Contractual difficulties

Shortly after the cleanup crews picked up the confetti after the celebratory parade, I naturally began to wonder which of the champs would begin to sour things with a protracted contract dispute. Ryan Howard? Cole Hamels? Maybe the more veteran and likely to depart Pat Burrell or Jamie Moyer?

Nope.

Try Charlie Manuel, whose agent Pat Rooney is frustrated with the lack of progress on a contract extension that will keep the champion manager a Phillie until he retires.

"Slow," he said, sounding frustrated. "We had hoped to have had this done before now. We hope to get it done this week. Charlie wants to manage another three to five years and wants to be treated fairly. He'd like to retire a Phillie."

I write this in jest. Cholly's demands seem reasonable, and the Phillies shouldn't tamper with 2008's good karma by dragging this out. As crazy as it might have sounded a year ago: Sign up Manuel for as long as he wants.

Other GM meeting news: The Rangers traded Gerald Laird to the Tigers, eliminating a landing spot for Jason Varitek and probably killing the chances of Jarrod Saltalamacchia being traded to Boston. ... The Phillies are reportedly interested in Delmon Young. I'd pass, unless it's only to see the interesting combination of he and Brett Myers on the same team.

My forced unemployment ends Monday.