Tonight the Phillies laid claim to a share of first place in the National League East for the first time all season. With three games to go in the regular season, the Phillies have a good chance to win either the East or the Wildcard and enter the postseason for the first time since 1993 (when they lost the World Series on a home run by Joe bleeping Carter in Toronto during my freshman year at college). Listening tonight on my XM Satellite radio, I was ecstatic in my living room, pumping my fists and dancing for joy at every Braves out and each Phillies run. Only three games remain in the regular season, and the Phillies have a share of first place. I can’t believe it. Can this be the year? Have our years of suffering, agony, and torture finally turned into glory? It is a great, great, great time to be a Phillies fan.
Unless . . .
Unless you’re an intern at a congregation that has a confirmation retreat this weekend at a camp where there is neither internet connectivity or cell phone signal. Yup. I’ll be away from my radio and computer and cell phone while the three most important games in the Phillies season – the three most important Phillies games in a generation – are played. I will be out of contact with the civilized – that is, the baseball – world during the fourteen-year high water mark of Phillies Phanaticism. Heck! My dad, who is on a small boat in the Adiatic Sea, will have more baseball news than I, who will be in a cabin with 7th & 8th grade boys in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
The t-shirt shown above is available from the guys at Drunken Bleachers. It reads, "No Cup, No Trophy, No Title, No Ring Since 1983." Philly sports fans haven’t had a national sports title since the Sixers won it all in 1983. If the Phillies get to the postseason this year, I’ll just have to read about it when I return home on Sunday afternoon. Given the Phillies woeful pitching and their propensity for nauseating come-from-ahead losses and dramatic come-from-behind wins, perhaps that’s for the best. I’m not sure I could handle such ups and downs on the youth retreat diet I’ll be consuming this weekend . . . (boatloads of M&Ms anyone?)
Let’s go Phillies!
The Lutheran Zephyr 
Beware the red hot Washington Nationals! They trampled the Mets and tore up Shea Stadium. They will not be overlooked. Sorry for your agony in the valley, but I know how it feels (having led Engaged Encounter weekends in CT during March Madness). May God bless your time with the young people, and may the best team win! Cheers.
Sorry you have to miss this great event. I know how much you love the Phillies. Have fun with the youth this weekend. I will definately keep you in my prayers!
Ministry requires many sacrifices, no?
Ah, 1983. I’m sure to a Cubs fan it doesn’t seem like all that long ago, but it was, alas, the last year the Baltimore Orioles won the World Series, and it does seem like oh so long ago to me. A very young Cal Ripken was the AL MVP. I was 14. Until that year, my Orioles had been good nearly every year of my life. Since then, not so much. I feel your pain.
But can’t you sneak your XM radio into the retreat?
The torture of it all. Good luck to the Phillies. It looks like the Brewers are all but mathmatically eliminated. It is great to see the Braves bounced out for once.
I believe this too be our year. I really do. I am hopefully optimistic as I dread the fact that Eaton/Moyer are pitching Sat/Sun.
Here’s to hoping God is a Phillies fan.