Phillies' Gillick Will Retire as a Champion

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 29 -- On what was almost certainly the last in-season day of his career, Philadelphia Phillies General Manager Pat Gillick seemed oddly unemotional on the field at Citizens Bank Park, while all around him his players and employees celebrated the franchise's first World Series title since 1980.

"I'm happy. I'm content," Gillick, 71, said. "And I'm relaxed. My wife was real nervous, but I was relaxed the whole time."

Gillick was GM of the Toronto Blue Jays when they beat the Phillies in the 1993 World Series, and he went on to have successful stints heading the front offices of the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners before joining the Phillies in November 2005. Although he declined to comment on his status Wednesday night, he has already indicated he would retire after this season.

"Tonight isn't about what I'm going to do, or what I'll be doing a year from now or a month from now," Gillick said. "The focus should be on what this organization has accomplished."

Standing not too far away from Gillick was his boss, team president and CEO David Montgomery, a Philadelphia native who recalled watching the Phillies in the 1950 World Series on the first television set his family ever bought.

"If I wasn't working for the Phillies," he said, "I guarantee you I'd be here attending this game."

Rays' Reaction

Rays Manager Joe Maddon gave a short speech to his team after their loss in Game 5, saying later it was difficult "not to become too emotional. We made a powerful statement," he said. "It's just the beginning. I think we validated and created the Ray way of playing baseball. . . . I don't think our guys are ever going to be satisfied going home in October again."

Maddon said he considered using phenom lefty David Price from the start Wednesday night, but decided to use a matchup-focused bullpen strategy instead.

"Retrospectively, maybe you could have done that [with Price], but I really had it mapped out the exact way it occurred," he said. "[The Phillies] just did not cooperate with their offense." . . .

Jamie Moyer, the Phillies' 45-year-old left-hander and another native of the area, had tears in his eyes as he held his children and answered questions. "It's really special," he said. "To have the opportunity to pitch here, in this organization, in the city where I grew up, is just amazing."

Moyer, the old sage of the Phillies' clubhouse, said he kept his thoughts to himself before Wednesday night's play began.

"I didn't say anything to anybody," he said. "They didn't need any advice from me."