Sea of Red

On Halloween the city of Philadelphia celebrated the victory of our World Series Champions. Our city was so starved for a celebration of such kind, not to mention it was a perfect fall day of 61 degrees, that over 2 million people filled the streets dressed in red, chanting and cheering.
We decided to take the boys to the celebration so that, if nothing else, later in life they can say they were there. We let them play hooky from school due to a case of Phillies Phever, dressed in our Phillies gear, and packed a days worth of snacks and toys. We planned on taking the train, and the boys were excited to ride their first choo choo. Only it seems all 2 million people heeded the advice of the media to use public transportation and the trains were so crowded you could not get on and they were hours behind. We decided to drive, hit no traffic and got to town in less time than it takes in the middle of the night.




Once in the city we put the boys in the stroller and headed to Broad Street.
It seemed like any normal day in the city, but as the blocks ascended and Broad Street drew closer you could feel the energy and hear the noise. We parked ourselves in front of the Capital Grille, between Chestnut and Sansom Streets and awaited the frenzy.


Todd, Erik, and Dave took turns, two at a time, heading into the bar for a beer or cocktail. They were kind enough to have one of them stay with me and the boys most of the time. Although Ryder did have his first bar experience when all three of the grown boys needed to have the last drink of the day together.

Ryder also had his first taste of body surfing when, in an attempt to get back to our spot, the overcrowded corner of Broad and Chestnut had the guys deliberately navigating through an excited crowd and Todd held his two year old above his head, as if Ryder was flying. Not surprisingly, our little dare-devil loved it.
At our spot we just waited. Surrounded by excited but respectful people, we watched as red filled the streets. We listened as horns blew. And, we cheered as shouts echoed.

Chase and Ryder were so good. They seemed to enjoy the frenzy and only had a minor breakdown of about five minutes each throughout the entire day. Though we did go through most of the snacks and juices, I never had to break out one toy.


And then at about 12:40PM , as indicated by the eruption of millions of simultaneous screams, the parade turned the corner at Broad Street and we got to see our beloved Phils.
Atop the shoulders of the guys, Chase and Ryder were able to see "the phanatic on the truck" as they say, which made the whole experience worthwhile for them.


I did not get to see much but the energy I felt was worth the trip. In fact, it left me wanting to do it all again in 2009.

Let's Go Phils!

Champions of the World!!

The Phillies are Champions of the World. That's right, in Chase Utley's words, "World Fucking Champions!" 28 years since our first and only other World Series Championship, the Phillies rallied up the city with an unprecedented pride. I am not sure where my vested interest came from, nor my unhinging confidence, but I believed in this championship long before the playoffs began.
It was a historical series, mostly because game 5, the resulting clincher, began at 8:37pm on Monday night in horrid conditions of a cold rain. Although it should have happened much earlier, the umps called the game into suspension due to puddles at each of the bases and hydroplaning occurences while running in the middle of the 6th inning with the game tied 2-2. It took 48 hours from the start of the game to resume, after a delay of an unlikely October snow storm that had a catastrophic effect on our front lawn. At 8:37pm on Wednesday night the game resumed at the bottom of the 6th inning, Phillies at bat on a beautiful Fall night.
The Phillies went into the world series as the underdogs, at least in Vegas. From watching the series I have no idea why. Tampa Bay had the best regular season record in baseball and a supposed offense that had everyone murmuring. The Phillies, however, made the series look easy in spite of leaving a ridiculous number of runners in scoring position, and failing to capitalize more times than not. Yet, they were dominant. They were dominant because they are a good team. The 6-4-3 double play was made to look easy because of Rollins and Utley. The arms on their outfielders made home plate seem close and the legs on Victorino made the outfield seem smaller.
The pitching staff was incredible, which is funny to avid fans who have complained about pitching for too many years. Cole Hamels was the MVP, deservingly. Jamie Moyer pulled through with an unbelievable performance. The bullpen was untouchable and Brad Lidge managed to have a perfect season. A perfect season.
At the plate, the stars shined differently every night. Some nights the heroes were the obvious ones, like Utley's 1st inning homer or Howard's two homer game. Other nights the hereos were the underdogs or even off the bench. All 25 players played a role in the victory, which is exactly what you need to be world fucking champions.
And, as expected, the city is high on the Phillies. If it feels this good for the fans, what, oh what, are the players feeling?

The Phillies Win the Pennant!

I sure picked the right season to be a Phillies addict, though I admit I would have been on the bandwagon by now if I were not addicted.
That's right, in 5 games against the LA Dodgers and their ridiculously talented #3 hitter Manny Ramirez, the Phils clinched a world series berth for the first time in 15 years. The city is going nuts, most people I know are going nuts, and it really is an exciting time in Philly sports. I figure I should document this for the boys, who at 2 are too young to appreciate what's going on, but will probably want all of the details someday. Assuming they are sports fans, and also assuming they are anything like their father, there will come a day when they will rattle off all of the stats of the series as if they sat and watched it themselves. By then, I will remember only a a few players names. But, for the record, the Phils won in LA behind Cole Hamels, their ace. He kept the Dodgers to one run (a homer by the aforementioned Ramirez) and was MVP of the series for his two outstanding starts. Jimmy Rollins led game 5 off with a homerun, just as he had in the NLDS clincher against Milwaukee. Shane Victorino, my personal choice for MVP, had an unbelievable series including game tying homers and game saving defensive plays. The thing with this Phillies team is that on any day any one of them can be the star. I grew up playing team sports and the only thing better than knowing you can depend on your teammates to pick you up if you are down is winning the championship. Let's go Phils!!!