Sunday, September 30, 2007

We're In! - The Wait is Over, the Phillies Make the Playoffs

After 14 grueling seasons, the 2007 Phillies have done what no other Phillies team since 1993 has done... they've made the playoffs. They sealed the deal to day with a 7-1 win over the Washington Nationals.

When playoff time comes there are some intangibles that make up for a lack of talent. In our case, that lack is on the pitching side, but the intangible additions are momentum and heart. The never say die attitude exemplified by this team, personifies the Philadelphia fan and enables the 10th man to be a difference maker in close games.

And as a proud member of that 10th man, I want to say thank you to all of the Phillies' players who have made this roller coaster season an exciting ride.

As the 10th man filed in, I got a sense of nostalgia. This is why we complain, this is why we cheer, this is why why we are fans. I then noticed that our Suite was sandwiched between the banners of Jimmy Rollins and Jaime Moyer. Not a bad place to be. Moyer and Rollins were two of the biggest reasons we were able to win this game and move into the playoffs.

From the beginning the place was electric. Even before the national anthem the crowd was put into a frenzy when it was announced that the Florida Marlins had scored 4 runs on the Mets in the first inning. The Marlins ended up scoring 7 runs before the inning was over making for a very loose crowd, knowing that the worst case scenario would be a one game playoff.

But a gutsy outing by Jaime Moyer, another MVP caliber performance by Jimmy Rollins and an exclamation point homerun by Ryan Howard, made sure that the NL East would be ours today.
I had kept a lot of notes to discuss in the blog on a scorecard, but I have misplaced it. I'm a little upset for nostalgic reasons, because I have a feeling I dropped it on the way out of the stadium hauling all of the leftover food out of the Suite.

But staying late and enjoying the celebration was worth it. The party inside the locker room was showed on the Phanavision which gave an excellent look into the personality of the players. We stayed after for another hour. Eventually the players came back out and thanked the fans, took a trip around the field and doused the fans with beer, champagne, jerseys and water from the field hose.

The celebration continued driving back home via Broad Street where the fans flocked to the streets join in the festivities. With my rally towel in one hand and my car horn in the other I was a very happy man soaking in the Philadelphia passion. The entire experience was priceless. To me, this is more rewarding than the '93 team because of the excitement at the end. As opposed to waiting for the playoffs to begin, this team had to fight until the final game to get in. And this momentum is what will make them "the team to beat" in the playoffs.

"We're the Team to Beat!"

Congratulations to the 2007 National League East Champion Philadelphia Phillies!

If there is anything in sports that can help a team win besides talent, it's momentum and heart. And this team has both.

I'm too busy enjoying this victory and preparing for the Eagles game to concentrate on writing anything now... but I have a lot of notes from the game. I was there and it was electric from the beginning.

Go Phillies!

Friday, September 28, 2007

Cole Hamels Pitches Phils to First Place... Alone

Jimmy Rollins draws first blood again. It wasn't in the first inning this time, but boy was it timely.

Being there in person makes it very vivid. Let me set the scene.

Top of the 4th. Cole Hamels had just settled in after struggling a bit in the second inning giving up 3 hits but being bailed out by forcing a double play to end the inning. The 3rd inning Cole began to find his groove with 2 strikeouts, but really hit stride by striking out the side in the top of 4th, priming the fans for what was coming in the bottom of the 5th.

Greg Dobbs singled to lead off the 5th. Ruiz followed him by being beaned in the hand. 1st and 2nd, nobody out, Cole Hamels is up.

Hamels lays down a perfect bunt moving the runners to 2nd and 3rd. This is where it gets fun. Amidst twirling rally towels and "M-V-P" chants, Rollins confidently stepped up to the plate and lived up to his new moniker by smacking the first pitch up the middle scoring both Dobbs and Ruiz. Proving once again why he is so important to this ball club. He scores 'em and drives 'em in. How many other lead off men do you know with 93 RBIs?

Rollins, however can not over shadow the superb pitching performance of Cole Hamels. Hamels' only trouble came in the second inning (mentioned above). After the second inning, Cole Hamels recorded 13 Ks through the next 6 innings. In other words of the 18 outs recorded from the 3rd inning through the 8th, only 5 were not Strikeouts. That is impressive. Hamels struck ou the side in the 4th and 6th, including 5 in a row from the 3rd through the 5th. Cole Hamels was doing his best Cole Hamels impression tonight. And despite a Ryan Howard homerun a Chase Utley RBI double, an excellent catch by Aaron Rowand and a two run single by Rollins, he is without a doubt the MVP of this game.

8 inning pitched, 6 hits, 0 Runs, 13 Ks, 1 BB - and 1 bullpen pitcher used. Meaning , our pen will be well rested for the weekend games, and more importantly for tomorrow's game when Adam Eaton is scheduled to pitch. So Manuel should have a short leash tomorrow with Eaton and all the bullpen stooges.

Oh, and in case you live in a box and only have access to the Phillies game through a transistor radio, the Mets lost.

Phils lead the East by 1 game with 2 to play. That sounds pretty good doesn't it? I have tickets to Sunday's game as well, here's to happy times.

Pic below is my wife and I at tonight's game. (Isn't she beautiful?) She made me take this same picture 6 or 7 times until she was satisfied with the results. I'd be happy to post all them by request.














PS - He said it not me...

"It's embarrassing. It's pretty pathetic." - David Wright on the Mets' "Colossal Collapse"

"Do we smell it? Yeah, of course we smell it." - Charlie Manuel

Thursday, September 27, 2007

First Blood Leads to First Place

Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino helped the Phils draw First Blood to set the tone for the rest of tonight's contest.

Rollins continued his MVP caliber play leading off the game with a single. Dejavu, considering he led off last night's game with a triple and joined the 30/30 club the night before by leading off that game with homerun. That kind of spark, speaks volumes.

Drawing First Blood is what makes Jimmy Rollins the National League MVP.

What might be overlooked tonight is the kool, kalm and kollected play of Kyle Kendrick. K2 earned his 10th win of the season, pitching 6 solid innings, the first 5 of which were scoreless.

And after 2 homeruns by Howard and Burrell, 6 runs scored (1 each by the first 6 batters), and over 40,000 rally towels, the dust settled and the Phillies ended up in first place. Thanks in large part to our continuous winning and the Mets continuous losing.

The Phillies are in first place. I will sleep well tonight.

PS - I have tickets to tomorrow night's game and Sunday's game. It should be a fun weekend.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Die Another Day: Lohse and Rollins Spark Phils

With the result of the Mets' game still in the balance, the Figtin' Phils have done their part in staying in the hunt, and getting back on the winning track.

Once again, Jimmy Rollins started things off with a bang. Not since Lenny Dykstra has someone at the top of the Phillies' lineup meant so much to the success of this club.

Yesterday, Rollins led off with a homerun. Today, it was a triple. We'd score several more times in subsequent innings on a Chipper Jones miscue and again on a clutch pinch hit homerun by Shane Victorino.

"But the big story tonight..." to borrow a line from Philly's own Jim Gardner, was the pitching prowess of Kyle Lohse. Lohse was nothing short of solid pitching 7 full and giving up only a 2-run homerun in the 4th. Since acquiring him several months ago, the Phils are 6-0 behind Lohse. I think he's pitched well enough to warrant a contract for next year. But we'll worry about that later.

7 innings, 6 hits, 5 Ks, 0 BB and 2 ER.

Today was as close to a must win as we've had this season. This was undoubtedly the most important game of the season and the Phils responded. Even the bullpen played well.

As I write this Nats have a 7-6 lead over the Mets in the 7th, meaning the Phils may wake up tomorrow down 1 game in the East. The Padres play later, but will definitely be feeling the pressure from the Phils' victory.

Great match-up tomorrow: Smoltz, 9-4, 2.96 vs. Kyle Kendrick, 9-4, 3.83.

Stay tuned Phils fans, there is more to come.

Die another Day.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

This Is It! - Phillies Phate is in their the Phinal Games

These are kind of games you want to have. These are the games that turn young boys into fans for life and turn old men into young boys.

Baseball teams play 162 games with the hopes that many of them will be meaningful. The better you play, the more meaningful games you have.

The Phillies have played well enough for their last 6 games to be meaningful. They enter the last 6 game tied for the Wild Card lead with the San Diego Padres, who, by the way just lost one of their star players Milton Bradley when he injured himself in an argument with the ump. Believe it. It's true.

Fortunately for the Phillies these games are at home, where it will undoubtedly be a near packed house with a playoff atmosphere. I could sense the excitement on my drive home on 76 East, as there was more traffic than normal and plenty of Phillies red in the bumper to bumper to traffic.

So if you drove to the game from Warminster or Wilmington. Or your watching at home in Newtown or Old City, rest assured that these Phillies will give you a fight. They've scratched and clawed the entire year. They've put up numbers and brought down the house. And whether you're a rabid fan, or simply dressed like a rabbit, you have 6 more meaningful games.

So sit back, or sit on the edge of your seat. No matter how you watch it, if you're a Phillies fan, you can't ask for anything better.

Go Phils!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The Fightin' Phils Live Up to there Name

While most Philadelphia sports fans were busy yelling at the television, wondering why Brian Westbrook was not being used more often, the Phillies were busy creating some telle-yellers of their own.

Had you been watching the Phillies instead of the Eagles, you too were probably yelling at the television wondering how on earth the Philles could blow an 11-run lead.

I was the former. I did however hear about the disaster and tuned in with the Fightin's leading 12-11.

And now, down the stretch the Phillies are ready to strike. Fresh off another sweep of the Mets, the re-rejuvinated Phils are again clawing and scratching their way back. They're fighters.

And they'll be in this thing until the end.

They hit St. Louis at the right time, where it seems like the Cards can't even buy a win.

Currently the Phils are in the 13th inning fighting out another with the Cards. A win tonight would move the Phils within 1.5 games of the Mets. Surpisingly the Phils' offense is dormant today, while their bullpen has been stellar. I will stay up and watch the end of this one, but I do want to close this blog.

Go Phils!

PS - Cole Hamels only went 3 inning in his first gamem back from the DL. In those 3 innings Cole gave up 3 runs and 5 hits.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Brett Myers Has Dug Himself A Hole

First it was the stadium's fault that he was giving up homeruns, er uh, "pop-ups". And he was so frustrated by his inadequacies on the mound he took it out on a reporter.

http://www.kyw1060.com/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=968148

Now he's blaming his fielders or just bad luck, I can't tell which. He was saying something about how he was making good pitches. If they were bad pitches they would have been hit harder. Sure, there is something to be said for texas leaguers, dying quails, flares and seeing-eye-singles, the bottom line is you gave up 4 runs in 1 1/3 innings. That's not good. Take the blame, swallow your pride and pitch better next timie.

Never has it crossed his mind that perhaps he has a 5.09 ERA is because he's not making good pitches.

Bretty Myers needs to learn that sometimes it might be his fault. I don't think this fan base is going to embrace him like they once did. It all started with the incident with his wife, and since then he's continued to dig himself deeper and deeper.

Monday, September 3, 2007

The Phillies Bizarro World

The Phillies 4-game sweep of the Mets has virtually been erased with 3 straight losses to the Marlins and Braves. All of last week's hype is once again old news to the Philadelphia fairweather fan.

On the present Phillies front there is nothing new to report, which brings me to the Phillies past.
Let's take a step back in-time to 1993, (Darren Daulton can actually do this through astral travel, but we'll get to the bottom of this shortly).

The 1993 Phillies were a motley crew to say the least. That team definitely had its share of characters. Dave Hollins with his dual personalities. John Kruk and his legendary sense of humor. Danny Jackson, Mitch Williams, Curt Schilling, Pete Incaviglia, Jim Eisenreich and of course Lenny Dykstra and his Holding down the fort of all these characters was Darren Daulton. To many of us, Dutch was the sane leader of all of these lunatics.

Now the tides have changed. Dutch is now the lunatic. And in another ironic twist, Lenny Dykstra, who was arguably the King of the Idiots is now giving stock advice next to Jim Kramer on TheStreet.com. And I do say this with all due respect to The Dudes' superb effort on the field. He was, is, and always will be my favorite Phillie.

Dykstra giving stock advice and Darren Daulton being off his rocker seems like a paradox.

Dykstra believes the Microsoft (MSFT) is a good bye.
Daulton believes he can talk to lizards.

To be fair, I'll allow Daulton to explain himself.

"I started experiencing these different realms, these different planes of
existence ... I know exactly what I'm capable of doing. ... People talk about
speaking with lizards and stuff. You can communicate with anyone, with nature,
that's all that happened there. To me, that's not a big deal now. I like to
astal travel, teleport, travel through time ... December 24, 2012, by the way,
that's the number. As seven billion people, the world will rise to another level
of consciousness. I don't have all the answers."

Daulton has gotten away with a lot. He was a marginal player for nearly 10 years, and somehow managed to stick around long enough, to earn himself a whopper of a contract. He did have several years where he was the best catcher in the national league, but as players go, he is grossly overrated.

And now that Dykstra is giving stock advice to high-income investors, perhaps his cognitive capacity was grossly under-rated.

If nothing else, The Dude and Dutch are full of surprises.

If they're really smart, Daulton and Dykstra team up and astral travel back in time to purchase pre-IPO stocks and make millions.

For more about Daulton's view on other dimension, go to DarrenDaulton.com and buy his book "If they Only Knew".

For more on Dykstra's investment advice, go to TheStreet.com.