If you are looking for coherence this morning, you should probably move on. Too many thoughts and feelings are trying to get out at the same time.
As the Phillies began assembling the core of what would become a World Series championship team - Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels, Pat Burrell, Ryan Madson, Carlos Ruiz, Shane Victorino, Brett Myers - many of us hoped they would remain together long enough to reach their goal. When they added the missing pieces - Brad Lidge, Greg Dobbs, JC Romero, Pedro Feliz, Chad Durbin - many of us allowed ourselves to believe they had arrived at the moment when they could indeed contend. (For the record, I picked them to finish third in their division!!)
Now that they have won the World Series changes are inevitable, but for themselves and their fans they will always be the 2008 team, veterans and youngsters, stars and journeymen, numbers 26, 6, 8, 5, 11 etc., frozen in time, wearing red pinstripes, piling on each other in front of the mound, spraying champagne, to a man reveling in their personal triumph and in the collective triumph of the city in which they play.
One refrain we heard in every post-game interview throughout the playoffs and Series was how good the chemistry was on this team. There were no cliques or controversies. These guys more than got along; they delighted in their comraderie. Veterans like Rudy Seanez, who wasn't even on the post-season roster, expressed the feeling this was the most cohesive clubhouse they'd ever known.
More than once throughout the post-game celebration, commentators recalled the immortal lines of Flyers' coach Fred Shero: "win tonight and we walk together forever".
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As long as we are looking back and forward, we should again remind ourselves again how lucky we are to be watching Chase Utley play the game every day. Utley's home run in game one was the key blow. He would hit another key home run in their 5-4 victory in game three. For the rest of the series he struggled at the plate, but he more than made up for it with his superb defense. His backhand grab up the middle, deke to first base and off-balance throw to the plate to nail Jason Bartlett at the plate in the top of the seventh with the potential go-ahead run was the key defensive play of the game if not the series.
He just does everything right. There can be no greater tribute to a player.
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We may have seen Pat Burrell play his last game in a Phillies uniform. For most of his career Burrell was a man of few words. During this post-season run he has opened up more, expressing his hopes for the team and its legions of fans, who haven't always been kind to him. When a teammate came through with a clutch hit, Burrell was usually the first guy to greet him at the top of the dugout steps, a wide grin and clap on the back at the ready. Mired in a oh-for-the-series slump prior to his last at bat, Burrell chose his final moment to deliver the hit that eventually led to the winning run. It was no small measure of satisfaction for a guy who more than any other Phillie emblemizes the vicissitudes of a big leaguer's life in Philadelphia.
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Pedro Feliz was signed in the off-season to provide great defense and a decent bat at third base, which had been a trouble spot ever since a fellow named Schmidt retired. Feliz delivered exactly what was expected. He grabbed everything hit his way and threw the ball with unbelievable authority. And once every four times at the plate he would come through, especially last night as he drove in the game-winning, Series-clinching run.
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Carlos Ruiz had a tough year at the plate but he picked things up in the playoffs. Where he stood out was behind the plate. He started the year sharing the catching duties with Chris Coste. There were even a few pitchers who appeared reluctant to see him behind the plate. By the end of the season and throughout the playoffs Coste had completely disappeared and Ruiz had emerged as the team's field general. To a man the pitching staff likes throwing to him and it shows when they congratulate each other after a victory.
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A quick glance at the totals in the box score from last night's game reveals that none of the Phillies hit very well throughout the five-game series. They won because of their pitching, plain and simple, and because of the superb advance scouting that enabled the Phillies pitchers to stop a potent Rays' offense in their tracks. Both starters and relievers delivered as they'd done all year. Prior to the beginning of the season the offense was seen as this team's strength and, in fact, they did score more runs than any other team except the Cubs. But they would go through long stretches of poor hitting, especially with runners in scoring position, and when they did score it was in bunches and usually via the long ball. The one constant throughout the season was their bullpen, led by Brad Lidge, who converted every save opportunity with which he was presented. The biggest surprise throughout the season was the performance of Jamie Moyer, aka 45-year old Jamie Moyer, who led the staff with sixteen victories but faltered for the first time all year in his first two playoff appearances. Fortunately, he rallied in his onlyi World Series start to pitch a fine game. Will Moyer be back next year? Hard to say. With the emergence of Cole Hamels as the true staff ace, the apparent resurgence of Brett Myers, and the solid pitching by Joe Blanton, who really picked it up in the post-season, the Phillies starting rotation should be solid again next season.
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Last night's game ended at 9:58PM EDT, the earliest finish in the entire series. The early time meant in all likelihood a lot of school-age kids got to watch the final game of the Series as well as all the celebrating. Few things are more apt to make fans out of kids than the excitement and jubilation they witnessed in real time.
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Finally, my hats of to the Phillies bloggers who have made this such a wonderful season. Jason Weitzel (Beerleaguer), Erik Grissom (Philliesflow), Tom Goyne (Balls, Sticks and Stuff), and Tom Durso (Poor Richard's Scorecard) are my regular stops but there are many other worthy chroniclers and pundits. Congratulations to all of you, too.
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