October 19, 11:45PM
Looked like the Phils were going to need their cold weather gear for a visit to Boston this week, but the Rays got it done. So pack for Florida, buys!!!
The Rays' young pitcher David Price nailed down the W for ALCS MVP Matt Garza. Remember both names, folks! There are other names you need to be aware of, in case you weren't paying attention: Evan Longoria (no relation to Eva) an amazing power-hitting rookie, Carl Crawford (this veteran player was the only good one on the Devil Rays, before they dropped the "Devil"), B.J. Upton (who has found his power stroke in the post-season), Dioner Navarro (whose arm is a cannon from behind the plate), and pitchers James Shields and Scott Kazmir.
We're going to get to know these guys this week, and THEY will get to know your Phightin' Phils!
October 19, 1:06PM
So it's Sunday, and the Birds have a bye, so I am not as fired up about 1PM kickoff as I normally would be. Hell, I am blogging about baseball and a game that won't take place for another three-and-a-half days!!!
I'm anticipating tonight's ALCS Game 7 more than the missus' meatballs and gravy that are simmering in the kitchen and tantalizing my senses.
A little while ago, I was putting things in the backyard away. You know the things that have been neglected the last couple of weeks while we have been obsessed with The Phightins. Then it crept in, that all-too-familiar feeling of Philly Phan Dread. What if they let me down again? Then I remember that this team is unlike any other in my 44 years of following Phillies baseball, save the 1980 team, and may be even more talented than that team was.
Okay, I am going to head into the living room, fire up some football, and pretend that I am not thinking about Wednesday night.
October 18, 11:45PM:
So, the Tampa Bay Rays were unable to finish off the world champs. Is anyone really shocked by this? And so, Game 7 commences Sunday night. Despite the Rays now trying NOT to win, somebody's gotta and advance to Wednesday night's Game 1 vs. our Phillies. The Rays have defied all odds all season, going from worst to first, but it is far from shocking that they may be sputtering their way to the offseason. The experience of the Sox, having won it all two of the last four years, may finally be coming into play.
Some worry that the ALCS winner will have momentum going into the World Series, but Phils position players aside, the rest will definitely pay off for Philly pitchers. Are you really worried that they all have had extra days off? They are working, getting their throwing in, but my man Jamie Moyer sure has looked like he needs a couple days extra rest.
October 18, 12:13PM
Spent much of the morning with the family, locked onto Comedy Central's weekly playback of The Daily Show. Laughter has a way of taking your mind off the below-the-surface nerves you're feeling as the Fall Classic approaches with your team already in it. Besides, Jon Stewart might just be the funniest man on TV, were it not for Stephen Colbert.
Going to go transplant some shrubs, go to the grocery store (covered in red of course), and try to NOT think about the one thing that pierces my waking thoughts...THE PHILS ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES!
I try to NOT think about it all the time. Y'know the place normally held by sex. Here's a question for you: Do non-baseball loving women dread this WS development? And an apt followup: Have those same women grown used to baseball season ending at the end of September?
October 17, 1:43PM:
Almost couldn't wake up today, it felt that good to sleep deep amid dreams of parades. Moving through the morning, I got outside to do some neglected yardwork, and found it helping to keep my mind off of how Charlie will handle the DH dilemma.
The Letos: Vincent, Dawn and Louis at the ballpark
Checking email, I got a nice one from Dawn Lito (pictured above) of South Philly:
"Just checked out your Phillies blog and was excited to see you and so many fans feel the same way I do. When I was 12 my Pop-Pop took me to my first Phillies game at the Vet,( IAM NOW 44 YEARS YOUNG) and have been a baseball and PHILLIES fan since that day. No matter what they do win or lose I am the biggest fan you can have. I have been saying since spring training that these guys were red hot and they were going all the way. I am so proud to say that I live in SOUTH PHILLY and have a team that wants to to do good for their city. When they won game 5, I was crying and screaming in my neighborhood in my PJ's. I have been cheering and smiling since that day and the excitment will last till who knows when."
I'll tell ya when it will last until, Dawn. Until the boys bring home that nifty piece of hardware with all of the gold pennants on it, and they plan the longed for parade through your part of the city!
October 17, 1:00AM:
In just a few hours, the media buzz went from "Get ready for a Phils/Rays World Series" to "Uh-oh, hold on now." I think most people who are watching the Rays-Sox series closely have to admit to thinking the same thing.
Got this email just now from my pal, Woodstock Jim:
"How "bout our Phils? Glad they clinched early and can sit back and watch the AL series. TB blew a huge lead tonight. I don't want to see the Phils play Boston. Too much talent and WS experience."
Boston stages the 2ng biggest post-season comeback in a game since Connie Mack and his 1929 A's, so it is natural to take pause, Jimmy. I'm gonna take a snooze. It'll be my first night's sound sleep in a while. Your team being NL Champs will do that for you.
October 16, 3:22PM:
The email high-fives keep rolling in from all kinds of people, including my friends who are Mets fans...
From my pal, Mud (in Nashville): "You have a "Yankee" dynasty brewing and the Mets are your Red Sox....You'll see...." (He picked the Phils to win it all coming out of Spring Training. Gotta love a mets fan who thinks that way.)
From my buddy Jay (in D.C.): "Thinking of you last night, my friend. Me and DJ (his son) are rooting for our first “second” team. Nancy, a die-hard Mets fan can’t do it.
THIS JUST IN FROM BROTHER WIZ IN THE NORTHEAST: "HOW BOUT THEM PHILS!!!! WEARING MY BURRELL JERSEY AS I TYPE THIS. DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN THIS! PLAYOFFS REALLY BRING OUT THE FAN IN ME FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE. DROVE TO WORK THIS MORNING WAVING MY RALLY TOWEL OUT THE WINDOW! BECAME A CARAVAN OF CARS GOING DOWN GRANT AVENUE WITH HORNS HONKING AND LIGHTS FLASHING-IT WAS GREAT. TELL YOUR LISTENERS TO DO THE SAME. I NEVER SAW SO MANY SMILING FACES DRIVING BY. CAN'T BE A BAD THING TO PUT A SMILE ON SOMEONES FACE."
Heard from Tom Burgoyne, the Phanatic's best friend, today, and let him know we expect the best in Game 3 considering the Phanatics 15 days of rest before the Series.
Love seeing the ESPN Sportscenter guys talking about our team, and not having anything bad to say. It's so rare.
Looking forward to gettting on the air tonight. You guys make it so much fun in situation like this.
October 15, 11:30PM:
Brad Lidge starts work in the 9th inning, as "I Drink Alone" plays on my show. No drinks yet for me, but the cold lagers are waiting at home. "Lights Out" is mowing them down, then a foul tip goes up. I think, "Is this wild ride to the Series really gonna end on a foul out?" Aaaah, who cares, we're going to the World Series...and then it is reality. I jump and scream all alone. I call my wife Lisa on my cell, and we're screaming and jumping together 38 miles apart.
As I do my last break, holding back the emotion, I see Bill Giles and Dave Montgomery being awarded the NL trophy (knowing they want the big gold one with all of the pennants) that symbolizes that the Phils are NL Champs. The site of my friend Dave all smiles is too much for me and I can't control the emotion in my voice, eyes welling.
The Cole Hamels steps up to collect his NLCS MVP award. Funny note, as the last out is recorded and the players gather on the field, I see Cole has switched out of his uni and is sporting a NLCS hoodie and shorts.
The scene shifts to the locker room where bubbly and beer are flying, and even Leslie Gudel gets a bath. The interviews blur together except for manager Charlie Manuel talking about his last conversation with his late mom, who passed during this series. That stops time, and is like the eye of hurricane...calm.
I drive home, taking a detour through the stadium area. People are walking up Broad to Oregon screaming and hollering, and you can hear wild celebrations in all of the surrounding South Philly neighborhoods. Screaming, horns honking, fireworks. Then the horns are honking on Broad, and all around me. I turn left on Pattison, there are people out, but nothing like what we saw on TV at Cottman & Frankford.
Everyone has a drink or a beer (except me), which reminds me I need to get home and celebrate with some cold ones. I drive past the ballpark, horn held down as part of an orchestra of automotive music. McFadden's crowd is spilling out onto the street, and people are howling at the just past full moon.
I turn onto Darien Street and it is quiet. Too quiet. But baseball will return next weekend. It'll be the baby ballpark's first World Series.
After making it home, I hug the missus who just loves her Shaney, baby, and the rest of them. It's been a long road since the first week of spring training, and neither of us can quite grasp that this is really it. We're really going to the Series.
We got together 15 years ago this fall with the last WS in Phils history as the backdrop. So, this is like a renewal for us and our kids, who have never experienced it before. Lisa tells them that this is still the same season that started when we went to Clearwater in March, my daughter just says, "wow!"
I suck down some cold lagers and watch, then re-watch all of Comcast Sportsnet's postgame coverage. It's 2:30AM...I gotta get some sleep, even though I know our Phils won't be sleeping much during that long flight home.
October 21, 11:15AM
Hearing writers on the radio last night talking about staying in the same hotel they occupy for spring training, brings this whole, long arduous season into focus. We’ve come full circle. Being in Clearwater, which is just up the beach from St. Petersburg, where the Rays play, must be like a homecoming for our scribes. One was asked if he felt this World Series run was a possibility back in February and March, and even the jaded writer had to admit there was a special feeling among the players at the start of this journey. I concur. When I went down for my annual trek to check them out, it was early in camp.
We weathered a monsoon our first night in town, and the game with FSU was cancelled, but the guys came out and mingled with the college kids. They knew how much it meant for them to have a chance to play against big leaguers.
Over those next few days we saw the unity and teamwork that would be the foundation of these two-time NL East champs. My family went down with me and had a fantastic time. The weather was a bit chilly, and we never got on the beach, but no one complained. The baseball experience was that good. My kids came home with autographed balls, covered in signatures from their heroes, and one of mine, Mike Schmidt. I missed the chance to meet Dick Allen by a couple days, but there’s always next year for that. One by one, my youngest Lauren got all of the guys to sign her ball in pink sharpie. When Ryan Howard, my son’s hero, came to sign stuff, he walked right up to Lauren and signed her ball first. “Dad he was so cool, and Pat Burrell said it was cool I have a pink sharpie!” As if it couldn’t get better, she caught a foul ball from Chase Utley, and got him to sign it on our last day in camp. My son, Eric, got to “hang with the guys” at the Palm. Well, the guys are having a drink there tonight, for sure, and we all wish we were down there with them.
No matter how much you knew this team was special and could go all the way, no one would have predicted that they’d be back in Clearwater for the Series. That would’ve required a direct tie-line to the baseball gods. Who would have ever thought the Rays would be on the other end of this thing? Not me, that’s for sure.
October 20, 11:45PM
It’s been an emotional day for Phils fans. People everywhere are wearing their hearts on their sleeves, anxious for Wednesday night to get here. My day started with emotional reactions to the sight of kids lined up to meet Shane Victorino in Marlton on Sunday. Seeing those kids all Phillie’d up and jumping and screaming brings back early Phils memories for me.
It was 1964 when I first started going (at a very early age) to see the Phils at Connie Mack. My hero in those days was Dick “Don’t Call Me Richie” Allen. I remember sitting with my Dad along the first base line and watching Allen’s every move. I can still picture numerous long bombs from Allen’s massive bat, arching over the billboards in center field, disappearing into the hot North Philly night, wondering just how far they rolled after landing on Lehigh Avenue.
I remember going to see the Dodgers, hoping that Sandy Koufax was pitching, and thinking, “Stupid Don Drysdale is pitching!” Imagine that, but that is how large Koufax loomed. I remember the team’s monumental collapse (finally eclipsed by the ’07 Mets) and how harsh it felt to be disappointed. I was raised on memories of the Whiz Kids from 1950, and this new team, led by my hero, was going to be the team to win one for our generation.
These kids in their Phils gear have no knowledge of that pain (or “the pitch” in ’93), and I think, watching them wait to meet Shane, that they are safe, for now, from that same fate.