Dec. 30 -- NO. 1: WORLD CHAMPS

(Part 5 of a High Fidelity-style series recalling five of our favorite moments from the 2008 Phillies season.)

BY SCOTT LAUBER

After the rain, there was the reign.

It took 28 years -- and, then, 46 long hours -- but the Phillies finally won the World Series, vanquishing the upstart Tampa Bay Rays, 4-3, in rain-interrupted Game 5 at the Bank. For the record, the final out was recorded at 9:58 p.m. on Oct. 29, a cold Wednesday night, when Brad Lidge (who else?) threw one last hellacious slider to strike out Eric Hinske, then dropped to his knees and was swarmed on the mound by his teammates. After catcher Carlos Ruiz embraced Lidge, Ryan Howard leveled them with the sort of hit that the Eagles are hoping to put on Adrian Peterson this Sunday. Fireworks exploded overhead. The 50-foot neon Liberty Bell swung and clanged in right field. And a sellout crowd -- representing a city that hadn't celebrated a World Series since 1980 or any major pro sports championship since 1983 -- went delirious.

Years from now, we'll remember that Pat Burrell started the game-winning rally in the seventh inning with a leadoff double in his final Phillies at-bat. We'll remember that Pedro Feliz delivered the championship-clinching hit in the seventh inning, a single through Tampa Bay's drawn-in infield against side-winding relieving Chad Bradford. We'll remember that pinch-running Eric Bruntlett raced home from third base with the winning run, shades of Game 3 when he made a mad dash to the plate on Ruiz's 30-foot dribbler down the third-base line in the bottom of the ninth. And we'll remember that Cole Hamels was named World Series MVP, collecting a trophy that proved the perfect companion to his NLCS MVP hardware.

And, now, Hamels and Howard, Utley and Rollins, Lidge and Burrell and the rest of the 2008 Phillies will stand forever alongside Carlton and Schmidt, Rose and Bowa, McGraw and Luzinski and the other heroes of 1980 that they've heard so much about.

"We wanted to change the face of the organization," Howard said amid the frat party-like celebration. "We did that. We're losers no more. The organization is a bunch of winners, and nobody can take that away from us."

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So, those are my five favorite moments from 2008. What were yours?

Happy New Year.