As I sit and write this, I have a scratchy throat and feel a cold coming on. I know why too. Too many nights coming home at two or three in the morning (hey those World Series games were long!) and too many mornings after, getting up at seven, to get in here to do my news duties, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.
28 years, between Phillies World Series championships, vanished in a heartbeat. All it took was watching Brad Lidge deliver one final, unhittable slider to Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz to do it.
At 9:58pm, on a cold Fall night, the Phillies beat Tampa Bay 4-3 and won the World Series four games to one.Walking out on the field after the clincher felt like a dream, but I knew it wasn’t. The Phillies really did just become World Series Champs and I SAW IT HAPPEN!!!
This gritty, never say die team of Destiny slammed the door shut on a quarter of a century of championship droughts.For some of you, hell froze over Wednesday night!So many things were running through my mind as I charged out onto the field!
The fans were screaming, players, their families, members of the Phillies staff, grounds crew, security, all hugging each other, heck they were even hugging media members!
There was a strong sense of family on the field. Players were surrounded by parents and wives and children. Friends pointed digital cameras at each other. Family didn't just mean spouses and blood kin. No, it was striking how every player seemed eager to share this with the sellout crowd that showed no signs of departing.
I saw people who had been with the Phillies going back to my first year covering the club (1986) that came up to me and pumped my hand or gave me a hug. We had been through all those losing years. One Phillies P.R. person said to me, “Ted we’ve worked so hard. I never thought I’d ever see this happen.”
From field view, you could just make out this blur of faces and hats and signs, and this enormous, unceasing jet-engine roar as the cheering swelled and swelled higher.
There were so many other great stories too. Lefty Jamie Moyer, who dreamed of pitching in the big leagues as a kid growing up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His hero, like mine, was Steve Carlton. Jamie, in fact, got his first big league win against Carlton.
Moyer, back in 1980 played hooky from school to attend the World Series parade. I asked him, now that he’s won, was it anything like he thought it would be.“It isn’t. It really isn’t. It’s been worth every practice, every ball thrown, every pitch thrown, every game, every win, every loss, this is what we play for. I’m very proud of everybody on our team, our coaching staff, my team mates, we all did this together.”
Seeing the tears in Jamie’s eyes, showed it was heartfelt.
He said he was excited about the upcoming victory parade, “I know I’m going to have a better seat for it.
”There was the good ole country boy, Charlie Manuel. I always said he was a great guy, but I didn’t think he was very good with the “x’s and o’s” of the game. You know what, he didn’t have to be. I walked with him as he was leaving the field to go into the media room. He was giggling like a little kid. I asked him if it was everything he could have imagined. He said, “ no, it’s better!”
Lidge and Ruiz gave Charlie the game ball after the game. "
We're losers no more," first baseman Ryan Howard said. "The organization, we're winners. Nobody can take that away from the city of Philadelphia, and nobody can take that away from us."
"We play in a tough-bleep town to play in," Pat Burrell, the longest-tenured Phillie, said. "I'm proud of that. I don't think anybody in here knows this city and the way they think the way that I do. To be able to hand this over to them, this is as good as it gets."
On the way home I thought about the loved ones, friends, family, my wife, folks who didn’t make it to this day. How happy they would be to see this day again.
I could go on and on. The Phillies are the World Champions of baseball!!!!!Wednesday, October 29, 2008..it’s a day I will never forget.







