This week has been, in a word, unforgettable

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As regular-season weeks go, this has been one that's going to be hard to beat. And as non-September regular-season weeks go, the one we just witnessed may go down as the all-time champ.

We have some intriguing series coming up as Major League Baseball roars into September, with uncertainty in every division and what looks like, right now, a wild-card race to end all wild-card races. The Braves, suddenly with breath again thanks to the Phillies' sweep of the Mets this week, face the New Yorkers in Atlanta this weekend and the Phils early next week. The Dodgers, desperately trying to hang on in the National League West, get a crack at the surging Padres in San Diego this weekend and then play the Cubs in Wrigley next week. We still have a few Red Sox-Yankees games, and a few Phillies-Mets clashes. The Cubs still have to face St. Louis. The Padres still have three more with the Diamondbacks. It's good stuff for baseball fans.

But that showdown week that was? If baseball can top that in September, I'm pushing Bud Selig for president in '08.

Here are 10 quick thoughts from a week to remember:

• Phillies-Mets was everything that anyone in Philly could have wanted, and everything that every Mets' fan feared. The crowd at Citizens Bank Park was pumped, proving, once again, that Philly has the stuff to be a baseball town that rivals New York and Boston. After Monday's blowout, there were three close games. And the last two had a pair of ingredients that the best series always have: Controversy and comebacks.

The ending of Wednesday's game, in which the Mets' Marlon Anderson was called out on a game-ending interference play after reaching out to knock down Phillies second baseman Tadahito Iguchi, could end up being a season-turner for the Phillies. The Mets and their fans may complain about the call -- Anderson's foot was on or near the bag, after all, and there's no way that Iguchi would have completed the double play anyway, so the tying run would have scored -- but the Phillies clearly outplayed the Mets in this series.

Philadelphia hit .365 in the four games, scored an average of 6.75 runs a game and hitting 11 home runs (that park, really, is ridiculous). The Mets hit just .254, scored only two runs in each of the first three games (they did manage 10 in Thursday's loss) and hit only two homers (maybe the park's really not that bad).

• Man, is Chase Utley worth the waiting around for? Philadelphia's second baseman had five hits in the series, including a homer in the opener and the game-winning single off Billy Wagner in Thursday afternoon's finale. Utley was making his comeback after missing nearly a month with a broken hand. A few more series like that and he'll be right back on top of the NL Most Valuable Player discussion. He leads the league in hitting and is third in OPS (behind Barry Bonds and Chipper Jones). More than that, Utley's presence in the lineup and in the field simply makes the Phillies better, something that, in my book, goes right to the heart of what an MVP is.

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