Michael Smerconish | WINNERS & LOSERS

October 4, 2007

VICK. Donaghy. Landis. Pick any sport, and you can easily name someone who recently brought it into disrepute.

That's all the more reason that this year's Phils have been a pleasure to cheer. The club is full of real role models, guys you're pleased to bring your kids to the ballpark to watch. Ryan Howard is a class act. Jimmy Rollins' work ethic is admirable. Aaron Rowand's sense of determination and Jamie Moyer's community ethic, ditto.

But two other clubs have also provided a worthy lesson in the subject of competition, and earned a tip of the hat from Phillies fans this season: The Washington Nationals and Florida Marlins. They didn't just topple the Mets. It was the way they did it.

Neither the Nats nor Marlins made the playoffs. Each ended the season with a losing record.

But when nothing but pride mattered in the late season, they refused to quit. No wonder that in the final weekend, after a game in which his club beat the Phils, Washington manager Manny Acta called his team's play in those final days "great for the game of baseball."

He was half-right. It was great for all sports.

This is not to take anything away from the Fightin' Phils, who earned the right to play under the bright lights of October for the first time since 1993. But make no mistake - they wouldn't be there if it weren't for the two worst teams in the NL East.

Remember, the Mets held a seven-game advantage over the Phils on Sept. 13 with 16 games to play. The Phils went 12-4 over those 16 games. The Mets, 5-11.

A big reason why the Mets had such a miserable finale? The Nationals beat them five times during that span. Some will look back only on the Mets' free-fall, but that doesn't give credit to the teams they faced. (Was the Phillies' sweep of the Mets at Citizens Bank Park in August and at Shea in September solely due to the poor play of the Mets? Of course not. They rose to the challenge, but in their case, they were fighting for a playoff spot.)

The Nats went 8-8 in their last 16 games. And did so against the top three teams in their division: the Mets, Phils and Braves.

Before coming to Philadelphia, the Nats swept the division-leading Mets in New York. And when the Nats beat the Phils on Saturday, they did so behind a rookie left-hander who spent last year pitching for the Harrisburg Senators in the minors.

Nor were the Marlins hooked without putting up a fight. Before winning their own series against the Mets last weekend, the Fish had swept the NL Central Division-leading Chicago Cubs, which cut the Cubbies' lead at the time to two games.

And just like the Nats, the Marlins broke even in their final 16 games.

Think about it: The two worst teams in the NL East spent the last two weeks of a long season sweeping divisional leaders and playing .500 baseball. Great for baseball? No, great for sports.

Why? Because we've spent most of the summer lugging our sports stories out of the mud.

The NFL's most electric player pleads guilty to bankrolling a dog-fighting operation - before he violates the conditions of his release by testing positive for marijuana.

AN NBA REFEREE pleads guilty to a couple of counts of conspiring with gamblers, giving credence to years of ugly theories about NBA officiating.

A cycling champion has to surrender his Tour de France crown because of a doping scandal.

Not to mention that a future baseball Hall of Famer broke the most famous record in sports amid a cloud of steroid accusations and a dearth of fanfare throughout the country.

All over just a few months.

But the race for the National League East crown stayed pure. The Nationals and Marlins playing for pride. The wounded Mets trying to regain their swagger. And a likable bunch of Phightin's just trying to win one more time.

Unfortunately, stories like this one have been few and far between lately. What a shame that we hear less about the honest guts of the guys in last place than we hear of the gutless minority who don't play by the rules. Amid all the attention being paid to the Mets' collapse and the Phils' first postseason appearance in almost 15 years, the Nationals quietly reached a milestone of sorts. They finished in fourth place in the NL East, the first time since 2003 they didn't finish dead last in the division.

For the Phillies and their fans, the Nats couldn't have picked a better time to barge out of the basement door. And in so doing, they reminded us what makes sports so great. Major League Baseball 2007: When pride still mattered. *

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5:30-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com.