Phillies 7, Mets 5Game 109 - Friday Night, August 6th in Philadelphia
Our last night at the shore and vacation fatigue was setting in. I kind of remember watching this game . . . But mostly I remember my son Doug playing with his new Star Wars men on the floor in front of the TV during the game. We found a "Star Wars Man" store on the Ocean City boardwalk, and Doug, who had never seen that many Star Wars men before in one place, went slightly bonkers. Basically, this was a run-of-the-mill seashore souvenir shop with a store-front counter containing old Star Wars men and some random baseball cards. I had no choice but to ignore the baseball cards as we searched the dozens of wall pegs behind the counter for an "Obi-Wan when he was younger" and/or a much-coveted Biker Scout action figure. We found both.
All the way home (our rented beach house), after a solid few hours of boardwalk rides, Doug tightly clutched the bag holding his new treasures. Once we were home, we had a little time for a quick battle before his bedtime. So with bounty hunters attacking Jedi and with a new Biker Scout in the mix, the Phillies game on TV served as background noise. There's a major cosmic shift present in this narrative: I ignored baseball cards for sale and I all but ignored a Phillies game in order to help my son find the Star Wars men he wanted and then play Star Wars with him. He, along with my wife, and in time my infant second son, are the only three people on Earth with the ability to wield this baseball card and Phillies ignoring super power.
Here's what I do know about the game: New Phillie
Mike Sweeney singled and scored the first run of the Phils' 8th inning and he added another single later in the same inning to score the 6th and final run of the monster inning.
Joe Blanton pitched probably the best game of his season, tossing 7 innings of 2-run, 7-hit ball. The bullpen tandem of
Danys Baez and
J.C. Romero made the game closer than it needed to be, allowing 3 Mets' runs in the 9th before
Brad Lidge came on to record the final out for his 13th save. And Doug went to bed dreaming of Cloud City and Endor and brave Jedi rescuing princesses.
I very badly wanted to highlight this post with 2010 Chachi card for Mike Sweeney, but I'm striking out so far finding a picture of him with the Phillies.
News broke that the Phillies had acquired Mike Sweeney from the Mariners as we were enjoying dinner at Ike's Famous Crab Cakes on the Ocean City boardwalk. It was the first week of August, and the Phillies were in need of a temporary first baseman given Ryan Howard's bum ankle. Sweeney came through a few days after his acquisition, adding a few key hits in a big inning against the Mets.
In his 26 games with the Phils, Sweeney hit .231 with two home runs and eight RBIs. Although he was on the team's Postseason roster, he had just one at-bat during the play-offs, which resulted in a pinch-hit single against the Reds in NLDS Game 2. Prior to his 2010 Postseason appearance, Sweeney had gone 16 seasons and 1,454 games without appearing in the play-offs, landing him fourth on the active list of such players.
