Phillies Provide Something for Philadelphians to be Proud of
The Philadelphia Phillies broke 28 years of baseball futility and 99 seasons for the four major sports teams in Philadelphia by winning the World Series Wednesday night, 4-3, over the determined Tampa Bay Rays in a game that lasted a little over 49 hours thanks to the brilliant Bud Selig.
There were many heroes for the Phillies in the final game and in the playoffs. Talented southpaw Cole Hamels who won four games in the playoffs was named MVP. Hamels received a red sports car on the field after the game for his accomplishment and announced that he’d be giving it to his wife, Heidi, who had just turned 30.
Brad Lidge threw the final out. Lidge was nothing more than phenomenol all season long with not a single blown save. It was fitting that Lidge got the last out.
Catcher Carlos Ruiz caught Lidge’s last pitch and the ball that gave Philadelphia its first championship since the 76ers won in 1983. Ruiz, who struggled offensively most of the year, had several key hits in the series and playoffs.
How about Geoff Jenkins? Acquired in the off-season as a free agent, Jenkins was beat out of his staring job by Jayson Werth. Jenkins had been basically forgotten, but his leadoff double in the bottom of the sixth will always be remembered by Phillies’ fans.
Then, there’s Pat Burrell. Burrell is the longest tenured Phillies’ player and likely will not have his contract renewed next season. Burrell had struggled in the World Series with no hits, but Wednesday night, he cracked a double to the deepest part of the park that ultimately was the deciding run. Pinch runner Eric Bruntlett scored the run that gave the Phillies the title.
Many people know about the all-stars on the Phillies team. Most notably the talented infield of first baseman Ryan Howard who has hit more homeruns and tallied more RBI in the past three seasons than anybody in baseball.
Second baseman Chase Utley is decidedly the best second baseman in the league today and his heads up defensive play Wednesday showed that this guy was made to play baseball. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins is the sparkplug leadoff hitter of the team and a great defensive shortstop.
One player who jumped into the national limelight from the World Series is Hawaiian-born Shane Victorino. Victorino took over as the regular center fielder this year and he showed that he could beat you in a number of ways with his timely hitting, defense, and speed.
Victorino is also a great teammate. Every time you saw him in the dugout, he appeared to be laughing with other teammates.
In a series that most of the country didn’t have a whole lot of interest in, most fans got to see the World Series champs crowned at a more reasonable ending time around 10:00 pm EST. That’s because the game was only 3 innings long.
Maybe Bud Selig is brilliant after all. Marginal fans only have about 3 innings of patience with baseball anyway. Maybe baseball has something here!
The celebration in Philadelphia on Wednesday night after the World Series win was beyond belief. After leaving Citizen’s Bank Park, I traveled north thinking it would be cool to go back to my home in the western suburbs via center city. What I didn’t plan on was the mass of humanity that covered Broad Street and essentially eliminated any chance of getting home via downtown Philadelphia.
After 90 minutes of mostly walking around the car and high-fiving fans of all ages, sexes, income levels, and nationalities, the police came and dispersed the traffic to the east as by now there were hundreds of thousands of fans covering several sections of the city.
This baseball team brought the Philadelphia community together like nothing in my lifetime has. Anybody who thinks sports is not important should ask themselves: when was the last time you saw a black man hugging a white man?
There is much derision in the country right now with the upcoming election and the sad state of the economy and two lagging wars. Last night, the fifth largest metropolitan area in the USA was united as one.
There was a parade here on Friday at noon. Tickets to the end of parade celebrations at both Citizen’s Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field sold out today in less than 15 minutes. That’s 115,000 people who will be in the adjacent parks waiting for their heros to arrive.
If you did business with a Philadelphia company, you probably didn’t have much assistance on Friday.
Sorry, but we had other things to do.
http://www.fantasybaseballdugout.com
Anthony Wayne works in the marketing department of the fantasy baseball site Fantasy Baseball Dugout in Philadelphia. He is also editor of College Football Sidelines, which boasts the largest gallery of college cheerleader photos on the internet.