It’s over.

It’s finally over.

Our long Philadelphia nightmare is finally over.

The Phillies are champions of the baseball world.

It feels so good to type those words after so many years of wondering and hoping if it would ever come true.

It wasn’t easy, winning what amounted to the longest game ever played in the history of baseball, but they did it. Timely hitting, solid pitching and shut down defense—all as a team.

If there’s anything to be taken away from this World Series, the playoffs and the entire 2008 season for that matter, it’s this: The Phillies can honestly lay claim as the best team in Major League Baseball in 2008. Other clubs have merely gotten hot at the right time and lucked their way into championships; but the Phillies won theirs with 25 guys who came to work all 176 games with a job to do, through thick and thin, and were repaid with the ultimate reward in baseball.

What struck me most during all the post-game interviews was how every Phillie to a man credited his teammates, his coaches and his manager (and wisely, the fans) as the reason they are world champions tonight. No matter how many men they left on base or in scoring position, these guys believed that this was their time and never wavered in that belief, even though the rest of us certainly had our doubts at different points in the season.

It starts at the top, with Charlie Manuel imposing his two simple rules on a mostly veteran ball club: 1) Be on time; 2) Have fun. He made it clear what their business was about, and then got out of the way.

You can get out of the way when players like Jamie Moyer, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley are in your clubhouse. Even when they weren’t producing on the mound or at the plate, guys like that produced in other roles. Behind the scenes as a mentor (Moyer’s professorial role with World Series MVP Cole Hamels and the rest of the staff), laying down their egos for the betterment of the team (J-Roll sacrificing Jenkins to third base in the bottom of the sixth) or heads up base running and defense (How about Utley’s play to nail Jason Bartlett at the plate in the seventh inning?).

You can get out of the way when you have faith that the most unlikely of players will contribute in whatever way necessary to help your team win. Think of all the big hits and defensive plays from the likes of Pedro Feliz, Carlos Ruiz, Eric Bruntlett, Matt Stairs, Shane Victorino and about a half dozen other guys which all played a crucial role in that 2008 World Championship banner being hoisted above Citizen’s Bank Park tonight.

You can pile up all the clichès in the world about teamwork and lay them at the feet of the Philadelphia Phillies, and they’ll just tip their hats and walk on by, because they know all of that already.

They knew it before they were champions, and they are champions because they knew it.

And now the citizens of Philadelphia can finally feel like champions, too.

Somehow I wouldn’t be surprised if before the Phillies all part ways for the off-season—maybe even at the parade on Friday—one of the professionals on this club suggests to the rest of his teammates something along the lines of the following:

“That was great. Now let’s go do it again next year.”

You know what? For once in my life, I actually believe they could.

I think I’ve finally calmed down enough to write a semi-coherent post about last night’s debacle, so here goes.

I’m glad Bud Selig and his flunky Bob DuPuy were able sleep soundly last night with a tie game on the books. Not that it would have mattered, according to Bud. If you were going to throw out the rule book regarding rain outs, why even start the game in the first place? Now the Phillies have been forced to squander their best pitcher and essentially start over with a 3½ inning game Wednesday night.

Does anyone have any doubt that the Phillies would have been ordered back onto the field in the bottom of the sixth inning had Tampa not scored? I didn’t think so.

Thanks a lot, Bud.

At least he didn’t decide to end the game in a tie.

I guess if there’s a silver lining to all this (and it’s a stretch), the Phillies will have up to four chances to score runs when the game finally resumes, as opposed to Tampa’s three. And since it rained all day today in Philadelphia, Cole Hamels (who threw only 75 pitches last night) should be available to start a hopefully unnecessary game seven on three days’ rest.

If the Phillies lose this series, I think Commissioner Selig can scratch off Philadelphia on his “cities I can safely travel to” list.

With our minds distracted by the impending start of game four of the World Series across the street at the Safe Deposit Box, the Eagles were almost an afterthought in South Philadelphia for the first time in 15 years.

Maybe the Birds were distracted by the Phillies success, too; but it’s more likely Donovan McNabb and his compatriots on offense needed 20 minutes to shake off some rust and welcome back Brian Westbrook and Kevin Curtis to the nest.

With the passing game in a funk for two-thirds of the first half, the Eagles turned to their main weapon, and Westbrook didn’t disappoint. By the time the passing game finally took off at the end of the first half (or perhaps because of it), the Eagles’ running game was well in control, dominating a much more successful second half on the way to a 27-14 win.

The Falcons defense looked much faster than I expected, and frankly, this felt like a pretty good win over a fairly decent team. Matt Ryan could be the real deal someday soon, and the Eagles defense completely dismantled the No.2 running game in the NFL.

As for the blown call by the officials on a not-so-muffed punt by Falcons return man Adam Jennings: Yes, it helped the Eagles immensely by guaranteeing no comeback by the Falcons, but it doesn’t necessarily mean there would have been a comeback either. Mike Smith, the Falcons’ rookie head coach, just learned a valuable lesson about holding onto at least one timeout until the two-minute warning for just such an occasion. He knew the rules, and I have no sympathy. God knows we’ve seen the same kind of thing from the other sideline before.

Speaking of which, congratulations to the Eagles for franchise victory No. 500 and to Andy Reid for victory No. 100. Yes, Virginia, that means in 10 years as head coach, Reid has 20 percent of all the Eagles victories in 75 NFL seasons.

Maybe all of us Reid antagonists should chew on that thought before we jump down his throat the next time his team is ill-prepared for a two-minute drill or short yardage situation. Yeah, right.

After waiting three games for that one hit with runners in scoring position to open the floodgates, Pedro Feliz finally delivered in the third inning last night with a crisp single to left with two outs and the bases loaded.

Then, nursing a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning, Ryan Howard’s long-awaited reunion with the left field bleachers released a pressure valve on the Phillies’ offense, which went on to score five more runs after that on three more home runs—another shot from Howard, a two-run blast from Jayson Werth and even a solo shot from Blanton.

Also important to note: Three of the Phillies’ 10 runs were scored by a suddenly lightning-hot Jimmy Rollins. As we all know, when he goes, the offense goes.

Back to the star of the game. Not to be overlooked by his surprise power at the plate was a sterling power performance on the mound from Blanton. He came after the Rays from the opening pitch, hitting almost every spot with all four of his pitches and further frustrating the already struggling Rays lineup.

So far the pitching matchups that everyone thought favored the Rays have turned out to be the Phillies strength. Now with a huge 3-1 series lead and a chance to win their first world championship in 28 years at home, the Phillies send their best pitcher to the hill tonight in a matchup that everyone believes favors the Phils. Even the Rays probably think it does at this point.

Let’s hope everyone is actually right this time.

What is with the umpiring in this series?

Another huge blown call cost the Phillies two runs in the top of the seventh inning and almost ruined the best game of Jamie Moyer’s long, illustrious career. That’s now four runs the Phillies are owed by the men in blue.

But rather than dwell on the disaster that could have been, let’s celebrate the resiliency this Phillies team shows every time we’re ready to count them out. We should know better by now, but too many years of history tell us otherwise. So I’ll keep doubting, and we’ll see if they keep winning.

The rain delay obviously messed with the entire Rays squad (the hitters were off-balance all night), but it especially affected a hyped-up Matt Garza, who lost focus a few too many times and paid for it on three solo home runs by Carlos Ruiz, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.

Meanwhile, his crafty lefty counterpart, easily old enough to be Garza’s father, was solid as a rock. Moyer nibbled the plate to death and had the Rays completely befuddled. What few hits they had were cheap (or blown calls by the first base umpire), and Moyer kept his composure exactly like you would expect from a veteran of his tenure. No one deserved a night like this more than he did, and even though the win won’t technically go on his record, it still belongs to him.

In the end, Joe Madden didn’t have enough infielders to stop the mighty swinging bunt of Ruiz, who chopped home the winning run against one of the strangest defensive alignments I’ve ever seen.

It’s never easy with this club, and I don’t expect anything different the rest of the way. The unflappable, but not unhittable, Joe Blanton toes the rubber tomorrow night (I guess that’s tonight, actually) against Andy Sonnenstine, the most mysterious pitcher in the Rays rotation (meaning I’ve never seen him pitch).

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to try and get a few hours sleep before one of the biggest sports days in the history of our City of Brotherly Love. I both envy and wish Godspeed to the more than 130,000 people heading to the sports complex in South Philadelphia in the morning.

To paraphrase Mack Brown, coach of my still No. 1 ranked alma mater here in Austin, “come early, be loud, stay late and wear your midnight green and red, white and blue with pride.”