From left: Cole Hamels, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley

LAS VEGAS doesn’t care about the wondrous run made by the 2008

Philadelphia Phillies, a team that banded together and blindsided so many experts to

become baseball’s world champions. in Vegas, they don’t value ball clubs by their heart or

their moxie or their magical year-ago finish. the sports books in Las Vegas aren’t swayed

by how the stars aligned for the Phillies in ’08. that was last season. those tickets have

already been torn or cashed. Vegas is a pragmatist, dealing in cold, hard data to lure your

cold, hard cash. so, less than two months after the Phillies were crowned, Las Vegas—the

city that played host to baseball’s annual winter meetings last December—had established

Philadelphia at 12-1 odds to repeat as world champs. Brotherly love? not from sin city.

the new york mets, who again collapsed under the weight of the Phillies’ mounting pressure, were listed at 7-1 to win the World series—the same odds given to the chicago cubs, who are into their 101st year without a world title.

on top of everything, the yankees—who reeled in top free agent pitchers c.c. sabathia and a.J. Burnett while in Vegas—had already spent enough to convince the oddsmakers at the Las Vegas Hilton. ten days before christmas, the yanks, who finished third in their division in 2008, were suddenly 3-1 favorites to win the 2009 World series, according to the hotel’s sports book. and that was before this winter, when the yankees added slugging first baseman mark teixeira, the best all-around free agent player.

the odds men in Las Vegas had angled that the Phillies, from the city that spawned American Bandstand, stood a far better chance of being a one-hit wonder than a band capable of strings of platinum success. But the people around Philadelphia were having much too good a holiday season to care what some bloodless statisticians in the desert city that spawned drive-through wedding chapels had to say.

after the ticker tape had been cleared along Broad street, the Phillies still had the young core of a championship club—first baseman ryan Howard, shortstop Jimmy rollins, second baseman chase utley and the World series mVP, left-hander cole Hamels.

they still had a lights-out closer in Brad Lidge. they still had starter Jamie moyer, their lion in winter. and they were still under the avuncular guidance of manager charlie manuel, who is hardly intimidated by the view from the top.

“i think with the type of club we’ve got, and the way we look at things, we have a good attitude about [a repeat], and i think we stand a very good chance of doing it again,” manuel said during an mLB.com interview shortly after the World series ended.

What helped motivate the 2008 Phillies to a title?

new general manager ruben amaro Jr. mentioned the bitterness after the Phillies’ quick, first-round exit in the 2007 playoffs. “[it] left a kind of bitter taste in our guys’ mouths,” he says.

But the Phillies had a group of strong personalities and self-motivators, and the front office had a plan. roots of this club can be traced to current Houston astros gm