The Phillies could win the pennant today. When they won it last year, I was on the road & Krishna gave me the play-by-play of the last inning of the winning game over the phone while I was in San Francisco. Thanks to travel & the mediocre way radio covers sports today, all I got to hear of their play-offs was a two-inning stint while waiting for a ferry in Seattle.

Presuming the Phillies do win, do they stand any chance of doing better than their three-and-out first round loss of last year? It’s hard to see how. The starting pitching has been so bad of late that Jamie Moyer is clearly the ace of the staff. He is also the oldest player in professional baseball. So here’s hoping that Ryan Howard can continue to carry the team on his broad shoulders the way he has this past month.