Phillies Take a 2-1 Series Lead

This one is going to be short, sweet, and to the point.  Tonight was one of the most exciting, heart-wrenching, painful, and rewarding baseball games I have ever watched.  Our 45 year-old ageless wonder, Jamie Moyer (see right), pitched 6.1 gutsy innings of 3 run ball, and it would have been 7 innings of 1 run ball if it weren't for the incompetence of the umpiring crew.  No matter.  The Fightin' Phils continued to buck the trend of failing Philadelphia teams as they refused to lose this pivotal game 3 of the World Series.

Backup super utilityman, Eric Bruntlett, scored the game winning run on a Carlos Ruiz infield single with 5 defenders in the infield after a bizarre series of events led to the Phillies having the bases loaded with no outs.  Once Bruntlett safely crossed the plate, I literally went crazy.  I jumped onto Kanad, and a man of lesser stature would have fallen over from the force, but Kanad's frame was able to sustain my burst of energy.  I screamed like a madman and after 10 minutes, was a few seconds away from pure meltdown and hyperventilation.  For those of you who have seen me at a Thursday concert, imagine that, times 10.  Seriously, if there was a video of me after this win, it would be getting its fair share of hits on YouTube tonight.  This team is fucking incredible, and I can't believe what has transpired over the past month.  Absolutely incredible!

To close, I will share with you a quote from the ever-wise Joe Dopirak, who sent me this text during the 8th inning of the game tonight.  "I hope your mom has a tranquilizer."

Seriously, it wouldn't have come close to doing the job.

Song of the Day - T.I. featuring Kanye West, Jay-Z, Lil' Wayne, and MIA - Swagger Like Us

The Phillies Are National League Champions!

2 quick messages before I knock out this blog post.  First off, I want to thank everyone who sent congratulatory texts and phone calls my way.  I really appreciate the support and it makes me feel like you all understand my passion for the Phillies.  Second, I apologize that this blog has had a ton of Phillies entries recently, but the blog is about my life, and right now my life is the Phillies.  Stick with it for 2 more weeks, and they won't be talked about until April.

Now, to get to the good stuff.  For those of you living under a rock, the Phillies won the National League Championship tonight.  They beat the heavily favored (according to the "experts") Dodgers 4-1 in a best of 7 series.  This victory secures them a trip to the World Series, which begins next week in Boston or Tampa Bay.  Let me break this down.  If you're reading this blog, it means you know me pretty well.  As such, you must have some understanding of what this means to me.

This NL Championship (AKA the "pennant") begins to validate a large part of my life for the past 5 or so years.  Yes that's right, I have not been a diehard Phillies fan my entire life.  I was always a Phillies fan, but nothing close to what I am today.  This passion caught on around my junior year of high school, and has grown every year since.  Anyway, after celebrating for a while with Kanad and my parents, I had a few minutes to myself to ponder what had just happened.  The Phillies had reached the World Series for the 6th time in team history, and only the 2nd time during my life.  To me, it means a little more than that though.  I thought about all the ups and downs that this team has taken me through, and trust me, there have been more than a few downs.  I remember Chase Utley's clutch home run off of John Smoltz during his rookie season that helped propel us to an improbable victory over the Braves.  I also thought about Chase's grand slam in 2005 that won the game against San Fran and announced to the world that he had arrived.  I remembered how I felt, watching the team clinch its first trip to the postseason last year, watching on a 4 inch screen on my computer, because I was in Pittsburgh and had just come back from UVA.  I remember the scene at the 2007 NL Division Series, and how excited I was to be at my first playoff game.  Quite the trip down memory lane.

However, I did say I thought of the ups and the downs, and they came into sharp focus as well.  I remembered the last day of the 2005 season, when the Phillies were eliminated from postseason contention by the Houston Astros, a team that dominated us during the regular season.  I thought about the end of the 2006 season, when I heard that the Phillies were eliminated by the Marlins while I was walking over the Clemente to catch a Bucs game.  I thought about the Phils game last season when Rod Barajas forgot how to block the plate, and cost Brett Myers 2 months of the season.  The pain runs deep with the Phillies, and they gave me more than my fair share over the past 5 years.

I really feel though, that all of the pain and suffering, combined with the good times, makes this all the more satisfying and exciting.  Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy, and in this city, the sports teams, especially the Phillies, don't like to make things easy.  But through the pain and suffering, my team, our team, has emerged victorious, and is only 4 victories away from baseball's ultimate goal, a World Series Championship.  For those of you who don't know, the city has not won a major sports championship since 1983, which means that yours truly was not alive the last time Philly celebrated a parade down Broad St.  I've been dreaming about it my entire life, and the vision is becoming clearer by the day.  4 more wins, and I get every sports fan's ultimate experience, celebrating a championship.

I was in Pittsburgh when the Steelers won the Super Bowl in 2006.  Instead of joining the raucous crowd in celebration, I grabbed a vantage point from above, and watched in silence.  I knew that one day, I would be the one celebrating victory, the one who would enjoy the moment, the one who for a short period of time, could experience ultimate pride and joy.  Eventually our time will come Philly fans, I can only hope that it's about 2 weeks away.  Something tells me we're close.

Go Phillies!

Song of the Day:  Bill Conti - Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky)

The Bus Stop

Do you all remember the day when you'd go to the bus stop, talk to all your neighborhood friends before the bus came, then hop on the bus and catch up with everyone else?  Those were good days, and hanging out at the bus stop was kinda fun.  I usually think of the Wonder Years' opening montage, when Kevin, Paul, and Winnie are all waiting for the bus everyday.

Anyway, I'm not writing this as a nostalgic piece on the wonders of the bus stop.  God knows I had enough miserable days getting up early to make it there on time.  The reason I'm writing this is because of what I saw on my way to work today.  I was driving through one of the local neighborhoods when I saw about 7 high school kids waiting for the bus.  Not one of those kids was talking to the other kids.  Complete and utter silence.  Keep in mind, these kids all must live with 500 feet of each other.  Yet while they all stand next to each other everyday for 10 minutes, they refuse to talk to each other.

It seems like I get a reminder everyday how as our society becomes more "connected" we become increasingly disconnected.  Tools like AIM, Facebook, Myspace, and text messaging have made it extremely easy for kids to communicate without really communicating.  We're raising a generation of kids who are going to have serious social issues.  Do kids even go outside to play anymore?  Or has Guitar Hero and the Internet made playing outside an obsolete activity?  Real human interaction, real human emotion, can only be truly seen and felt on a face-to-face, human-to-human level.  This generation, and possibly the next few generations, are or will be completely devoid of the full human experience for the first time since when, the Ice Age?  I shudder when thinking of the consequences.

The Phillies Have the Best Promotional Department in Baseball

Disclaimer:  If you aren't a baseball fan, don't read this post, because it will mean nothing to you.  If you are a big fan, you will find this hilarious.

I went to the Phillies Game 1 of the NLDS on Wednesday.  The game was fantastic.  The crowd was electric, Cole Hamels pitched amazing, and we won 3-1.  That's really all you need to know about what happened between the Phils and Brewers.  The most entertaining aspect of the game occurred after the 6th inning.

The Phillies always come up with quirky shit to do between innings involving the Phanatic and the other team and its city.  Every series against the Mets you can count on the Phanatic dancing to "New York, New York" by Sinatra and taking a sledgehammer to a Mets helmet.  So after the 6th inning, the Phillies announced that they would be holding a sausage race.  For those of you who don't know, the Brewers host a sausage race during every game, which is similar to the pierogy race in Pittsburgh.  Three guys emerged dressed in paper hot dogs suits, an obvious attempt at showing the ridiculous nature of the Milwaukee sausage race.  I was thinking to myself how corny this was, until the race actually started.

Sausage #1 ran about 15 feet before he decided to hit on one of the Phillies ballgirls.  It drew moderate laughs from the crowd, and the other 2 sausages (paper hot dogs) continued running around the outside of the field.  This is where it gets ridiculous.  An extremely fat black dude emerged from the Phillies dugout dressed in a Phillies jersey and black hat.  He was wielding a wiffle ball bat and smacked one of the sausages with it.  This should conjure up memories of the 2003 incident involving Randall Simon (see above), who was arrested and almost faced assault and battery charges for tapping a sausage with his bat from the Pirates dugout.  http://espn.go/com/mlb/news/2003/0709/1578808.html.  After a few seconds of confused laughter, Dan Baker, the Phillies PA Announcer said, "And o my, Randall Simon smacks Sausage #2 with his bat."  At the same time, Phan-a-Vision showed a close-up of the mysterious man from the dugout, who actually was Randall Simon, looking like he had gained about 50 pounds since his playing days.  He was wearing a Phillies jersey, and the black hat was actually a Buccos cap.  Yes, you viewed that correctly, the Phillies flew Randall Simon to Philadelphia for a promotional stunt in between innings of a playoff game.  Most members of the crowd (and people who will read this blog) didn't really understand the promotional stunt, but if you are a baseball nut like I am, and followed the fallout of the Simon incident in 2003, you have to give the Phillies promotional department props for coming up with this one.  I'll search for a video of it later and post if found.

The stunt ended with the Phanatic obliterating the last sausage and "winning" the sausage race.  But who really cares about that anyway?

The 2008 NL East Division Champs: One Hell of an Experience

On Saturday, the Phillies entered the day 2 games up on the Mets with 2 to play.  The Mets (with Johan on the hill) had a date with the Marlins at 1:10, and the Phils were scheduled to play the Nats at 3:55.  My parents and I decided that morning that if the Mets were in a position to win the game, we would go see the Phils because they could clinch their second consecutive NL East crown.  Last year, I watched it on a 3 inch box on my computer, so I wanted to see this one in person.  I also had tickets to Sunday's game, so I was going to see them clinch, one way or another.  With the Mets up 2-0 in the 8th inning and Johan in complete control of the fish, we took the short trip over the bridge to Citizens Bank Park.  We got to the park around 4, so I figured I would get a decent deal on scalped tickets (the game was very sold out.)

Apparently, lots of people had the same idea that we did, because a half inning into the game, tons of people were still scalping tickets and arriving to the ballpark.  I talked to about 10 scalpers while my parents were parking the car, all of whom were looking for $75/tickets (get the fuck out of here) and I was not paying it, especially 2 days before a Jewish holiday.  So I met this one "charming" gentleman, who was also asking for $225 for 3 tickets.  I told him I only had $130 (a complete lie) and he walked away.  I also mentioned that I didn't need 3 seats together and he started to perk up.  He asked me for $150 for 3 and I told him again I only had $130.  After a few more minutes of haggling, the price remained where I said, $130.  I went to pay him and realized I only had twenties.  So I gave him 7 and asked for change, to which he of course tried to jack the price up to $140.  "Come on man, gimme the tip.  It's only $10.  You know you should.  Come on!"  I told him "No" about 10 times and told him I needed the $10 to buy a beer.  That seemed to ring a chord with him and shut him up.  $130 for 3 lower level tickets to the possible clinching game of the season.  $111 face value.  I love scalping.  Especially when the scalpers tell me "This dude likes boys."  But that's another story for another time.

We file in to the game mid way through the second inning.  I send my parents down to the seats, and I decide I'm going to watch from the concourse.  The view is certainly good enough.  Not necessary this day though.  The 4 seats behind my parents were not taken.  I went down after the second inning, and was sitting in the 13th row down the left field line.  This day is going perfectly, we have to clinch today.

I won't bore you with the details of most of the rest of the game.  Jamie Moyer, old enough to be most of our fathers, pitched brilliantly, giving up 1 run that shouldn't have really happened.  The place was electric the entire game, and the energy in the ballpark was absolutely amazing.  I'm not gifted enough to be able to describe to you the feeling you get when 45,000 people are standing together, cheering for a common purpose, and willing their team toward victory.  It's one of the best experiences you can have.  However, the offense just could never put the game out of reach, and the Nats wound up "hanging around" as Teddy KGB likes to say.  Going into the 9th inning, the Phils had a 4-2 lead, thanks to an insurance run added on in the 8th inning.  So with 3 outs remaining, we gave the ball to our closer, Brad Lidge, who had saved only 40 of his 40 opportunities during the first 160 games of the 2008 regular season.

This 9th inning was not meant to be an easy one, as a quick strikeout preceded a single, walk, and another single to drive in a run.  With the top of the order coming up and Lidge clinging to a one run lead, my heart began churning.  I guess I would describe it by saying that if someone could put your chest in a vice and slowly turn it tighter, that was what I was experiencing during this 9th inning.  After another single loaded the bases, I was really starting to sweat.  Could Lidge really blow his first save during the most important win of the season?  With Ryan Zimmerman at the plate, anything was possible.  After a few pitches, Zimmerman stroked a solid ground ball up the middle.  Jimmy Rollins, our gold glove shortstop, dove to his left to stop the ball in the hole.  He tossed from his knees over to Utley standing at 2nd, who fired a strike over to 1st to turn a fantastic double play.  Just like that, heartburn over, game over, Phils are division champs!  I jumped around like a raving lunatic for a few minutes, hugged everyone in sight, and pretty much made a fool out of myself (I really wish this was on YouTube).  Then, I shared a victory beer with Ron, yes folks you saw that correctly, my father actually drank a beer.  Actually, he spilled half of it on my mom which was pretty damn hysterical, then he drank the beer.

For my $130 investment, I was sticking around to see the celebrations.  The celebration was pretty wild, but definitely more subdued from the previous year.  You could see that this was only the first step toward this team's goal of winning the World Series, a good sign that we wouldn't be looking at a 3 game sweep again in the first round.  They did the typical champagne and beer shaking and shooting all over the place, and this all confirmed that Brett Myers is a complete lush.  After a while, all the players came out on the field to celebrate with the fans.  I got to shake hands with Pat Burrell and Greg Golson (Phils rookie, future base stealer extraordinaire) which was a pretty cool experience.  I then leaned over onto the field and stole some dirt.  I'm not sure exactly what I plan on using it for or doing with it, but it seemed like something I needed to do at the time.  It must have been a pretty good idea also because I saw like 10 people in my section do the same thing right after I did it.  I know, always a trendsetter.

For all you Pittsburgh fans, I truly hope you get to experience this one day.  It's a great feeling, and you guys deserve it for all the shit you put up with year in and year out.  I'm still looking forward to the Keystone Series for the NL Pennant.  But that's like 20-30 years down the road, so let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Go Phils, make your city proud and go far in the playoffs.  I'll see you on Wednesday at Game 1.

- Kaps

Song of the Day:  Notorious B.I.G. featuring Bone Thugz - Notorious Thugz