Established in 1883, the Philadelphia Phillies are one of the oldest baseball franchises.  Unfortunately for the Phillies, being one of the oldest franchises has not translated into being one of the winningest. Yet in the mid-2000s, a dynasty began to form around a strong nucleus of hitters and solid starting pitching.

On this day, October 29th, in 2008, the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays to win their second World Series Championship.  Although the Rays had the better regular season record, they proved to be no match for the Phillies, only winning one game out of the first four.  Game 5 had been postponed because of weather on October 27th with the game tied 2-2 at the top of the 6th inning.  The final three games were played in Philadelphia and the Phillies took game 5 with a score of 4-3.

Cole Hamels was named 2008 World Series MVP.  The loss by the Tampa Bay Rays was the first postseason series lost by a Florida based team in MLB history.