Blue Jays 8, Phillies 5
Game 119 - Tuesday Night, August 18th in Philadelphia
Record - 46-73, 5th Place, 18 games behind the Mets
One Sentence Summary: In Chase Utley's final game with the Phillies, the bullpen coughed up the lead and the Phillies lost, 8-5.
What It Means: Rumors began swirling on Wednesday afternoon that Utley would soon be headed to the Dodgers. He led off and went 2 for 5 in this game on Tuesday night. Before his last at-bat, as soon as the opening notes of his walk-up song Kashmir came on, I turned to my wife and said, "I'm really going to miss that."
What Happened: Aaron Nola (5 innings, 3 runs) had an OK outing. Two home runs from Josh Donaldson, including a crushing three-run shot off Jeanmar Gomez in the sixth led to the Blue Jays win. Ben Revere returned to Philadelphia for the first time since his trade to Toronto, and my Ben was happy to cheer him on during each of his at-bats.
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| 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Glove Stories #GS-7 |
A few minutes later, a security guard came over and told us that the radio guys wanted to see us. Slightly stunned, we walked back to right underneath the radio booth where both broadcasters were hanging out their window waiting for us. "Who's your favorite broadcaster?" Franzke asked our oldest son Doug. "And don't you dare say T. Mac!" he threw in.
Doug sheepishly responded, "Well I like both of you guys," which of course was the right answer. Andersen dropped a baseball to our youngest son Ben and Franzke threw a ball to Doug. It made the night of both boys and made us even bigger fans of the best broadcast team in baseball.
My personal Phillies record dropped to 5-6 after this game.
Those guys are the best! What a way to make the day of two young Phillies fans. Your boys will be loyal to those guys forever.
ReplyDeleteYou should mail them that photo (or better yet, of the Chachi card)--it would look great as a dual-signed 8x10 on your kids' wall! Truly deserving of a Season Highlight card.
When I was about 22 or 23, my Vet ticket was randomly selected to make me the [INSERT ADVERTISER HERE] Lucky Fan of the Game and I got invited to the broadcast booth to get a picture with Harry Kalas. I was ushered into the booth and watched Harry, Whitey and Andy call the inning, and then at the end of it, Harry came over to say hi and the usher pulled out a Polaroid camera. Whitey was eating a bag of chips, and I asked if he would get on the photo too, so he did, holding his chips. It is a great photo, although I am looking a bit goofy on it realizing I am standing between my two favorite broadcasters. I said, "I've been listening to you guys for 15 years." Richie asked, "What, 15 of your 16 years?" It was a great experience that I will never forget, and neither will your kids forget theirs, I bet!
That's a great story, and I had a similar experience with both Harry and Whitey. When I got to visit them Tim McCarver was still in the booth for the Phils as well.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of printing two 8x10s of the photo for them both to sign.