Well now, it looks like I've finally lived to see our city win a championship, its all the more special being the Phils, a team I've watched and loved as long as I can remember. Checking out GoogleNews and the blogosphere, it looks like pretty much everything has already been talked about; the great plays, the rain delay, Charlie Manuel looking like Grumpy Cookie... I think my favorite part of the whole experiance was watching the guys who actually did the deed celebrate. Fair Weather Fans across the city are cheering "WE DID IT!" left and right, but its these guys who actually did it. What's interesting to me is that the guys on the team really seem to feel as though they did it for us. They've proved themselves to be "our boys" in a way I've never seen before in any team. That's certainly refreshing in today's age of Michael Vick and Terell Owens.
The newscasters kept mentioning that this World Series Championship has immortalized our boys, sealed their names in history. Hearing this, I initially balked at the thought, how corney of a thing to bring up? But on the way to school today I realized there may be more to it than I (or even the sportscasters) originally thought...
Take, for example, ancient sporting events. We can, with just a little speculation, find records of sporting champions from decades, centuries, even milennia ago. We can see that our hero, Testiclies won the ball-stick championship for his town 3000 years ago, and he was a hero, a legend, almost a god for it. These were the days before good records were kept, and when only 30 people were in his town to praise him. In 4000 years, assuming man's presence on the planet, one will be able to open a book (probably not a book, but you see what I'm getting at) and find out that Chase and Shane, Pat, Jimmy, Ryan and the rest of the boys battled the elements and the other best team in the country and became champions...and they did it for their city, their home, and their fans. Our Guys did it for us. Hopefully we'll be able to get some great pictures from the parade tomorrow, we're going to go and give them the thanks they deserve.
On a similar note, while baseball IS just a game, and the World Series doesn't mean much in the great scheme of the universe, many of Our Guys do a lot of good in the community, something that DOES help to change the world for the better. I won't rehash everything that's on the Phillies' website, but two guys, who also happen to be my two favorite players, really stood out to me.
Chase Utley and Shane Victorino are two examples of guys who care more about the world around them than just getting that big fat check every week. Chase gives almost $20,000 in tickets to sick kids and their families every season (something that a surprising amount of Phillies players do, actually), and hosted Utley's All Star Animals Casino Night this year, helping to raise almost $200,000 for the SPCA. Him and his wife also foster an abused pit-bull. In every way, Chase is the anti-Michael Vick, and has secured a place as one of my all time favorite athletes, and certainly tops the list for my favorite Phillies (sorry Jim Thome, you're still up there!).
Shane Victorino does just as much to help out the community, visits sick kids, works with PAL, and hosts Get In the Game, a bowling and billiards tournament with Chase Utley to raise money for mentoring inner city kids. The thing that really stuck with me about Shane is that he attends ALL of the charity events that his teammates throw every year. Talk about dedication.
What I love about these guys is that they both sort of came out of nowhere, were never really expected to be among the greats....Chase Utley is supposed to be one of the most humble people in sports, and Shane Victorino seems to be among the friendliest. They're both hardworking, dedicated and service oriented fellas, and I hope the good people of Philadelphia never forget that.
That's my piece for now, stay tuned for pics of the madness tomorrow.
-Philadelphia Maneto!
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