Rocky Mountain High

What a clincher! Certainly helps erase bad memories from the last time the Phillies played playoff baseball in Colorado.

Now, I didn't see one pitch of Game 3, since the game didn't start until after 9:00pm local time for me, and I had to get up at 3:00am the next morning.

Nothing like going to the Yahoo MLB page, and tilting my head away from the main part of the screen, focusing instead on the scoreboard in the lower right corner, and slowly dragging the sidebar down until I got to the Phillies score, saw "Philadelphia" in bold -- an indication that they won -- and seeing the score.

From what I read, that was a doozy as well. But, hard to imagine it was anywhere near as exciting, and riveting, as Game 4.

I did watch all of that one. Well, most of it. I purposely had the game on DVR so I could fast forward through the commercials -- the only way to watch a sporting event -- and, it allowed me to (kind of) fast forward through other parts of the game I didn't want to see...like every Rockies' at-bat.

I just didn't care to hear the Rockies' crowd going nuts, or watching the Phils give up runs. No thanks.

So, I saw Vic's solo home run, and Werth's, and through the magic of double speed fast forwarding in play mode, gathered that the Rockies had cut the lead to 2-1.

Then it went to the bottom of the 8th, and all hell broke loose. The Francisco catch, Giambi's hit off Madson, then Torrealba seemingly hitting the game winner with a two-run double -- followed by a bad karma-inducing amount of celebration on second base. As my hopes dipped well below the Mendoza line, I fast forwarded to the top of the ninth.

Dobbs strikes out. Rollins works a single off of Street, and at least the tying run is at the plate. Victorino -- who already has a home run in the game -- hits a comebacker! Double-play? No, Vic's too fast and beats the throw.

Utley up, Vic is allowed to steal second. And, Chase draws a HUGE walk bringing up Howard. At this point, I'm about 5 minutes behind live television, and my wife -- unbeknownst to me -- is watching the game upstairs (live) while rocking our youngest daughter to sleep.

I hear her get up to put Sarah to bed, and I think for a second, "was she watching the game, saw Howard strike out to end it, and then got up at that point to put Sarah to bed? Am I thinking too much? Is it too late to start drinking?"

She comes down the steps, and I tell her -- again, not knowing what she knows -- that the Phils gakked up the lead and were down 4-2 with two outs in the ninth. She looked at the TV, smiled a bit, and made one of those "it doesn't look too good" faces.

She sat down with me to watch the rest of the game though. Not that I thought much about it at the time, but in hindsight, if she knew Howard was going to make an out, she certainly wouldn't want to be in the room with me when it happened.

Sure enough, after Howard crushed the double to right -- which when it left the bat, for a split second I thought it was gone, then at least was relieved to know they'd tied it, then thought, "oh, no, they'll just lose it in the bottom of the inning, or worse, have to go to extra innings. All of this was followed by the horror of the possibility that they wouldn't even tie it, as when they cut from the shot of the ball in the outfield back to Victorino (the lead runner) he was JUST TROTTING HOME FROM 3RD! Where was Utley?? Would he even score?? Turns out, Vic had initially missed third base, and after going back to tag it, then had to hustle to get to the plate before Chase who was right behind him -- my wife told me she had seen Howard's at-bat, but didn't know anything else.

Then Werth followed with an equally huge hit, serving a line drive into right-center to score Howard. Thank you, Jim Tracy for not walking Werth to face Cairo!

Up 5-4 with Eyre starting the bottom of the ninth thanks to a slew of lefties set to hit the plate for Colorado. Suddenly with two out, two men are on base, and TUlowitzki is coming up, and here comes Brad Lidge.

By now, I'm pacing in my seat, hands up to my mouth. My wife is still in the room rooting along with me -- not for her love of the Phillies, but her love of having me in a pleasant mood -- and three pretty decent sliders later, "Tulo" strikes out, and the Phils move on.

Amazing win.

Hopefully there are eight more nights in the near future where my wife and I are clapping and high-fiving after a Phils postseason victory. They don't all have to be this exciting, either. We'll gladly take a few 10-2 routs, guys.

As I Was Saying...

A few weeks ago, I promised I'd tell some recent stories that happened this summer, and to this point, I've forgotten to do that.

It's been a lazy few months at the blog, and I apologize to my millions and millions of readers. More blogs are coming. And they won't ALL be Phillies related. I think.

The two stories I had meant to tell involved a night at a Jackhammers game, and a lost afternoon trying to find my family at a park in Joliet.

Neither went as planned.

Back on July 4th, we had a pretty good amount of rain during the day, and the threat of significant rain remained for the evening hours as well. We decided to squash any plans to go see fireworks in the area, not wanting to sit and get drenched.

Our oldest daughter, Megan, was fine with it, and we promised her we'd take her somewhere to see fireworks sometime soon.

The most obvious choice -- from a close to home standpoint at least -- was to take her to a Jackhammers game on a night when fireworks would follow the game.

We rounded up some tickets for a Friday night in late July, and I took both of my daughters to the game (my wife had plans to go out with a few friends that night).

The game was set to start at 7:05pm, and since I had to work the next morning, I was pretty confident that I'd still be able to get out of there by 10:00 or so, and be home in enough time to still get a good night's sleep.

I mean, how long could these lower level minor league games last? There's no TV timeouts, there can't be a ton of managerial moves, etc. that typically drag out a major league game, right?

Well, the one thing I didn't take into account was bad baseball. Really bad.

The night we chose to go, the Jackhammers offered up a clinic on how not to pitch, hit and field. And considering how bad the 'Hammers were this year, that's saying something.

Fargo-Moorehead was the opponent. They scored early, and often. So did the Jackhammers. Inning after inning dragged along with bad pitching, fielding, and bad feelings building up inside your friendly blogger as the time kept on ticking away on a balmy Friday night.

Megan, 9, kept asking if the game was almost over. I couldn't give her any assurances as I was wondering the same thing. Our youngest, Sarah, 3, was getting sleepy by the 7th inning.

Again, so was I.

We finally reached the ninth inning at around 11:15pm. Sarah's asleep, daddy's getting cranky and Megan looks as bored as a nine-year old can look.

Of course we can't get a 1-2-3 inning so the dozens of fans that are left can get the only thing they came to the game for in the first place.

Nope, the Jackhammers start to mount a "rally" scoring several runs, prolonging the torture.

And to cap it off, as the ninth inning dragged on, one of the pitches from the Fargo-Moorehead pitcher came in a little to tight for the liking of whoever was batting for Joliet, so we almost had a bench clearing brawl.

We had the bench clearing part, but no brawl. Look, if you're going to give us an a game that lasts over four hours, at least treat us to a nice bloody brawl, right? I wasted precious space on my digital camera recording what ended up being a group of about forty players and coaches walking around the field puffing out their chests, with not a single punch thrown.

Disappointing.

thankfully, the game ended soon after, and the fireworks show took place moments later. Megan and I enjoyed the fireworks, but Sarah slept through it.

We got home shortly before midnight, but at least Megan got to see fireworks, and for better or worse, a more memorable night I 'm guessing.

Story number two is coming up in another post later.

NL East Champs Again

Never a doubt.

Now Pinch Hitting...

For those keeping score, I'll be filling in for Schramm starting this Thursday on WCSJ.

I'll be doing mornings through October 10th. And don't complain to me that you won't be able to listen becuase your radio doesn't get the AM signal anymore.

WCSJ is an FM station now people. It has been for years. As Schramm himself would say, "grab a mitt and get in the game."

Let Me Get This Straight - Part 3

So, since I wrote this post last weekend, vowing to ignore the Phillies after their lead dwindled to five games, they've won six straight games, pushed their lead back to eight games -- while reducing the magic number to eight -- and (gasp) look to have things under control again.

The only concern now is injuries. The bullpen is a wreck with Romero, Eyre and Park sidelined, starter J.A. Happ may have aggravated his injury in last night's game (although he says he's fine), and now catcher Carlos Ruiz has a sprained wrist, although x-rays were negative.

But the hope is that those guys will heal up in time for the post-season (if they get there...had to say it).

This was a good week. Even the fans got some good publicity after the daughter of a Phillie fan threw a foul ball that her dad had just caught back onto the field.

The dad smiled, hugged his daughter, and was instantly booked on the Today Show.

You see, America, we're not all scum.

Let Me Get This Straight - Part 2

So, in the eight days since I wrote this glowing assessment of the Phightin' Phils, the following has occurred...

* They were swept four straight games in Houston against the sub .500 Astros, three times by one run.

* Brad Lidge blows his 10th save of the season, loses his closer's job in the middle of (potentially) blowing his 11th -- against Washington.

* J.A. Happ is forced to miss a few starts with an injury, forcing (gasp) Kyle Kendrick into the rotation today.

* Brett Myers and Ryan Madson -- the two pitchers counted on to replace Lidge -- combine to allow five runs to the Mets over the course of the final two innings Saturday turning a 9-5 lead into a 10-9 loss.

* The Phillies -- losers of 6 out of their last 9 -- see their lead in the NL East has dropped from 8 1/2 games down to 5, and they still play Florida six more times.

Ok, time to start ignoring them again. Good luck today, boys. I'll check the scores in the morning. Don't be surprised if that lead has dropped to 3 1/2, and a sudden increase in Xanax prescriptions in the Philadelphia area (and one stray case in suburban Chicago).

What time do the Eagles kickoff today?

Let Me Get This Straight

So, the Phillies managed to score just three runs in three games -- at home -- against the Giants...and won two of the three games?

Pedro Martinez, who is 38 and was basically ignored by all but a couple of teams this year, out-dueled the reigning Cy Young winner Thursday night, making a statement that not only is he worthy of his spot in the rotation for the rest of the year, but could merit serious consideration for a spot in the (potential) playoff rotation?

And, now their lead in the NL East is a robust 8 1/2 games over both Florida and Atlanta, 10 games in the loss column, while they've placed themselves more games over .500 than at any point since 1993?

Maybe I should start watching these guys.