Bring On the Yankees

It may be the equivalent of a death wish, but the Phillies' dream scenario would be to meet the Yankees in the World Series.

In winning last year's World Series, the home team generated euphoria throughout the Delaware Valley, but the rest of the country yawned collectively, as evidenced by the Series' TV ratings. By some measures, those ratings were the lowest ever. And for many of those outsiders who watched, the Phils' victory was a fluke accomplished in the snow and cold. It often seemed that Rays' manager Joe Madden got more camera time than Utley, Rollins and Howard.

What the South Philly squad has now is the opportunity to cement their credibility as the best baseball franchise of the latter part of this decade and hopefully beyond.

A second world championship would go a long way towards accomplishing this. But pulling this off against the Bronx Bombers - the most storied franchise in sports history, a roster with a bushel of future hall-of-famers, in their new Taj Mahal of a ballpark - would render the cynics defenseless.

Unfortunately, there is that small matter of the Rockies and Dodgers/Cardinals.