to extend that hit to a triple, as Ramirez missed two cut offs for a very doable play at third to get this guy.

The mindset of the Phillies was so much different than the Dodgers at the plate. They watched their zones, were content to take the walk or go for the short game, not going for the fence with every swing.

I salute the Phillies, because they wanted to win more than the Dodgers. I say that because the Phillies cared enough to play fundamental baseball. The Dodgers didn’t, and I think this series reflected very poorly on the manager Torre.

I don’t know how strong the Yankees are this year, but I do not the Phillies are going to the World Series with a determination to win. If they play like they did against the Dodgers, rock solid on fundamentals, they have a very good chance, no matter how good the Yankees are.

Good luck to them.

I say this as a Dodger fan.