Jamie Moyer is at the top and wants to keep climbing

At a luncheon at Qwest Field last November, former Mariner Dave Henderson flashed the World Series ring he won with Oakland and joked with pitcher Jamie Moyer, "I have one of these and you don't."

It was typical baseball busting. Henderson knows there is nothing more precious in the game, nothing more significant, than winning a world championship.

And Moyer knew he was in the autumn of his baseball years.

But now, a year later, after a baseball career that began in Geneva, N.Y., in 1984, after winning 246 big-league games, about to turn 46 years old, Moyer is getting his ring.

The Philadelphia Phillies, his hometown team, won the World Series and, almost two weeks after the fact, the smile hasn't disappeared from Moyer's face.

Like Henderson, he has experienced the run. He has felt the unambiguous joy. And he has shared the love, riding in the victory parade.

Two days after Brad Lidge struck out Tampa Bay's Eric Hinske and Philadelphia won its first World Series since 1980, an estimated 3 million people lined the parade route through Philadelphia's Center City. And Moyer, who cut school to attend the 1980 celebration, was in the eye of the adulation.

"I actually had tears in my eyes during that parade," he said. "My whole family was with me on the float and on numerous times during that parade I looked at my wife, Karen, and said, 'Wow, do you believe what's happening?' "

Moyer has pitched in the big leagues since 1986, playing with the Chicago Cubs, Texas, St. Louis, Baltimore, Boston and the Mariners. He pitched in four previous postseasons, but nothing prepared him for the feeling of finally winning.

In the top of the ninth, in the climactic fifth game, Moyer stood on the top step on the dugout, leaned on the railing and felt his heart racing. The thrill of the moment was almost too much to control.

"I was thinking, 'Holy cow, just slow down,' " he said. "I mean, you're three outs away from winning, but one pitch away from the game being tied."

This season, Moyer wasn't just the wise old head of the Phillies' rotation. Not merely some ersatz pitching coach. He won 16 games. For most of the season he was the team's co-ace with World Series MVP Cole Hamels.

The Phillies won nine of his last 10 starts. He was 4-0 in September and didn't lose a game after Aug. 5. After struggling in postseason starts at Milwaukee and Los Angeles, he threw a gem in the Phillies' late-night Game 3 World Series win.

A season like this would seem like the perfect exit line for Moyer's remarkable career. How do you top winning the World Series in your hometown? How do you follow a parade?

"It could be a perfect ending," Moyer admitted. "I respect people who say that. You kind of ride off into the sunset and tell yourself it's been a fun ride. But I still have that burning desire to play. I feel if I just hung it up right now, there'd be something inside of me saying, 'What if? What if? What if?'

"Believe me, I've heard it for the last 10 years. You know, 'You're too old.' But you never know until you try. So if I go to spring training and I can't do it, then I know I can't do it."

But Moyer believes he still can do it. He's won 30 games the past two seasons, including the division clinchers in both 2007 and '08. He has averaged 200 innings pitched the past three seasons.

He filed for free agency last week and likely will re-sign with the Phillies. But when he was asked if he would consider returning to Seattle, Moyer said, "You never know." At middle age, the ageless Moyer still has options.

"If it comes to May and June and I can't do it anymore, then I'm hoping, if that time ever comes, I can be man enough to say, 'I've had enough,' " he said. "But right now, standing here talking, I really don't feel that I've had enough."

There are a few advantages to having this kind of success this late in your career. The most important is having children old enough to appreciate the experience. The Moyer family celebrated this championship together.

"To have a 17-year-old [Dillon] and a 15-year-old [Hutton] see this and be a part of this, to share that with my boys — you can't put a money value on that," Moyer said. "They were on the field, in uniform, when we won the World Series, and these are things that we can talk about for the rest of our lives.

"And for the rest of my family to be there and to share this feeling with them, they realized how hard it was. Karen has been through this with me and to be able to celebrate this with her, it's just been an exciting time."

The celebration didn't end in Philadelphia. Despite playing 3,000 miles from his adopted home, Moyer, who with Karen has given back so much to Seattle through the couple's foundation, also gave many win-starved Seattle fans something to cheer about.

"Unfortunately we weren't able to win a World Series here in Seattle," Moyer said. "But I feel a part of me is always here and always will be here. And to come back here to what I consider home, and hear so many people tell me they were rooting for me, it's pretty cool."

So is winning the ring.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com