In honor of one of my favorite Phillies of all time, who’s been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, I’m reviving this Throwback Thursday post from October 2009 on The Main Stage. I’m happy to report that all is well with Mom.
This one goes out to the Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins and my Mom. Jimmy wrapped up maybe the most amazing game I’ve seen in person. In last year’s Phils-Brewers NLDS I saw Brett Myers draw a 32-pitch walk off CC Sabathia followed by, a few batters later, a Shane Victorino grand slam. But there was still a lot of baseball left to play. Nevertheless, a pure lovefest broke out that seemed to follow the typically cranky town of Philadelphia through the 2008 playoffs.
Tonight’s two-out, two-run gapper in the bottom of the 9th by “midget” J-Roll off giant (no quotes needed) Dodgers’ closer Jonathan Broxton was IT, the end of a game that most teams have no business winning at this time of the year. Regardless of what happens the rest of this season, this Phils team isn’t most teams. I was there with my oldest friend, and he was there in relief of my Mom. We were supposed to attend this game together, but she’s going through some tough times at the moment and couldn’t make it.
The last time my friend and I were at any sort of playoff game together it was a late ’70s or early ’80s Sixers-Celtics semifinals, in which the Sixers were eliminated on a last-second buzzer-beater by Jo Jo White. I thought of that game and I thought of my Mom as Jimmy’s perfectly placed line drive dove between the Dodgers’ outfielders and rolled to the wall. All around us Phillies fans were jumping and hugging in ways that the most idealistic, hippie, free-love advocates could only dream about. As I felt last year in that game against the Brewers, any two or more of us could have ripped off our clothes and gone at it in the aisles. Sorry if I’ve tarnished these touching feelings I’m trying to express right now, but it’s only natural, isn’t it?
I’m in no way intending to puff out my chest and prematurely celebrate anything. What I’m hoping to simply acknowledge is some small sense of the the battle, the ties that bond, and all that jazz. You may get it from a sporting event, you may get it from a Boss concert, you may get it from a quick roll in the aisles. If you haven’t gotten it lately, I hope you get it soon.
And you, my friends in The Back Office, are some funny dudes. Love the new banner shots!