Saturday, June 12, 2010

1985 Topps #39 Johnny Wockenfuss

Red Sox 10, Phillies 2
Game 60 - Saturday Afternoon, June 12th in Boston

Maybe it was the smoke from the grill as I cooked our dinner. Maybe I was dehydrated from the 3+ hour lawn mowing marathon from earlier in the day. Whatever the reason, I had a vision while listening to the Phillies absolutely embarrass themselves in Boston this afternoon. My vision flash forwarded to the end of September, and the Phils had just wrapped up their fourth straight division title. What follows below is my blog post for September 26, 2010. And inexplicably, in the future, I've been issued a press pass and I'm interviewing Phillie personnel as part of my game summary posts. I know. I couldn't believe it either.

September 26 - The Phillies did it again! Shutting out the Mets in front of a sold-out Sunday crowd, the team clinched their fourth straight pennant. Most of the talk following a low-key on-field celebration centered around how the team had managed to turn things around after a rough stretch in May and June. "We just got tired of losing, you know?" commented Jayson Werth. "I don't remember when it all clicked, but I think it was after that awful series in Boston back in June. Jamie and Joe got lit up, nobody was hitting and I couldn't figure out if shaving my beard again would somehow reverse our fortune."

Ryan Howard echoed that sentiment. "Look, I'm making like $40 gazillion this year and I realized after the Boston series I had to start picking it up. We just came together as a team after a few horrible losses and we started playing again like we knew we could."

Manager Charlie Manuel, who kept his cool throughout the June swoon couldn't be happier with how his team responded to adversity. "I mean, what the hell?" the manager sagely opined. "That's baseball. Look, these guys can hit and I knew they were too good a team to be in a mix-up for too much longer. I mean, these guys can hit. That's baseball."

"I think what really flipped the switch was the day you featured that Johnny Wockenfuss baseball card in your blog." After I had spoken to most of the team, an emotional Chase Utley sought me out in the champagne drenched clubhouse. "We were collectively ashamed the only baseball card you could bring yourself to post after our second loss in Boston was a '85 Topps Wock card," Utley continued. "That's when we knew we needed to pull it together and get back to winning."

And the vision ended. It's a little eerie, isn't it?

2 comments:

night owl said...

3-plus hours to mow? I don't want your lawn.

Come on, Phillies! Snap out of it!

Section 36 said...

I don't know the Braves. But, seeing the Phils for five games, it looks like they just have too much talent not to be in it at the end. Much like I've been saying about the Red Sox all season.