September

Games 151 through 156 – Phillies

Phils 8, Braves 7
Phils 6, Braves 1
Phils 4, Braves 3
Marlins 14, Phils 8
Phils 3, Marlins 2
Phils 5, Marlins 2
Record: 88 wins, 68 losses – 1st place, 1.5 games ahead of NYM

Do you remember the 21st night of September?
Love was changing the minds of pretenders
While chasing the clouds away

Wow. It’s been rare lo these past 2 decades or so, that I enjoyed a September weekend like this.

To wit (not Whit), on a sunny Saturday afternoon in front of their usual 100 K + faithful fans, the mighty, mighty Nittany Lions vanquished their beleaguered little brothers from Temple by a count of 45 to 3. This closes out Penn State’s rather unchallenging non-conference schedule with the Nits rolling up 211 points to their overmatched opponents’ measly 40. While it’s technically true the boys in blue and white faced 3 teams that are Division 1A…excuse me Bowl Championship Division and one Playoff Division (formerly 1 double A) team, in reality, they faced a sorry bunch of teams that gave Penn State no reason to work up a sweat and so Nitwits are left wondering just how good are these boys? Nice problem to have as the Fightin’ Illini roll into Happy Valley this weekend for a prime time game on ABC.

The biggest surprise of my sports weekend – and the game which made it so special – was the Miami Dolphins’ thorough thrashing of the vaunted New England Patriots. The Dolphins now have the distinction of having bookended the Pats 21 game regular season win streak. This is very likely a mere blip on what promises to be a rather uneventful radar screen in Year 1 of the Parcells Miami Project but if feels good to stick it to those bastards! I can only hope it reminds the Pats that in Perfectville, the population is still only 1.

Oh, lest I forget, this is a baseball blog. The Phillies! Hooray!

Friday night gave me some chills. Brett Myers gave up 10 runs in a loss (obviously) to the Marlins in Hollywood, F-L-A. I was a wee bit nervous as the day wore on Saturday worrying that all that mo we picked up in the past week would be lost in soupy South Florida. The bullpen came to the rescue however. The boys gutted out two tough contests against a Marlins team that has battled all year and to its credit, was still trying to make a difference in the NL East race. The Phillies seemed to have once again recaptured that September mojo they have so frequently channeled these past 3 or 4 years. Today’s Philly Inq. informs me that since Charlie Manuel took the helm in 2005, the Phils are 65 and 40 in September.

So all my teams did well. Most importantly, the Phils have continued to roll and it looks like everyone is pitching in. I have watched clutch homers fly off the bat of the slumping Pat Burrell, the light hitting Carlos Ruiz and the mystifyingly powerless Pedro Feliz. I have witnessed a fatigued old man trot out 6 innings in less than comfortable conditions and a skinny kid willing his body to pitch more innings than he has ever had too in his young career. I also have been impressed that a closer long ago given up for dead has resurrected his career and once again turned the 9th inning into a formality by saving every one of his 40 save opportunities.

6 games to go. If we can take 4 from the Braves and Nats at home, that should give us the division. It will definitely give us the Wild Card.

Ba de ya - say do you remember
Ba de ya - dancing in September
Ba de ya - golden dreams were shiny days