Chicago Cubs’ manager Lou Pieniella was named the National League Manager of the Year Wednesday, getting the nod over Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel with 103 total points. Manuel garnered 67 points.

Joe Maddon, the manager of the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays, was named the American League Manager of the Year. Maddon received 27 of the 28 first place votes cast by the Baseball Writers Association of America, the other going to Minnesota Twins’ manager Ron Gardenhire.

Piniella’s Cubs won the NL Central and had the most wins in the league. Despite having the best record in the league, the Cubs were swept in their NLDS matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Rays fared better than the Cubs, although the ultimately lost in the World Series to the Phillies.

It is Piniella’s third Manager of the Year award; it was Maddon’s first.

San Francisco Giants’ ace Tim Lincecum has been awarded the 2008 National League Cy-Young award winner, garnering 23 of 32 first-place votes, seven second-place votes, and one third-place vote for 137 points.

The 24-year old righty beat out reigning Cy-Young winner Brandon Webb (73 points), New York Mets’ ace Johan Santana (55), Phillies’ closer Brad Lidge (10), Milwaukee Brewers’ ace CC Sabathia (9), and Chicago Cubs’ pitcher Ryan Dempster (4).

“I thought it would be a lot closer. I was thinking more along the lines of Sabathia or Johan or Webb,” he said.

All three of those pitchers have won the Cy-Young award in previous years.

Lincecum was 18-5 this season on a team that was 18 games under .500, and is the 12th pitcher to ever win the award on a sub-.500 team. He had a winning percentage of .783, the best in the league. He also struck out 265 batters, an all time Giants’ high. Opponents hit .221 overall and .167 with runners in scoring position while averaging 7.22 …

After starting the game in a way that most NFL coaches only dream of, the Philadelphia Eagles yet again came up short against a NFC East opponent, putting them 0-3 against the division this year.

On the third play of the game, the Eagles’ Mike Patterson deflected a pass at the line from Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning, intercepting it and running it back to the New York nine yard line.

After an incomplete pass by quarterback Donovan McNabb, the Eagles completed a direct snap to widereceiver DeSean Jackson for a nine yard run for the touchdown. Eagles up 7-0.

That would be the end of good fortune for the Birds. Manning and the Giants came right back to tie the game on a 17-yard pass to Plaxico Burress to cap off a 10-play 80-yard drive.

The Giants would score 17 unanswered points until McNabb connected on a 10-yard pass to Jason Avant. Giants 17 eagles 14.

Both teams would trade field goals before the end of the first half, taking the score to 20-17. Despite the …

The Phillies re-signed lefty reliever Scott Erye Monday to a one-year deal worth two million dollars with performance incentives.

The Phillies acquired Eyre on August 7 from the Chicago Cubs. In 19 appearances, he went 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 14.1 innings.

On the season, he held lefthanded hitters to a .220 average with one home run allowed in 50 at-bats.

In addition to re-signing Eyre, Phillies’ GM Ruben Amaro announced that pitching coach Rich Dubee, first-base coach Davey Lopes, and hitting coach Milt Thompson would all be returning for the 2009 season.

Bench coach Jimmy Williams, who was invited to return next season, has decided not to. Third-base coach Steve Smith will also not be returning, as it was announced last week that the Phillies decided not to renew his contract. Bullpen coach Ramon Henderson is also not likely to return, as he missed the second half of last season due to personal reasons.

Major League Baseball started rolling out their individual awards Monday, naming Geovany Soto and Evan Longoria the National League and American League Rookies of the Year, respectively.

Longoria, a third baseman for the AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays, was the unanimous selection of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He notched 27 homers and 85 RBIs in his first major league season.

Soto, the catcher for the Chicago Cubs, was nearly as popular after hitting 23 homers and 86 RBIs of his own.

Longoria is the first Rookie of the Year in the Rays’ 11-year history. He is also the first third-baseman to win the award since his teammate Eric Hinske did it in 2002 with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Soto is the first Cub to achieve the honor since Kerry Wood did it in 1998. He is also the first Rookie of the Year catcher since Reading native Mike Piazza did it with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1993.

The NL Cy Young award winner will be announced Tuesday.

According to John Heiman, the Colorado Rockies have reportedly traded slugging leftfielder Matt Holliday to the Oakland Athletics. This has yet to be confirmed by either team, and it is not yet known what else was part of the deal.

If a deal has in fact been completed, it will most likely involve some pitching going to Colorado. Rockies’ GM Dan O’Dowd was recently quoted as saying,

“There is not much pitching in the market available. Period. And any pitching we get will likely be projection pitching. Not that guy that has been there, done it. We are completely open-minded to anything.”

This is bad news for the Phillies, who were seen as the other team likely to land Holliday. The Phils took a long hard look at the 2007 MVP runner-up during this season, but ultimately decided not to pull the trigger. Now, with the impending loss of Pat Burrell, the Phillies were thought to be a heavyweight contender.

That’s not to say they can’t or won’t re-sign …

Two Philadelphia Phillies players will have 2008 Gold Glove Awards to go along with their World Series championships.

Centerfielder Shane Victorino and shortstop Jimmy Rollins were each awarded the top defensive commendation at their position.

“I can’t believe it,” Victorino said during a telephone interview with Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Todd Zolecki. “It’s definitely an accomplishment. To win an individual award after winning a team award definitely is an honor. To be recognized as one of the best defensive players in the game. . . . I’ve always taken pride in my defense. You can always find a way to help on defense. You can be 0 for 20 and still find a way to help your team win defensively.”

With the departure of Aaron Rowand last offseason, many in Philly wondered if Victorino would be up to the task of playing the tough defensive position day in and day out. No one is wondering that anymore. Victorino had just two errors in 337 chances this …

The Phillies are World Champions of baseball!!!!

Oh, but wait, there are other sports being played still.

One team still playing is the Eagles, who triumphed against the Seahawks Sunday after a rough first quarter.

Seattle went up 6-0 on their first play from scrimmage, a 90-yard pass play to Koren Robinson, the longest play in Seahawks’ history. The offense had serious trouble getting things started in the first quarter, with quarterback Donovan McNabb completing just three of 13 passes for 57 yards.

Then the Eagles shook off the cobwebs. Perhaps they were suffering from the city wide championship hangover. Whatever the reason, the Eagles came out in the second quarter a different team, and never looked back.

The Eagles got on the board when McNabb connected with Reggie Brown on a 22-yard touchdown pass that capped off an 80-yard drive. The offense would strike again just under six minutes later on a 1-yard pass to right guard Todd Herremans. After setting a block, Herremans ran past the line of …

Ending a 25-year championship drought, the Philadelphia Phillies are the 2008 Major League Baseball World Champions, beating the Tampa Bay Rays four games to one in the best of seven World Series.

Closer Brad Lidge’s last devastating slider of the season, striking out Eric Hinske, wiped away the ghosts of lost championships past.

Gone are Mitch Williams (version: mullett) and Joe Carter.

Gone are Ronde Barber and Joe Jurevicius.

Gone are Eric Lindros and Scott Stevens.

Gone are Donovan McNabb and his throw up.

Gone are Derek Fisher and Tyrone Lou.

Here are Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Lidge and Jimmy Rollins. Here are Pat Burrell (hopefully for a while longer), Brett Myers, Jamie Moyer, and Shane Victorino. Here are Jason Werth, Geoff Jenkins, Matt Stairs, Greg Dobbs, and Ryan Madson.

We have all new moments to remember.

Victorino’s grandslam against CC Sabathia.

Stair’s towering shot off of Jonathan Broxton.

Burrell’s numerous clutch homeruns throughout the playoffs.

Both of Rollins’ leadoff homeruns in each of the clinching games in the first two rounds.

Howard’s two homerun game; …

The Phillies moved one game closer to a World Series championship in a 10-2 rout of the Tampa Bay Rays Sunday behind one of the best games of starter Joe Blanton’s career, taking a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Blanton pitched six strong innings, allowing just two runs on four hits. He allowed just two walks while striking out seven. When he was traded to the Phillies by the Oakland Athletics in July, it left many in Philly scratching their heads. But as Sam Donnellon says in his postgame column,

CC SABATHIA is watching the World Series - or maybe not.

Rich Harden is, too. Paul Byrd is at home, as is Greg Maddux.

Blanton has been just as big an addition as those pitchers, if not more so. The Phillies are 3-0 in three games Blanton has started this postseason. They were 10-4 in 14 starts during the regular season. He lost just one game in September and October. Blanton was the starting pitcher in the NLDS clincher …

Welcome back Jamie Moyer!

After two horrible outings in his previous two playoff starts this postseason, Moyer pitched 6 1/3 strong innings against the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing just three runs on five hits with five strikeouts. Despite a rain delay of nearly an hour and a half, it was a game that was definitely worth the wait.

Chase Utley got the scoring going early with a ground out RBI to first, scoring Jimmy Rollins. One of the best things to come out of last night was the ability of the top of the order to get things going and get on base. Rollins and Jayson Werth went a combined three for six with a run and two walks. Three different innings, either Rollins or Werth led off by getting on base, including the all important ninth.

The Rays got the run back, however, in the top of the second, after Carl Crawford doubled to left, stole third, and scored on a sacrifice fly to center. The Phillies …

This year’s World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays is about as an unlikely matchup as we’re ever to find.

Despite only being in the major leagues for 10 years, the Rays have the worst winning percentage of any team in the league. They have won just 42% of their 1779 games, four percentage points worse than the next worst team, the San Diego Padres. Until the 2008 season, the Rays were better than last place just once, and that was in 2004 when they were in fourth place in the AL East.

The Phillies, as we all know, have more losses than any other franchise in professional sports history. That is due in large part to the fact that the franchise has been around for 125 years. It is also a result of them having a winning percentage of just 47%, 26th worst in major league history. The Fightin Phils have a better winning percentage than just the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, …