2012 World Series Preview - Phillies vs. Red Sox

1987 Classic #62, 2011 Topps Chrome X-Fractor #40,
2001 Topps #592 (No Gold Stamping) and 2009 Bowman Gold #75

The baseball season is over.  I'm still wrestling with that realization and it's going to take a little while for it to sink in.  When the season started, I honestly thought the Phillies would be meeting the Red Sox in the 2011 World Series, as (on paper) those two teams were the best teams in either league.  Obviously, it didn't work out that way.

I spent most of the day yesterday in a funk.  There's a lot on my mind these days and the unceremonious, albeit deserving elimination of the Phillies from the play-offs certainly isn't helping my overall mood.

As has been the case in the past, receiving a surprise package of baseball cards in the mail helped snapped me out of it.  (My wonderful wife and my two awesome sons get most of the credit for cheering me up, but getting Phillies cards in the mail certainly helps out too.)

The cards were from from Ron from Section 36.  As a Sox fan, Ron started his off-season of angst a little sooner than I did.  He enclosed a note with the package that said, "I always assumed that when the Red Sox met the Phillies in the World Series this year we'd set up a wager of some sort.  Since the Sox didn't exactly keep up their end, I'm sending along your 'winnings.'  Hopefully, you can find a use for at least some of these."

Thanks Ron.  There's always next year.  In the meantime, since the Phillies didn't exactly keep up their end of the bargain either, I guess I'll round up your "winnings" as well.  Let's talk about that wager next October.