"The late Illinois senator Everett Dirksen is supposed to have once delivered this sage commentary on the federal budget: "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money.''

A similar vibe is beginning to settle over the Phillies' spring training. There hasn't been any single, cataclysmic event to suggest this is no longer a team to be reckoned with. Instead it's been a steady drip, drip, drip of uncertainty that has created vague angst.

A Domonic Brown here, a Chase Utley there . . .

The latest news flash to chip away at the presumed invincibility of a team widely viewed as having a free pass directly to the World Series came early yesterday morning when the buses to Osceola County Stadium pulled out of Clearwater with an empty seat where closer Brad Lidge was supposed to be sitting. Biceps tendinitis was the initial diagnosis, a significant condition that can't be overlooked.

All involved downplayed the latest development. But (insert creepy movie trailer voice-over here) in a world where Utley's general soreness soon turned out to be patellar tendinitis . . .

One player going down is an isolated incident. Two is a coincidence. Three starts to look a lot like a trend. And, remember, a spate of injuries was the Phillies' biggest worry coming into camp.

Manager Charlie Manuel is often credited with an ability to project an aura of calm certainty that everything will work out all right, no matter how much hell is breaking out around him. Even he conceded that the lengthening trainer's report has him nettled.

"Yeah, it bothers me. Especially when it's Utley," he said after yesterday's 7-6 exhibition win over the Houston Astros.

What about Lidge?

"He'll be OK. Of course, I said the same thing about Utley. I guess I always look on the positive side," he admitted."