This is the second of a 12-part monthly retrospect of the world championship 2008 season, whose 10th anniversary is marked this year.
Today we look back at February 2008, and the ramping up of the Phillies and Mets rivalry.
Heading into the 2007 season, everybody looked at the Mets and figured a National League East crown was in the bag. They had young cornerstones in David Wright and Jose Reyes, hall-of-fame players in Tom Glavine and Carlos Beltran, and a slew of high-performing talent surrounding them, like Moises Alou, Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Delgado, Shawn Green, Luis Castillo, John Maine, Oliver Perez and Billy Wagner.