Thursday, October 31, 2013

Phillies in the Postseaon - Part Three

2009 Upper Deck #966, 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter #286, 1981 Donruss #295 and 1980 Topps #178
Last night, Shane Victorino joined an exclusive Phillies-related club that now only includes three players:

1.  Lonnie Smith - 1980 Phillies, 1982 Cardinals and 1985 Royals
2.  Pat Burrell - 2008 Phillies and 2010 Giants
3.  Shane Victorino - 2008 Phillies and 2013 Red Sox

As far as I can tell, and please correct me if I'm wrong, these are the only three players to win their first World Series ring with the Phillies and then go on to win a second (or third) World Series ring elsewhere.  Victorino has always been a Phillies Room favorite, and I was happy to see him and his Red Sox teammates celebrate last night after their defeat of the St. Louis Cardinals.  I can't imagine what the scene most have looked like from Section 36.

St. Louis Cardinals - N.L. Central Champions - Lost World Series to the Red Sox, 4-2
The Cardinals had no one in uniform who had previously been associated with the Phillies.  Which is probably one of the reasons they lost.

Boston Red Sox - A.L. East Champions - 2013 World Champions
Victorino (2005-2012) was a huge part of Boston's winning season.  His overall numbers weren't impressive (.216 batting average in 14 games) but his 11 hits led to 12 RBIs.  Despite missing two games of the World Series with lower back issues, Victorino will forever be remembered for his three-run, Game 6 triple that got the Red Sox on the board in the clinching game.  He also came up huge against the Tigers in Game 6 of the A.L.C.S. with his second career grand slam.

Sadly, John McDonald (2013) was left off the Sox postseason roster, but he'll still earn a ring.

Finally, I'd be remiss for not at least acknowledging the retirement of long-time announcer and former Phillie, Tim McCarver.  My Pop-Pop probably forever tainted me against McCarver, but I do respect the man for his longevity and his love of the game.

Memory Lane
Phillies in the Postseason - Part One
Phillies in the Postseason - Part Two
Doug's First Blog Post - Go Sox!

7 comments:

Section 36 said...

For someone who really had a pretty poor postseason, Victorino sure knew how to make it count!

And the scene looked pretty fantastic from Section 36!

Jim said...

Say . . . any interest in taking Papelbon back for '14?

Anonymous said...

I think I must be the one person left who doesn't have a thing against Tim McCarver.

Well, other than the McCarver family...

Steve F. said...

Tim's "World Series Memories" segment at the very end of the broadcast (after the celebration even) was fun to watch, showing both games he played in and also the Series he broadcast. One this I didn't like was when he said something like, "In my first year in the booth, 1985...". He was with the Phils 5 years earlier, and with the Mets starting in 1983. C'mon, Tim. The national stage isn't where your broadcast career started.

Jim said...

I caught that too, and it was strange that he glossed over his earlier broadcast years.

One other thing . . . I don't know how the Red Sox fans felt about it, but had it been 2008 I wouldn't have wanted my team's World Series victory to have been closed out with a McCarver retrospective. Of course, I probably would have just switched over to live coverage over on Comcast, but still . . .

Section 36 said...

I still chuckle over how many people wanted the Sox to get Pap at the deadline. Koji only ended up being the ALCS MVP.

Thankfully I was spared the McCarver career highlights, since I was at Fenway for the game (the second best part of being there). After FOX decided to talk about ARod for the entire ninth inning of game 4 in 2007, I wouldn't have wanted FOX pushing themselves into another Red Sox championship. Especially McCarver.

Jim from Downingtown said...

The only thing I would like to hear McCarver talk about is why the Phillies traded him to the Expos in mid-1972 for career-stiff John Bateman. McCarver was still a good catcher at that point.