Sports

CONGRATULATIONS PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES: 2008 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!

Congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies - Major League Baseball’s 2008 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!

I’m sure I speak for most in the great City of Philadelphia when I say it’s wonderful and long overdue – one of the “Big 4” sports teams bringing home a championship! (No disrespect to the Philadelphia Soul , getting our “fan juices” flowing with foreplay that was the 2008 Arena Bowl Championship Title!)

When I think back on this season and the schizophrenic ups-and-downs of the players and the quality of play… how some were both vilified and cheered, then cheered and vilified again… Utley’s red hot start, cooled-down finish, and re-heating in the World Series… Jimmy Rollins, too… Brett Myers getting busted down to minor-league ball and then coming back, returning to big-league form… Jamie Moyer’s 247^th MLB season , winning 15-games and then being abandoned so quickly by so many after two rough outings in the post-season (the radio talking-heads and others know who they are – his 15-win season wasn’t a mirage) – he turns in a near flawless effort in winning Game 3… Howard’s horrifying start to the regular season, the red-hot finish, the cold post-season start, and the red-hot finish!

The 2008 season will not be remembered as this smooth run up to a World Series Championship. It will be remembered as the season that kept us on the edge of our seats and cost us clumps of hair. It’s the season that at one moment would have us in near-despair and next give us unbridled excitement (and sometimes back again). It’s the season that saw us frustrated by the performances of many followed so closely by crazy excitement for the same guy (and sometimes back again). It was a kicking, scratching, and clawing effort by all. I’ll remember Brett Myers post-season “hit-streak.” I’ll remember Joe “Blastin’” Blanton hitting a deep homer. I’ll remember Cole Hamels’ masterful post-season pitching efforts. I’ll remember Matt Stairs’ hitting a home-run almost clear out of Dodgers’ stadium. I’ll remember Jamie Moyer diving for a ball and flinging it with his glove to Ryan Howard’s bare hand for the out even though it wasn’t called an out. This series and this season wasn’t just about the most popular players. I’ll remember falling asleep on the sofa at 2:30AM after the delayed start to game 3. Yes, I’ll also remember the eleventyhundred men left on base, especially in scoring position, which prompted me to call them “Phillies strand opportunities.”  I’ll remember Brad Lidge’s perfect season! I’ll remember waiting out the Game 5 rain-delay to see the final out only to find the final out wouldn’t happen until several days later. What will you remember?

How about Charlie Manuel ? A coach that has been, at times, unmercifully castigated over the course of this and past seasons. The man who lost his mother only a short time ago. The man who, in his own laid-backwoods way, has been steady in his regular assurances that he has everything under control despite his sometimes confounding decisions. It will be hard for those people to make fun of the a champion, though I’m sure that there will be some who’ll claim that they won despite him. I hope not. He should be remembered as the Skipper who guided this team through many tumultuous times during the 2008 season, finally winning on the biggest stage in front of the entire world.

Without question, this group of guys exemplifies what the word TEAM is supposed to represent. When the big-guns and hot-shots were hot, they carried the rest of the team. And similarly, when they faltered – the “other guys” – Ruiz, Feliz, Werth and others were there to pick up the “all-stars.” (Well, except So Taguchi – he sucks.)

What a wildly entertaining, amusing, maddening, exciting, and most memorable a baseball season it has been. And despite the pompous windbags of the earth say - like that jackass, Michael Wilbon , who would have the nation believe that coming to a game in Philadelphia with our fans would be like daring to enter the 7^th -level of Hell – we are the best fans in the nation. We are the most knowledgeable and passionate about our teams. We finally get to experience the end of the championship drought for the Great City of Philadelphia and celebrate the World Championship of Major League Baseball.

Yes, we had to endure a split Game 5, the first in World Series history. Yes, apparently, without telling many others, the rules of the game were scrapped, and I think rightfully so, to ensure the World Series would not end on a weather-shortened final note. We may not agree with how that decision was made, but in the end, it was worth the wait.

We all deserve it… The fans… The players… The City… The entire organization. From the fans at This Week In Philly and on behalf of Philadelphia Fans everywhere, a big “THANK-YOU” from our team to the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies! What a wonderful experience. The memories will remain forever, just as my own memories of the 1980 World Series still almost bring a tear to my eye.

The Philadelphia Phillies defeat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-games to 1-game. LET THE CELEBRATING BEGIN! Be smart. Be safe. Represent Philadelphia in a way that shows the sports nation just how great we are!

~PhillyEventsGuy

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