National League Champs!!

I don't need to rehash the glorious details of tonight's big Phillies win. The only thing we need to know is the Phillies are back in the World Series for the first time in 15 years. I still can't explain how this happened. I wrote this team off approximately 48 times throughout the course of the season. Yet, somehow, they battled back from all of the seemingly insurmountable struggles they faced during the season and clinched the National League pennant. We couldn't ask for anything better than this.

We can start to analyze the Phils chances in the World Series later. (For the record though, I think the Phils have a pretty good shot regardless of who they play. Like Mitch and Ricky Bo said in the post-game, I don't think either Tampa or Boston could take this team in a seven game series.) However, we need to live in this moment for a while and celebrate this team's huge accomplishment. Tonight, this team took the next step in removing the proverbial monkey off the collective back of this city. Let's enjoy it without reservation.

Anyway, I'm bleary-eyed, tired and downright too pumped to sit behind a keyboard and type so I don't have much else to offer tonight. We'll get into the nuts and bolts of this series as well as the World Series in the next week.

Let's go Phils!

A Typical Eagles Move

The NFL's trade deadline came and went today. Did you hear Dallas traded for WR Roy Williams? That's right, the Eagles division rival went out and added another playmaker to an already potent offense. Sure, the quarterback's injury puts this team in quite a predicament over the next month. However, at least they still try to adjust as the season moves along.

Meanwhile, on the Eagles front...crickets.

No.

Wait.

Hold on.

The Birds did make a move today. They released their 2007 third round pick, tailback (errr fullback?) Tony Hunt. They also picked up journeyman special-teamer Tracy White.

I can't sit here and argue Tony Hunt would play a huge part in the Eagles future. However, I can stew about the fact the Eagles never really gave Hunt a fair shake. Instead, they tried to convert him to a fullback, a position he was clearly not cut out to play. How could anyone profit from a situation like that? I am too lazy to look up the stats at the moment, but wasn't Tony Hunt one of the leading rushers in Penn State history? Wouldn't it stand to reason then the Eagles would work with Hunt as a tailback? Of course, history has shown college success doesn't always translate to pro stardom. Some guys just can't make the transition to the NFL and Tony Hunt may or may not have fallen into that category. However, the Eagles decision to force a less than ideal situation by converting Hunt to a fullback was just completely arrogant and insane.

Even more frustrating though is the fact the Eagles cut another high-round draft pick. Doesn't that just reaffirm what we have argued for the last 9 years? Andy Reid can not draft. Again, I don't have the facts in front of me, but how many high draft choices have actually made an impact during the Andy Reid era? I'm willing to bet the Eagles have one of the lowest draft success rates in the league.

I guess this is our life with the Eagles though. Until the front office undergoes a dramatic overall and the coach is gone, we're in for more of the same.

Stairs Steps Up

Once again, the Phillies found heroism in an unlikely source. Matt Stairs ripped a huge two out homer in the 8th to put the Phils ahead for good in their 7-5 win over the Dodgers last night in Game 4 of the NLCS. The win gives the Phils a commanding 3 games to 1 lead in the series.

Stairs' homerun will definitely find a spot in the highlight reel of big time Phillies playoff moments. Not only did it win the game and putthe Phils on the doorstep of their first World Series in 15 years, but the blast was also quite the moonshot. Stairs gave a free clinic on how to throughly crush a baseball. Take a look for yourself.



Perhaps even more amazing, Charlie Manuel had the foresight to hold Stairs' big bat for that situation. Earlier in the game, Charlie bypassed Stairs and opted for Geoff Jenkins instead in the hopes he could use Stairs against the hard thrower, Broxton. Add this move to Charlie's scary knack for putting Victorino and Werth in the right spot at the right time and suddenly we find Charlie Manual managing like he invented the game. He even knew the right time to use Lidge for four outs. Maybe, we should give Charlie some credit after all.

Of course Matt Stairs isn't the whole story of last night's game. Shane Victorino also hit a huge homerun in the 8th to tie the game at 5. Shane has put together a tremendous post-season so far. He's turned in two of the biggest clutch hits in the Phils post-season run - the grand slam off of Sabathia in Game 2 of the NLDS and of course last night's two run homer to tie up the game and bring the Phillies back from the dead. The entire league should take notice of Shane Victorino.

The Phillies are now in the driver's seat. They have their best chance to close out the series tomorrow night with Cole Hamels throwing. Hopefully, we will all celebrate a Phillies trip to the World Series. Wouldn't that be something?

This Wasn't In the Script!

In the various scenarios I ran through my head prior to this series, I never imagined these first two games would play out quite like they have. I figured Cole Hamels would give the Phils a quality start in Game 1, which he clearly did. Cole simply dominated the Brewers lineup yesterday. However, I did not, for one second, believe the Phillies would chase C. C. Sabathia out of the game in the fourth inning tonight. Surely, I didn’t think a crucial Brett Myers walk would open the floodgates to a big inning for the Phils. Unfortunately, Dane Cook might have been right. You can’t script October.

I can’t say enough about the Phillies pitching so far in this series. First, Cole turned in the type of performance you need out of your ace in a big situation. Clearly, he’s solidified his place as the ace of this staff and I have a feeling he’ll be one of the big stories of these playoffs. We also saw the Brett Myers of August and September tonight and not the “16 runs in his last two starts” Brett Myers we saw over the last week and a half of the regular season. For this team to make any more noise in these playoffs, we’ll need these two to continue down this path. Plus, Brad Lidge didn’t have to pull out his best Mitchy-Poo impression to get though the ninth tonight, which allowed me to breathe a little easier.

If the Phillies continue to get this kind of pitching and perhaps, sprinkle a little more offense in the potion, we may have a legitimate contender on our hands.