It's an oft-stated staple. To win a World Series, your big guns need to come through. If you are the Philadelphia Phillies, that means Ryan Howard must hit, Chase Utley must hit, Jimmy Rollins must hit.

It's a faulty premise. The heroes this time of the year can be anyone, and often are.

Remember Gene Tenace, Pat Borders, Ed Sprague, Jim Leyritz, Bill Mazeroski ...

"You know what happens a lot in the World Series?" Philadelphia general manager Pat Gillick was saying Monday night, as the Phillies worked out at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. "I don't worry about Manny Ramirez or [in this case] Evan Longoria. They're going to get their hits. I want to get out the guys we should get out."

Why? Because those are the guys who so often decide these games.

Rays center fielder B.J. Upton had nine home runs all season. He has seven in the postseason. Willie Aybar hit .253 in 95 games this season. He's carrying a .367 postseason average into the World Series, hitting .421 in the six games he played against Boston.

Carlos Ruiz was a 5-4-3 double play in progress for most of this season. He had a .313 average in the National League Championship Series. His two-out single in that pivotal Game 4 against the Los Angeles Dodgers allowed Matt Stairs to hit his winning home run. Greg Dobbs has three hits in six NLCS at-bats. Brett Myers had three hits in one playoff game and a nine-pitch at-bat in another, preceding Shane Victorino's grand slam in Game 2 of the Milwaukee series.

"That's what happens so often," Gillick said. "You concentrate so much on those guys ... but it's those [other] guys who all of a sudden jump up and bite you. We say all the time, 'Don't let those people hurt you.' "

Tampa Bay senior adviser Don Zimmer, in his 60th season and 10th World Series, says the Rays have produced his most unexpected Series trip.

"I've got calls from all over the country. Hearing from everybody. ... How can this happen? I said one thing, 'I didn't get any hits. It's been crazy,'" Zimmer said yesterday.

Tampa Bay is just the second major league baseball team to reach the postseason after having the worst record in the majors the year before. The other was the 1991 NL champion Atlanta Braves.

"Who expected it?" Zimmer said. "Anybody that did to me would be telling a fib. But I think this club finally made a believer out of a lot of baseball people. Sit in the living room and think: the Rays beating the [New York] Yankees, the [Boston] Red Sox, Toronto, the [Chicago] White Sox. It's unbelievable. Sometimes, you don't even know how to explain it."

Zimmer has won six World Series rings as a player and coach. He hopes he'll have to stop wearing one of his old rings and put a new one in its place. "I'll make room."

StubHub says its current average ticket price is $499 for games in St. Petersburg and $854 for games in Philadelphia. That's down from $1,279 last year in Boston and $927 in Denver. ... There's gambling on TV ratings. BetOnline.com said the line for this year's average is a 10.2 rating. That's below the 10.6 of last year and just above the record-low 10.1 in 2006.