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.

Major League Baseball is going ahead with World Series Game 5. Two days after the Phillies and Tampa Bay were suspended after 51/2 innings because of rain with the score 2-2, the game resumes at 8:37 tonight.
If you’re going to the game, remember, it will be 38 degrees outside, so it’s going to be freeeeeeezing!
Play will begin with the Phils coming to bat in the bottom of the sixth. Hamels is scheduled to lead off. Manuel will pinch hit. Tampa Bay, you may remember, had right-handed reliever Grant Balfour on the mound.
Rays’ manager Joe Maddon’s hero is the late Gene Mauch, so we can expect a little gamesmanship going on here.
If he leaves Balfour in, the Phillies could send up a left-handed pinch-hitter such as Greg Dobbs, Geoff Jenkins or Matt Stairs.  I'd send Jenkins up, which means Maddon make an immediate move for a lefty. That could mean the hard throwing Price.
The rookie got the final seven outs of Tampa Bay's victory in Game 2.
 After the No. 9 spot, Philadelphia's lineup turns over to bring up switch-hitter Jimmy Rollins and right-handed Jayson Werth before lefty sluggers Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.
How does Manuel counter that move? Look for So Taguchi to hit.  You also get the speed of a leadoff hitter.
As I’ve said before, the Phils need to score quickly and then turn it over to the pen. The Phillies bullpen has been great thus far in the playoffs. In 37 1/3 innings, they have allowed just seven earned runs. The game will be in good hands.
 Fate may not have permitted them to claim their rings Monday night, but Destiny is still on their side. Tonight they will take their place in Phillies folklore! The Phils are going to be World Champions! The victory comes tonight. Eat your heart out New York!

It was shameful, disgraceful and should never have happened. What am I talking about? Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig’s decision to go forward with last night’s Game 5 of the World Series. I’m sorry, Bud can say it didn’t begin to rain until the third inning until he’s blue in the face. As far as I’m concerned, when you see umbrellas start to pop open in the stands, it’s raining and it’s substantially raining. The rain picked up in intensity as the night went on and actually looked like an old fashioned nor’easter.
Baseball’s head honcho said the fans and players were his top priorities. If that were the case, at the very least, last night’s game would have been stopped much sooner. Why wasn’t it? You and the ballplayers are not baseball’s top priorities. Television is, and the folks at FOX won’t allow their prime-time program to be moved to 4 or 5 o’clock. 
Not only was it raining, it was COLD! The winds were howling too. God bless the fans, all 45,940 who sat in that mess cheering on the Fightin’ Phils!
If you were at last night’s game, you saw a bit of history. It marks the first time in baseball history that a World Series game has been suspended.
Thankfully you won’t have to sit through the elements again tonight. According to an MLB press release, Game 5 is now tentatively scheduled to resume Wednesday night at 8:37pm, weather permitting.
The city has been waiting 28 years for a World Series Championship. Another night, or two, won’t hurt.