PHINALLY… Philadelphia’s Dream

          Twenty eight years since the Phillies last won a championship, twenty five years since the city of Philadelphia has won a major championship!  The numbers pretty much speak for themselves, but I’ll help them out a little bit.  See, the Phillies being World Champions of baseball isn’t just another title in another city, it’s not just one more parade, it’s something that the sports fans in this city have been yearning for, for so long.  Between the Phillies, Eagles, 76ers and Flyers, a boat load of talent has traveled through this city, some past, some present…Charles Barkley, Allen Iverson, Donovan McNabb, Eric Lindros, the stars have come through, but the championships never followed.  Whether it was the talent, the comradery, the production and/or lack there-of, or even the so called William Penn curse, if you’re a believer of such, for whatever reason or reasons, championship trophies have eluded this city for twenty five years.

          Well, on the heels of one of the most controversial seasons in Major League Baseball history, it’s over; the curse, broken; we can all exhale now Philly, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Hanging from the left field wall at the end of the game was a banner that read, “your off the hook Mitch Williams”, who we all remember as the then closer of the Phillies who gave up the game winning and series deciding home run to the Toronto Blue Jays  Joe Carter in the 1993 World Series.  All of this brings us to this point, present day, on the 29^th day of October, 2008; the Philadelphia Phillies are World Champions of baseball.

          From the very beginning, it was a very interesting series, one team hadn’t been there in 15 years, and the other team was only in their eleventh year of existence and had never even had a winning season prior to 2008. But, it set up nicely, the pitching staff of the Tampa Bay Rays which includes names such as Scott Kazmir, James Shields and ALCS MVP Matt Garza, versus the big bats of the Philadelphia Phillies which includes the likes of big Ryan Howard, who lead all of baseball this year with forty-eight home runs and 146 rbi’s, Chase Utley, Jimmy “J-Roll” Rollins, Shane Victorino and Pat “the bat” Burrell.  The young, up and coming line-up of the Rays with hitters such as Evan “don’t call me Eva” Longoria, B.J. Upton, Carlos Pena and Carl Crawford versus the Phillies fantastic up-start bullpen, which was first in the N.L. this year in e.r.a with a 3.23 average and feature hurlers such as Ryan Madson, J.C. Romero and closer, Brad Lidge, who was a perfect forty-eight for forty-eight in save opportunities this year, regular and postseason combined.

          To a lot of so called baseball experts, the Phillies weren’t even supposed to win this series, let alone win it as easily as they did in only 5 games.  The nay-sayers were out and alive, past ace, Cole Hamels, (4-0, 2.10) the Phillies starting rotation allegedly wasn’t good enough, they weren’t battle tested, the bottom of the line-up wasn’t good enough.  Well, as the old adage says, the proof is in the pudding, after Cole Hamels won game 1 and the Phillies lost game 2, Jamie Moyer went on to pitch a gem in game 3 and Joe Blanton followed that with an even more impressive gem in game 4, in which he also hit the very first home run of his career in the 5^th inning off of Rays starter, Andy Sorenstine.  And then here comes game 5, oh game 5, memorable game 5, the first suspended game ever in World Series history.  The start of the game was pretty simplistic, a brisk, fall night in south Philly.  Cole Hamels started the game and was pitching the kind of game that we’ve become accustomed to watching him pitch, dominant!  The Phillies took an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first off of a two run single by Shane Victorino, and from there it seemed like smooth sailing, but mother nature was not going to allow this game to be any other game.  In the fourth inning, the rain started to pour and would not stop; from then on it was a circus game of puddles, wet jerseys, cold and wet players and slippery baseballs. Well, in the bottom of the sixth inning, even before the first batter came up to bat and right after Cole Hamels gave up the game tying, 2-2 single to Carlos Pena in the top of the sixth, the plug was pulled, mother nature had made sure that we would have to wait another forty-eight hours to celebrate a potential championship.

          Wednesday night begins, and even with forty-eight hours having gone by, with low and brisk temperatures, the avid and dedicated Phillies fans were back out and in full effect. White rally towels being waved emphatically by forty-five thousand screaming fans, as far as they were concerned, this was the night that it ended, this was the night that their Philadelphia Phillies conquered all and became World Series champions.  The game resumed right where it left off in the bottom of the sixth inning; the Phillies however, took a quick 3-2 lead when Geoff Jenkins scored from third base on a single by Jayson Werth to shallow centerfield. The Rays however, would not go quietly, they would definitely put up a fight and show people that they definitely deserved to be there, and in the top of the seventh inning they did just that when Rocco Baldelli hit a solo homerun off of Ryan Madson to yet again tie the ball game at 3-3.  In the bottom of the seventh inning, with two outs and a runner on third and the defense in, Pedro Feliz snuck a single up the middle and Pat Burrell scored from third base.  The eighth inning was pretty vanilla, neither team scored on pretty good pitching by Phil’s reliever J.C. Romero and the Rays young twenty three year old hurler, David Price.  And this brings us to the top of the ninth inning, three outs away from the championship and closer, Brad Lidge on the mound for the Phillies.  Lidgey made very quick work of the first two batters in the inning, and then here comes the third batter to the plate, the only man standing in between the Phillies and destiny.  It was a pretty good at-bat and on the fifth pitch of the at-bat, on a 2-2 count, Brad Lidge threw a hanging slider that the batter struck out on, and then….pandemonium ensued.

          With the Tampa Bay Rays at their best and mother nature at her worst, the Philadelphia Phillies, the fans and the city as a whole conquered all.  Heavy winds, pouring rain and a suspended game was not going to stop the Phillies from achieving what they set out to do.  So for this one year, for this one moment in time, the last 25 years have been forgiven and forgotten and our beloved Philadelphia Phillies are the World Champions of baseball!