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Game 118 - Saturday Night, August 12th in Philadelphia
Record - 65-53, 2nd Place, 11 games behind the Braves
One Sentence Summary: Taijuan Walker and Gregory Soto were hit hard in this 8-1 loss to the Twins, and the Phillies offense went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.
What It Means: A series win is still a possibility with Ranger Suarez on the mound for the Phillies this afternoon.
What Happened: On the field, after the first pitch was thrown, not much happened from the Phillies' perspective. Off the field, and prior to the game, several Wall of Famers returned to Philadelphia to induct three more members - former general managers John Quinn and Ruly Carpenter and the newly elected Hall of Famer Scott Rolen. It was a lackluster event, given Rolen wasn't able to attend and the election of two former executives to the Wall of Fame didn't exactly induce a strong emotional reaction. In the Hall of Fame Club, Doug and I braved the crowds and autograph seekers to once again load up on signatures for Doug's Quinn/Carpenter/Rolen Wall of Fame print. The key above shows who signed the newest treasure in his collection.
What It Means: A series win is still a possibility with Ranger Suarez on the mound for the Phillies this afternoon.
What Happened: On the field, after the first pitch was thrown, not much happened from the Phillies' perspective. Off the field, and prior to the game, several Wall of Famers returned to Philadelphia to induct three more members - former general managers John Quinn and Ruly Carpenter and the newly elected Hall of Famer Scott Rolen. It was a lackluster event, given Rolen wasn't able to attend and the election of two former executives to the Wall of Fame didn't exactly induce a strong emotional reaction. In the Hall of Fame Club, Doug and I braved the crowds and autograph seekers to once again load up on signatures for Doug's Quinn/Carpenter/Rolen Wall of Fame print. The key above shows who signed the newest treasure in his collection.
Featured Cards/Field Report: Fellow collector Rick and his wife were kind enough to save us a spot at the front of the club entrance line, and we quickly staked our territory outside the alumni suite in the Hall of Fame Club level. As has been the case in recent years, many of the returning players took their time and honored all autograph requests, sometimes signing several things for the same collector. Stand-outs included Tony Longmire, Kevin Gross, Steve Jeltz and my personal favorite player, Bob Dernier. Dernier was outside the suite the longest, signing everything, posing for pictures, talking with fans and genuinely seeming to enjoy himself. Runner-up to Dernier in terms of signing was probably Danny Jackson, who graciously signed everything handed to him and posed for several pictures letting fans model his 1993 National League Champions ring.
Old favorites Mickey Morandini, Dickie Noles, Charlie Manuel and Manny Trillo were there again too and the time these players spend patiently signing dozens of autographs should be appreciated. Doug's personal highlight was getting Jim Kaat to sign his print as Kaat snuck out a back door of the suite and walked down the hall, largely unrecognized.
Riding home, Doug and I recapped the night and discussed our plans for next year. He realizes he's reached the age where he's "aged-out" of the cute kid asking for autographs, and as fun as the night is, it's also a bit exhausting. As he prepares to look at colleges, and depending who the Wall of Fame inductee is next year, we may decide to take 2024 off. We're both looking forward to the Phillies breaking the seal on the 2008 team and starting to induct some of the players for those team into the Wall of Fame.
As I've done the last few years, I created a limited edition Chachi insert set from photos I took throughout the evening. My favorite four are featured below, and a second post with the rest of the set can be found here.
These ceremonies are held before the scheduled start time so fans can self-select whether they want to tailgate until game time or watch the ceremony. This year, though, because of a slight amount of rain, the tarp (unexepctedly) remained on the field until 5:40, which was the scheduled start of the Wall of Fame ceremony. I think Dan Baker only kicked off the ceremony at 6:10, 5 minutes past the schedules start time of the game, so the stands were fairly full of the 40,000+ that would ultimately be there. The crowd seemed to really enjoy the introduction of the WOFers. Then John Middleton gave about a 5-minute speech for Ruly Carpenter, and Mike Schmidt spoke for another 5 minutes about John Quinn (and then had to tell the crowd to stop booing after Rolen's name was announced!). Then Dan Baker told the crowd to watch the video screen for a video tribute to each, including Rolen--which lasted easily another 10-12 minutes. I'm sure 40,000 fans learned much more than they wanted or intended to learn about, as a friend put it to me, "two dead suits and a guy everyone here hates." And it was all because of the very slight rain that no one assumed would cause a delay, or else they would have waited outside and had a couple more beers!
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