Who are these guys?

Let’s get Serie(ou)s.

Not many people know much about the Phillies or Rays, or care to know. Fox Sports cares. TV ratings are lower than last year.

Perhaps further illumination of these cleat-footed, heretofore anonymous, ball men will enhance a viewer’s enjoyment of the 2008 World Series.

When Tampa Bay reliever J.P. Howell pitches he wears three socks, three underwear and three T-shirts. Why? Because it reminds him of three strikes and three outs.

Akinori Iwamura wears number 1 and in 2007, his 1st season with Tampa Bay, Iwamura began his workouts on 1/11 at 11:11:11 a.m. Strangely, he doesn’t play 1st base.

The guy who does play first, Carlos Pena does his own dance in the dugout. It’s called, of course, the “Pena Colada.”

The Rays Melvin Emmanuel Upton started out at shortstop before moving to center field. Nobody calls him M.E, instead they call him B.J. His father was called Bossman, so the son naturally was called Bossman Junior. It all makes sense.

Speaking of B.J. Upton, he is the only player in baseball history with a last name starting with U to hit more than one home run in a postseason game.

Speaking of letters, now the only letters without a multi-homer postseason game are F, I, Q, X and Z.

B.J. Upton may be the best pure athlete in this Series, but only Carl Crawford was offered a scholarship to play quarterback for Nebraska and point guard for UCLA.

The oldest player at 45 is Phillies soft lefty Jamie Moyer. When the Phillies won the World Series in 1980, Moyer skipped school at nearby Souderton High School to attend the victory parade down Broad Street. That was the only time the Phillies won the championship in 124 seasons. No word if he plans to attend the parade if it is in Tampa Bay.

Game 1 starter and winner, Cole Hamels, led all Phillies pitchers with 3,433 pitches thrown in the regular season. That doesn’t count warm-up pitches. Why the Phillies didn’t have him scheduled to start Games 4 and 7, I have no idea. He is slated to start Game 5. If he started three games, the Phillies would probably win the Series.

Rays rookie superstar Evan Longoria never met actress Eva Longoria (Tony Parker’s honey), though she recently sent him a bottle of champagne.

The father of Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins wanted his son to be a musician. It was his mother, a fast pitch softball player, who inspired him to become a baseball player.

Rays catcher Dionner Navarro was once traded for Randy Johnson. Well, yeah, there were some other players in the trade.

Rays manager Joe Maddon never played a game in the Major Leagues.

The only Series player who’s played for both teams is Rays RP Trever Miller. It’s okay if you never heard of him.

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[I] Coldeen is a longtime journalist in the CNMI and is currently the news director of KSPN2[/I]