Philly will defend

The Philadelphia Phillies are back in the World Series to defend their championship after a 4-1 series win over the LA Dodgers. If you're the LA Dodgers, swept in 2008 by the Philadelphia Phillies and you made several changes to your pitching staff, re-up with Manny Ramirez, and in the end, you manage to take one game off of Philadelphia in the rematch, it can't be seen as anything but a failure. With Joe Torre heading into his final year before retirement, that will only serve to galvanize the team, or see them implode entirely. For his part, Manny Ramirez says he has no regrets and he achieved all he wanted to achieve this year. Really, Manny? Busted for drugs?

On Monday night, while the LA Dodgers were busy going down 3-1, Manny Ramirez was busy in the 9th inning taking a shower. So much for Joe Torre's touch. The big question I've got is why ManRam needed to shower. He hasn't done anything since about July that would get him to break a sweat. Thanks to GBV for sending that article my way.

AC Milan upset Real Madrid 3-2 in Champions League play yesterday. Looks good on Real, though they'll more than likely advance. In other big games, Chelsea hammered Atletico Madrid 4-0 and Manchester United beat CSKA Moscow 1-0.

Here are six great International Hockey moments, or as they're often referred to - "Ice" hockey moments. That works out to one for each country that is actually good at hockey, 1.2 for each country that cares.

Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor's high school coach says he's being misused by the Buckeyes. I'm sure Jim Tressel is figuring that his high school coach must know better. After all, nothing ever changes in the couple years between high school graduation and your second year in college. And now comes word that LeBron James is mentoring Pryor to get used to being the big man on campus. Of course, LeBron's campus was high school at best.

Man, are the morning hosts on SportsNet's Connected ever lame. Like, unwatchable lame.

John Tavares scored the winner in the shoot-out to give the New York Islanders their first win of the year. Tavares is looking like a player, but he's taking some big hits. Speaking of big hits, did you see the crushing hit Johnathan Toews of the Chicago Black Hawks took last night? That had to hurt.

Game 5 of the ALCS goes today and a New York Yankee win will set off a six day break before the World Series. Well done, Bud Selig. From the first day of the playoffs til game 7 of the World Series is 34 days, and for the Yankees, as an example, it may be as few as 12 games in that span. You don't get that many days off over the course of 162 in the regular season.

Have a great Thursday.