September Mourning 3
In memoriam Atlanta Braves.
The Phillies are on a tear.
It’s a September thing.
(To play 21 ball games and lose only three is one hell of a run in baseball, where two out three is excellence.)
(snip)
The Phillies are 44-15 since July 21, when they trailed the Braves by seven games. They are 18-3 in September.
I’m glad the game was not televised here. My heart probably couldn’t have taken it.
I was out most of the evening to support Andrew. I tried to follow the game on ESPN on my Android G1 (really, first things first), but there was no signal in the auditorium.
I did catch the eighth inning in my truck on the skip from WPHT. (Now that I know I can catch it on the skip, I’ll likely be spending most of my evenings in my truck in the parking lot . . . .)
Couldn’t get it in the condo, but I got to watch the end at the Phillies website.
Most satisfactory.
September 23, 2010 at 11:20 am
As a decades’ long fan, the metamorphosis of the Phillies is extraordinary, one consequence being that the once surliest fans in baseball have become perhaps the most dedicated. (Citizens Bank Park has have one hundred-something straight sellouts.)
Charlie Manuel is a genius, of course, and a master chess players if ever there was one. By tweaking his starting rotation slightly at the beginning of the month, he assured that his three aces would face the Braves all six times. The result 6-0 for the Phillies and 12-0 overall since the beginning of the month.
September 23, 2010 at 12:56 pm
It is a most unusual team.
The players get along and respect the manager. There’s no clubhouse drama. No one’s been arrested. Manuel seems to bring out the best in every player.
They just come to work and do their jobs. When one person has a bad day, the others step up.
It can’t last forever, but he’s built a good foundation for it to last for a long time. And it sure is fun to watch.
September 23, 2010 at 3:35 pm
It’s a wonderful thing, esp. here in New England, sick, sick, sick of the Yankee fans.