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A few big news stories in World Championsville today. The first is that Chase Utley will undergo surgery next week on his injured hip. This surgery could take as long as 6 months to recover from. The right hip had troubled "ChUtley" for a good portion of the 2008 season. If Utley misses the start of the 2009 season, this could be a window of opportunity for Jason Donald, or this could fully seal the deal on a return to Philadelphia for Tadahito Iguchi. The second story is phormer phirst round drapht pick Greg Golson was traded to Texas for another first round pick John Mayberry. Mayberry, a 24 year old righty slugger, has already been assigned to triple-A Lehigh Valley, and was added to the Phillies' 40 man roster. The loss of Golson should not be a subject to worry about. Last offseason I was stunned to learn that another top draft pick named Mike Costanzo was sent away, and look how that turned out (Eh-hem, BRAD LIDGE). The Phillies were simply at a point where

Albert Pujols won his second National League Most Valuable Player award on Monday. Pujols was the only NL player to appear on every submitted ballot. That's right, pholks. There were writers who did not even place as low as a 10th place vote toward the guy who led the majors in homeruns and RBI. Psst, that's Ryan Howard with 48 homers and 146 RBI, if you don't know who I was speaking of. This breaks the Phillies' streak of two consecutive MVP's. Howard won in 2006 and Jimmy Rollins won in 2007. Brad Lidge was the only NL player to receive a first place MVP vote, besides Pujols and Howard. Lidge finished 8th overall in the voting for the MVP honor. He also finished 4th in the Cy Young Award voting. Luckily, the World Champs are only coming up short when it comes to individual awards. Charlie Manuel finished second in NL manager of the year voting as well. Lou Pinella of the Cubs won that award. Side note...With Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley blocking the way

While this week most Phils phans have begun to cool down from their late October/early November PHEVER, local sports phans currently residing on the other side of the globe are keeping things hot. The 304th Civil Affairs Bridage sent home pictures like this, as they continued to celebrate and offer support to the Phillies from phar away. Mrs. Ballz's cousin Danny, pictured second from left, and his group were treated to 4am start times in Iraq for the World Series telecasts. Replays on the Armed Forces Network enabled viewing at better times also. Here's to the troops who battle for and defend freedom. We are phans of your's too and as Phillies Phever cools down, perhaps the Troop-berculosis (wow, that's bad) will steadily infect us all. ;)

Are the Eagles trying to lure Pat Burrell and Cole Hamels to "the Linc" in order to bring a championship across the street? Maybe not. But softening them up with cheerleaders couldn't hurt. When reached for comment about the meeting, my girl Alex (pictured center) said that Colbert's and Patrick's only game is on the baseball diamond. ;)

Yes, I am still the happiest boy in B-town. My team won the WORLD SERIES! A few news notes from Phillies-land... NL Gold Glove Awards were announced today. Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins won at their respective positions. Third base coach Steve Smith will not return to the team next season. So Taguchi will also not be back next year, as he was officially released today.

What a great year. Ups and downs...highs and lows...plenty of bumps along the road to glory. It was just a perphect season. The last week of the season has easily been one of the greatest of my life. From a national stage for a World Championship voctory, to Cole Hamels appearing on The Late Show, to the huge parade & parties, to Shane Victorino hocking World Series goodies on QVC, to Chase Utley stunning us all once again by using "the ph-word" on live television, to phans becoming internet sensations by doing rowdy things and celebrating, to Charlie Manuel Halloween costumes...this has just been a wild week of immense exposure for all of us. Congratulations again to the Phillies, their phans and the entire region! I am not quite sure what this phan was thinking, but he's offering a unique souvenir from the Phillies' World Series clinching game. Check out this eBay auction . Keep living it up, Phillies phans.