They did it again. The Philadelphia Phillies are going back to the World Series, and they punched their ticket to The Show by doing the exact same thing they did in 2008 – by beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games. The only difference between this year and last is that the Phillies’ opponents in 2009 will not be the star-struck Tampa Bay Rays.

The Philadelphia Phillies now have the opportunity to become just the fourth team in modern National League history to win back-to-back World Series titles; the others being the 1907/08 Chicago Cubs, the 1921/22 New York Giants, and the 1975/76 Cincinnati Reds. You can even argue that this group of players has one of the best chances to repeat of any recent NL team, having added players to their World Series roster like Raúl Ibáñez and Chan Ho Park before the season began and trading for Cliff Lee and signing free agent Pedro Martinez down the stretch. They’re certainly going to be tough to beat.

Interestingly, the Phillies, with their pitching and hitting depth, were the only team to not sweep their opponents in the Divisional Series. Even teams like the Cardinals and the Red Sox couldn’t make a dent in the win columns against their respective opponents. But in the NLCS, the Phillies turned up the heat and started swinging the hot bats. With 10 home runs from six different contributors, the Phillies managed to score 35 runs in the series, 34 coming in their four victories, a total that any team would find hard to top.

Philadelphia is going to need every player performing at their absolute peak if they plan on repeating in 2009. Baseball is not a sport suited to long breaks, and with a week off before the start of the Fall Classic, that’s just one more hurdle that the Phillies will need to overcome in order to retain their crown.