2005 Chachi #1 Jimmy Rollins

2010: A Chachi Odyssey, Part 2

It was a dark and stormy night in the Spring of 2005. We were still living in what we affectionately refer to now as The Crick. Our small town house was rattled nightly by the sound of our ill-reputed neighbors rolling what sounded like bowling balls down their stairs. In between sounds of backfiring motorcycles and rolling bowling balls, I struggled with a problem.

Since the early '80s, I had maintained a Phillies Wall. Either on a bulletin board in my 12th Street bedroom, on the back of a closet door or now in the first incarnation of The Phillies Room - otherwise known as the first floor of The Crick. The Phillies Wall faithfully and accurately reported the current Phillies roster seven days a week, twelve months a year using baseball cards of the current roster. If a roster move was made, the Wall was updated with the appropriate player's baseball card. The Wall never failed. The Wall was a constant. Even during the Dark Times of the early '00s, the Wall was updated.

Back to The Crick and the crux of my problem: I had little to no funds for acquiring new Phillies baseball cards at the time. I was hard pressed to update the Wall with recent cards of Placido Polanco, Kenny Lofton and the most vexing new member of the Phillies, who most likely would never be featured on a Phillies baseball card . . . To be continued.