National Football League

Phillies' Manuel has postseason stuff all figured out

Published Oct. 14, 2010 10:17 a.m. ET

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CONGRATULATIONS, you have gotten your team to the playoffs again! It was a long season, full of slumps and injuries and Lord knows what else that never got in the papers. But it's another postseason and here you are, just a handful of victories away from another championship. It's what you play for - that chance - and now you've got to take a deep breath and remind yourself that you're surrounded by world-class players.

Remember, you don't have to go in there at this point in the year and pump anyone up.

They're pumped. Even guys who have been there before, chances are they're sky high.

If anything, you've got to assure that everyone stays calm - including yourself.

Good as he has been in handling the highs and lows that come in a 162-game season, few have proved themselves more skilled at navigating the postseason than Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, whose team opens the NL Championship Series against the Giants on Saturday evening at Citizens Bank Park. As his Phillies stand just four victories from their third consecutive World Series appearance - and eight from their second world championship in that span - Manuel has won the admiration of some very successful managers and head coaches, including former Phillies manager Dallas Green, former Eagles coach Dick Vermeil and others who have had teams compete for championships.

"The proof is in the pudding," said Green, who guided the Phillies to their first world championship in 1980. "Charlie has a lot of respect for his team and they have a lot of respect for him. What he has been able to build on over the years has been a philosophy of one game at a time . . . You see that calm from Charlie that you did not necessarily see from me."

Vermeil also gave Manuel a tip of his cap. "I think they do a great job of maintaining a consistent effort to play well," said Vermeil, who took the Eagles to their first Super Bowl appearance after the 1980 season. "I think Charlie does a great job. He has tremendous leadership poise."

In a certain way, the playoffs are like running the rapids: Everything just seems to be moving faster and the possibility of suddenly becoming upended is ever-present. Green said that your attitude can no longer be the same that it is during the regular season, when a poor performance can be tossed off by saying: "We'll get 'em tomorrow." In the playoffs, Green said, "There may not be a tomorrow." He remembers that the tension was especially high in 1980, when he inherited a team that had been beaten in the playoffs in 1976, '77 and '78. Green said that the 1980 team was "fighting a lot of ghosts" and that the pressure was elevated because of it. While his hard-charging personality differed dramatically from the easy-going Manuel's, Green said it was imperative for him during the playoffs and World Series that he "keep things on an even keel."

"The emotions you are dealing with are on a roller coaster," he said. "When you are scoring runs and doing well, everybody gets very, very high. But you have to stay focused. This is especially so in the National League, where the bullpen comes into play so heavily. You have to look ahead and be able to adjust when you have to."

One big issue during the playoffs and World Series that Green and the others point to is distractions. There are many. Players suddenly find themselves fielding ticket requests and questions regarding hotel space. "In a way, learning how to handle that comes with experience," said Green, who added that he found the increased media attention to be an issue.

"From the point of view of the manager, that is the most demanding part," he said. "You have the local guys you have to take care of, and now you have the national media coming out of the woodwork."

Green said that there is more pressure to get to the World Series than there is playing in it. "Pete Rose told me, 'Dallas, if we get through [the playoffs], the World Series will be a piece of cake,' " Green said. "The World Series [against Kansas City] was not a piece of cake, but it did not have the tensions that the playoffs did. Once you get to the World Series, you can let your players play."

Vermeil said that once a team gets to the Super Bowl, it becomes rejuvenated. Whatever bumps and bruises the players have accumulated during the course of the long season seem to vanish. Practice no longer seems to drag. Meetings no longer feel too long. But Vermeil said he did not have to calm his players down. He said that happened with "the first snap of the ball."

"That brings them back to reality," Vermeil said. "The Super Bowl starts like any other game starts - with a kickoff and a kickoff return." Vermeil took three teams to the playoffs during his career, two of them to the Super Bowl: The Raiders beat his 1980 Eagles team, 27-10, but he led the 1999 St. Louis Rams to a Super Bowl victory over the Tennessee Titans, 23-16. He later coached the Kansas City Chiefs to the playoffs. He discovered that "as a leader," the experience of having been to the Super Bowl left him better prepared for his second try.

"Of course, we only had 1 week between the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl in 1999, so I had 1 less week to screw it up," Vermeil said with a laugh. "Would we have played better against the Raiders in 1980 if we only had that 1 week? Hell, who knows? But the NFL does do a better job controlling the distractions than it used to."

Is there an ingredient to playoff success?

Vermeil says yes.

"Continue to do well what got you there in the first place," he said. "As soon as you get [to the playoffs], you cannot begin changing your offensive and defensive schemes."

And Vermeil added he always told his players this: "Act like you have been there before. Even if you never have. Pretend."

Former Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said that playoff success comes down to knowing "when to adjust" and not just staying with a game plan. Hitchcock led Dallas to victory in the 1999 Stanley Cup finals. He said that instead of pumping up players for championship competition, "you need to spend more time trying to calm them down."

"Especially when you get to the conference finals or finals, the whole city is electric," Hitchcock said. "But you have to be prepared to make changes on the fly . . . rather than rely on stats or a reputation. [Over the course of] a long season, trends and stats will play themselves out. That does not always happen in the playoffs."

Hitchcock added it can be hard setting aside "personal loyalty and feelings toward a specific player."

But he said it is essential.

"It [becomes] more of a 'What have you done for me lately?' kind of thing," Hitchcock said. "For some players, the competition is too rich for their blood or they are too banged up to really do what you need."

Former Sixers coach Larry Brown won an NBA and NCAA championship. Currently head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats, he led the 2000-01 Sixers to the NBA Finals. About his approach to coaching in the playoffs, he said he is "pretty sure I learned from doing it so long."

"When you get in a long series, you try to build the confidence of your players and hope you're smart enough to make the right adjustments as you go along," Brown said. "I would always tell my team that our concern is how we play, because that's the only control we have. We're not on the other bench."

Brown added, "Again, it's focusing on positive things and trying to get them to focus on what we're doing."

Former NFL coach and Eagles player Herm Edwards said that during the playoffs "you almost have to stop the players from trying to do extra."

"The energy is so high, they are almost like, 'I can do more,' " said Edwards, who led the Chiefs and Jets to the playoffs and who is now an ESPN analyst. "But as a coach, you have to say, 'No, I don't want you to do more. I want you to do what got us here.' So you do have to calm the players and you do that to adjust. When a player is hot, you have to go with him."

But Edwards said that coaching in the playoffs comes down to this: letting star players shine.

"Stars just love being in the spotlight," Edwards said. "So you have to build around them. And you have to put them in a position to do what they do better than anyone else: Make things happen." *

Daily News sports writers Phil Jasner and Frank Seravalli contributed to this article.

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