A Question to Our Readership

Can someone please explain to me why FOX had no less than 10 cutaways to Maddon in the dugout during the 9th? Sweaty and I had 1210 on to avoid being infected with Tampa Fever by having unprotected aural with Joe Buck so we had no idea why they felt the need to show the manager of the Rays at least 10 times. In a half inning.

A Review of Game Two in One Word

Pathetic.

Know Thine Enemy...And Mock Him

Say what you want about Phillies fans and the City of Brotherly Love, but here are two things this town would never, ever, EVER do:

1. Print a "Baseball Primer" on the local news website. Seriously. Check it out. It contains such highlights as:

DOUBLE PLAY: A routine but difficult play in which the defense gets two outs with one pitch.

AND

UP THE MIDDLE: A ball hit back past the pitcher, over second base and into center field.

This is the fan base of the media darlings? Isn't baseball supposed to be our official past time here in America? Did a large contingent of Lost Tribes of the Amazon choose Tampa for their annual convention?

No wonder they bring cowbells and have blue mohawks. I can't take looking at these misfits any more, and it's been one game!

2. This:

As [Lidge] warmed up before the bottom of the ninth, the scoreboard showed a montage of film clips to rile up the fans. It ended with a snippet of Sylvester Stallone in a sweat suit, thrusting his arms to the sky at the top of the art museum steps in Philadelphia.

If the Phillies needed another positive omen — as if surviving 13 hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position were not enough — there it was. Lidge retired the side in order to end the game.

Sweet Mary on a pogo stick. Game one of the World Series was played in Tampa. In that abortion of a stadium. Against the PHILADELPHIA Phillies. And they used a clip...from Rocky...showing Stallone at the top of the steps...to fire up...the....RAYS?

There are no words.

[Tip of the Hat to The 700 Level, Philly's finest sports blog]

Game 1 World Series: 8:18 PM

Two observations:

1. The Glory soundtrack by James Horner was a nice touch to the WS preamble featuring McCain and Obama. How true it is. Foreshadow much?
2. The fucking cowbells are worse than New Kids on the Block. During the Rays intro it sounded like a whole stadium's worth of contestants were spinning on Wheel of Fortune. I couldn't blast Stevie Wonder any louder and I still want a zombie outbreak in Tampa.

The Definitive 1000

We are going to be counting down the Definitive 1000 things. Why are they Definitive? Because The Friendly Friends have deemed them as such.



966 - The World Series

As I sit here on the eve of the Phillies' fourth trip to the World Series in my lifetime I began to reflect on the various feelings that the previous three brought:

1980 - I was 5. I'm sure a nice time was had by all. All I remember is there was suddenly a lot of Phillies stuff in my room

1983 - I was 8. I don't really remember much from being 8. I do remember that my organized baseball playing career came to an abrupt end when a grounder hit a rock in the infield and ended up hitting me full on in the mouth during t-ball tryouts.

1993 - I was 18. The entire 1993 season is one of my all-time favorite sports memories. Up to the final pitch of the 1993 season that is. I will never forget the total feeling of utter helplessness and despair when what happened, happened.

And this year:

2008 - I am 33. I don't know what's going to happen over the next week or so but I can say that I enjoyed the season so far. Not in the same way as 1993, since I'm no longer a slacker college student and I have a few more responsibilities now. And going in to the World Series I have a strange sense of calm. Excited, but calm.

One thing I do love about the Phillies being in the World Series is that it seems to have created an instant sense and feeling of camaraderie and friendship between people who wouldn't normally have the time of day for each other. Plus most conversations are about the Phils and the rotation and who's the DH going to be and how awful the Tropicana Dome is and how great it is that the city isn't putting any Phils garb on William Penn and how great the Phillies' sweep will be (note to the baseball gods, I don't agree with this sentiment so this is not a jinx statement) and where are we going to watch and what excuse will you use for work for the parade?

It's a nice feeling to have. We don't have a whole lot to agree on these days (see the previous post for more on this). And for this reason I hereby enshrine The World Series in the Definitive 1000.

Perhaps a World Series win will come in at #965??

For getting through all of this, may I present a hot Phillies girl, courtesy of
the fine folks at We Hate to Lose

Are YOU a Real American?

I came home this evening to find out from Mrs. Jewbacca that we are NOT real Americans.

See, we are registered Independents since neither of us identify enough with either party to say we're a "D" or an "R." Couple that with the fact that we tend to lean toward the Democratic side of things AND the fact that in most peoples' minds Democrat=Liberal and you get this from CNN.com:

A North Carolina congressman locked in a tight re-election race admitted Tuesday to recently telling a crowd of John McCain supporters that "liberals hate real Americans," the latest in a string of comments from Republicans that appear to question Democrats' patriotism.

Ergo, we are not real Americans. There is no hope for us.

I guess our home ownership, our taxpaying history, the fact that we both work very hard at our jobs (another jab at "liberals" is that they don't have jobs where they have to work hard), our service to our community, our charitable donations and our American flag constantly waving from our front porch is not enough for some people. Oh well.

But here as a Friendly Friend public service is a quick quiz you can take to determine if you are a REAL American:



So how'd you all score? Any sudden ex-pats out there who want to gather in the local ex-American bar and watch the Phillies?

My Zombuddy David

I'm so proud. One of my best friends made the Colbert Report. Check it out: That zombie pic? That's my boy David. He was a groomsman in my wedding. We go way back. We did all sorts of crazy things together, alive-things.

Apparently this image was sold as photostock and made it all the way to the big time.

THE PHILLIES ARE YOUR 2008 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!!!

Fifteen years ago I was a young buck freshman at the University of Delaware. We all packed into some guy's room in our dorm to watch the Phils take the NLCS from the hated Braves.

Our RA let us run wild for a while to celebrate. We took him up on it, pounding on all the doors in the dorm and then running outside to whoop it up.

What did I do tonight?

Enjoyed Harry the K on the radio coverage, wondered how those two Phillies Phans got seats behind home plate, thanked the heavens that there would be no more Manny talk this post season, quietly savored the victory. Woke up the Missus to let her know the news.

But I'm no less happy, just fifteen years older and a responsible member of society.

Should the Phillies break the 25 year curse in my fair city? That's an entirely different story. With the Eagles doing their usual mind-smashingly best to ruin my winter and the Flyers off to a 0-2-1 start, I can't be responsible for my actions should a parade occur here.

And this post? Finished and saved as a draft at 10:57 p.m. Sweaty might kill me for nearly jinxing the whole thing.

UPDATE: Thanks to The 700 Level you can now enjoy the final out the way it was meant to be...with Harry Kalas and a somehow not as annoying as usual Wheeler:

NLCS Game 2 "Live Picturebook"

First off, The Friendly Friends would like to extend our deepest condolences to Charlie Manuel and his family.

Second off, stay tuned for one Friendly Friend's attempt to convey his deepest feelings through easy to understand pictures as the Phils battle the Dodgers in Game 2 of the NLCS:

Mid First Inning



Are you kidding me? Three up three down is about as good as we could hope for. Looks like Myers is on...

End First



It's half-full, people...it's half-full...

Mid Second



Good damage control by Myers, one run isn't a problem....right?

End Two





Myers for MVP of everything!

Mid Third



Serious Myers can still have MVP?

End Third







Three RBI??? You can absolutely keep that MVP.

Mid Fourth



There go the three RBI...thanks Ruiz!

End Fourth

Interesting stat during that inning...Ryan Howard is 2 for 17 with 1 run and 1 RBI in the postseason. Brett Myers is 4 for 5 with 3 runs and 3 RBI.



Mid Fifth



Just cruising along...

End Fifth



This Ryan Howard is only two hits behind the Phillies' Ryan Howard this post-season...

Mid Sixth



Thanks Durbin...

End Sixth



Not sure if 3 runs will be enough...

Mid Seventh

For the catch...



For the song...



End Seventh



I'm worried too Julie. They're getting hit a little too much...

Mid Eighth



Three up, three down for Madson...

End Eighth



Lidge, Lidge, Lidge, Lidge, Lidge...

Mid Ninth










THANKTHEEVERLOVINGLORD!!!! Can't the Phillies do anything easy???

As always the flower pics are from Mrs. Jewbacca's garden...

A Not So Obvious Reason Why DVR Is Awesome

Through the magic of my newly acquired DVR I was able to pause my live TV long enough to let The Big Talker 1210's coverage of the Phillies game tonight catch up.

What does this mean? I've been listening to Larry Andersen, Scott Franzke, Harry Kalas and the other guy the whole game.

What is most awesome about that? THE TWO HARRY KALAS HOME RUN CALLS THAT JUST HAPPENED!!!

There's no way Joe Buck or whatever soul crushing, brain numbing Fox stuffed shirt had the same level of joy in his voice. And I'm also sure that they were able to work at least 4 Manny references into the HR call....

AWESOME UPDATE: PHILLIES WIN!! 3-2. If I had been listening to the Fox coverage I would have missed Larry's yells of joy after the final strikeout!