Oct 7, 2008 - 10:30 PM
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There was a time in the late 1970s and early '80s that a National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies was commonplace. Its time has come again.
A generation ago it was Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton against Steve Garvey and Don Sutton. Now it's Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels against Manny Ramirez and Derek Lowe, but the stakes are the same.
The Phillies will host the Dodgers in Game One of the National League Championship Series on Thursday, kicking off the first postseason meeting between the teams since 1983, when Philadelphia downed Los Angeles three games to one before falling to Cal Ripken's Baltimore Orioles.
Two big pieces of the history between the clubs will be staring at each other from across the field in Dodgers third base coach Larry Bowa and Phillies first base coach Davey Lopes.
The two were on opposite sides in 1977 during one of the most controversial plays in NLCS history, when Bowa was playing shortstop for Philadelphia and Lopes was the speedy leadoff hitter for Los Angeles.
With the Phillies holding a 5-4 lead with two outs in the ninth inning and a runner on third in Game Three, Lopes hit a grounder toward third base that bounced wildly off the artificial surface, glancing off Schmidt's glove at third base.
Bowa fielded the ricochet and fired to first. Replays showed that Bowa's throw was in time but umpire Bruce Froemming called Lopes safe, allowing the tying run to score. Lopes eventually came around with the go-ahead run and Philadelphia went on to lose the game and the series.
The Dodgers clinched the 1978 NLCS in the 10th inning of Game Four, when Dusty Baker's line drive to center was dropped by eight-time Gold Glove Award winner Garry Maddox.
Once the kings of bringing their fans to the brink only to fail, Philadelphia has surrendered that mantel to its division counterparts in New York and now impresses with grit and a never-say-die attitude.
"A lot of guys here have a lot of heart on this team," Jimmy Rollins told MLB.com. "Hats off to the organization for picking up a lot of guys with heart."
That heart - combined with a few home runs and some shutdown pitching - has Philadelphia on the doorstep of the World Series for the first time since 1993.
"To be in this situation, as long as I've been here with the organization, and to see where we've come, to get to this point and have to have gone through - it makes it all worthwhile," said Pat Burrell, the longest-tenured Phillie.
It's not just Philadelphia that has struggled to gain admittance to the postseason party over the past couple of decades, as the Dodgers are coming off their first series win since the 1988 Fall Classic.
Well, I wasn't part of that history either," said Los Angeles manager Joe Torre, who is in his first season with the team after winning four World Series rings with the New York Yankees. "But it's very satisfying. Very satisfying. We had a lot of people doubting us all year and we didn't have - we weren't resentful about it. It was just the fact we haven't really played well enough to get anybody's attention."
Both teams are playing well now.
The Dodgers are coming off a sweep of the favored Chicago Cubs and won 19 of their last 27 regular-season games to surge into the postseason.
The Phillies jumped past the Mets in the NL East by winning 13 of 16 down the stretch and took three of four from the Milwaukee Brewers to reach this point.
The clubs split eight games this season, each sweeping a four-game series at home.
"It's going to be a good series, but also, I think that we can score runs on them," Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel said. "I don't see no reason in the world why we can't stay right with them. It's going to be a good series. I like our chances.
"Yeah, I think we can hold our own with them. Actually I think we can beat anybody in the National League, really, when you think about it. I liked our chances against the Cubs, the Dodgers and everybody we played.
Los Angeles is showing no fear, either.
"We'll have the same intensity against the Phillies that we had against the Cubs," Dodgers first baseman James Loney said. "We have the belief we can play with anyone."
