Philadelphia Philles "World Series Champions"

[Timbo2st]

Philadelphia finally gets another title



PHILADELPHIA -- For a quarter of a century, they'd waited for this night, waited for this moment.


For a quarter of a century, they'd watched these scenes happen in somebody else's town, on somebody else's field of dreams.

Seasons came. Seasons went. Baseball seasons. Football seasons. Basketball seasons. Hockey seasons.

They never ended this way -- not a stinking one of them. Not in Philadelphia -- the city where these sorts of dreams never came true.

And then, on a wintry Wednesday night in October, in the cliff-hanger episode of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Parade Floats," it happened.

It was 9:58 p.m. in the Eastern Time Zone. The perfect closer, Brad Lidge, finished off the perfect season with the perfect pitch.

The hitter standing 60 feet away, Tampa Bay's Eric Hinske, swung through one last invisible slider. And as Brad Lidge collapsed to his knees and euphoria erupted all around him, you could almost feel the sky clearing and the universe shifting.

The Phillies had won the World Series, won it in five astounding games, won it by finishing off a 4-3 win over Tampa Bay that they had to wait 46 water-logged hours just to complete.

But that's not all. For the city they play in, the wait was over. A wait that had consumed every man, woman and child, every Mummer, every pretzel baker, every cheesesteak chomper, every boobird.

The wait that had dragged them all through 25 years and 98 combined seasons of misery and heartbreak, seasons whose only common trait was that they'd all managed to last just a little too long.

It was the longest wait, by far, of the 13 metropolitan areas in America with teams in all four major sports. No other metropolis out there -- anywhere -- was within eight years.

And then, with one pitch, with one euphoric shriek in the night -- in 45,000-part harmony -- it was over. And life in Philadelphia may never be the same.

"For all these years," said Jimmy Rollins as fireworks crackled through the night, "the part of playing here that upset me the most was that I was always home in October, watching somebody else celebrate.

"But not this year," said the man who first opened his mouth and dared them all to reach for this chunk of the sky. "This year, WE get to celebrate."

If you live in Kansas or New Mexico or Maine, you may not fully understand the meaning of all this. So we'll try to spell it out for you.

How long did Philadelphians have to wait? In between championships, their four professional teams played a combined 9,029 games without ever producing a night quite like this.

There were titles in Green Bay and Edmonton and East Rutherford, N.J. There were parades in Charlotte and Calgary and San Antonio. But never in Philly. Not once.

Philadelphia's four teams reached the postseason 47 times in all those years -- and got bounced out of the postseason in all 47 of them. Seven of those teams made it all the way to the final round of that postseason. All seven watched somebody else spraying the champagne.

But of all those franchises, none dragged its fans through the psycho ward more than the Phillies.

From 1984 on through 2006, they reached the postseason just once in 23 seasons. They lost more games in that time than any team in their league except the Pirates.

They watched the Royals win a World Series. They watched the Diamondbacks win a World Series. They watched the Marlins win two of them. The Red Sox finally won. The White Sox finally won. But the Phillies just kept wallowing in that muck, looking for the formula that would lead them to a night like this.

So what were the odds that, in the 4,416th game they'd played since the last title in their town, it was the local baseball team that finally parted the polluted waters?

"When I was a kid, back in 1980, baseball was still exciting here," said Jamie Moyer, the only Phillie who could say he actually attended the parade of the 1980 World Series champs. "Back then, people lived for the game around here. So it's funny. Last year, one of our beat writers said to me, 'Do you realize you guys, as a team, brought baseball back to Philadelphia?'

"I never really looked at it that way. I never really thought about it that way, that we had brought baseball back to Philadelphia. He said, 'It's something that had been lost here for a lot of years.' And I said, 'You know what? If that's the case, that's really cool. That in our own small way, we've been able to bring baseball back to Philadelphia, to bring the Phillies back on the map."

And now, of course, they're the team that actually owns that map.

Let's Go Eagles, Flyers, and Sixers......Let's keep this train rollin'

Also Penn State

 

[Timbo2st]

The front page of the USA TODAY on October 27th reads;

"Tampa Bay Sweeps Phillies"

subtitle- "And Philadelphia Chokes Again, will they ever win another championship?"

ouch.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

I am just happy that baseball is over.

 

[Route 66]

Let's Go Eagles,....Let's keep this train rollin'

Please go away. Thank you.

 

[Joe Realist]

I am Cowboy fan living in the Philly area. I root for all of our teams, except the Eagles. I love the Cowboys the most, yet when they won Superbowls, I can't really celebrate with the community.

I am cannot describe how I feel about the Phillies winning it all. I am going to the parade that may have 3 million people!

Go Phillies!! and

Go Cowboys!!

 

[Yeagermeister]

I am just happy that baseball is over.

But congrats to the Phillies

 

[Rampage]

congrats to the phillies. didn't think they could pull it off but they did. i'm just glad the rays cinderella story ended not winning the big prize.

 

[Rampage]

I heard it had the lowest tv ratings of any world series

 

[Ren]

Makes me sick to know that those Philly apes finally have something to cheer about :bang2:

but then again it's only baseball which in my eyes ranks right up there with chess in terms of entertainment value

 

[the kid 05]

only good thing one of them trashy baseball players gets to brag about is he has a new camaro....

 

[Cbz40]

Congrats Phillies....Great season.

 

[DallasFanSince86]

Congrats to the Phillies and their fans.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

baseball already finished?

 

[Taylor28]

Phillies ROCK!!!! Way to go Phillies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :

 

[CF74]

Sillies to Phillies..

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Glad baseball is over, congrats to the Phillies, sad to see the fans of anything Philly get a chance to celebrate. Call me a bad guy but I love smiling about Philly fans crying all the time about how their teams never win anything. Stinking Phillies screwed that up.

Oh well we've still got Eagles fans who will continue to be unhappy for years to come.

 

[Timbo2st]

Sillies to Phillies..

No...I'm pretty sure they've always been the Phillies.

 

[Route 66]

No...I'm pretty sure they've always been the Phillies.

At least he knows how to spell his own team.

 

[Joe Realist]

What an Awesome parade

 

[Timbo2st]

What an Awesome parade

Yea, I ended up getting to Broad street early. Honestly, one of the best days EVER. I'm serious, it was amazing. Over 2 million people just having a party the entire day. All the years of waiting for a championship, holding everything inside, just letting it out on Friday. I lost my voice pretty early in the day. The weather was perfect by the way.

I can't wait till' next season starts. World Champs!