Moyer Is The Sage of Philadelphia

"That little brouhaha in New York yesterday helped us a little bit," Gillick said with a wry look.

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Nevertheless, he sympathizes, recalling his own '87 Toronto team that lost six in a row in the last week and was passed by the Tigers. "When you start sliding and you get on a slippery slope," he said, "it seems like there's never a rock or a tree limb to grab onto."

What helped the Phils most, however, was the calming presence of Moyer. What Glavine couldn't do, Moyer did, anesthetizing the Nats with his soft-tossing for 5 1/3 innings -- a long day's work for a middle-aged man -- allowing one unearned run while striking out six in the 230th win of an often overlooked but remarkable career with two 20-win seasons after age 38.

Perhaps, for the Phils and Moyer, the scales are finally evening up a bit at last. Moyer and Glavine, in their 21st seasons, are slim, intelligent, gentlemanly finesse pitchers. Yet Glavine has reached the playoffs 12 times, won a world title and knows his bust will reside in Cooperstown someday. In contrast, all Moyer said he wanted when he came back to Philly from Seattle last season was one good, clean shot to reach a World Series.

Many players have little sense of the history of the game they play. But Moyer studies the plaques outside the locker room with the accomplishments of past Phils. This spring, he spent time with Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, who won the pennant-clinching game for the '50 Whiz Kids.

"Sometimes, you wish you could snap your fingers, go back in time, and play a game against them or be their teammate," Moyer said. "But, in a way, you don't, because you are extending who they are into the present. It's kind of cool to be one of the steppingstones in that progression."

Among baseball's memorable final days to a regular season, Sunday afternoon will rank high. The sport needs new themes. Eternal recurrence, especially if you're on the wrong side of it, can be a bore. Perhaps, on Friday night, when the Cubs and Red Sox both clinched first place on the same night, we should have known that something different was about to arrive.

Now, the Phillies join them, the beneficiaries, not the victims, of a historic comeback and collapse. Finally, for Phils fans like Moyer, the more things change, the more they don't always have to stay the same.