Phillies honor Werth by stranding 500 runners on base
The Phillies stranded a major league record 500 men on base against the Nationals on Tuesday as a part of a fitting tribute to their former teammate Jayson Werth.
“Jayson always loved a good stranded runner. That was kind of his ‘thing,’” said Shane Victorino, who pointed and smiled at Werth after striking out with the bases loaded in the seventh inning. “We could have easily put 10 or 20 runs on the board, but this was Jayson’s night.”
The Phillies will attempt to honor the passing of legendary broadcaster Harry Kalas, who died two years ago today, by singing “High Hopes” after beating the Nationals 50-0 Wednesday night.
September inducted into Phillies Wall of Fame
Ninth month of the year, September, was inducted into the Phillies Wall of Fame on Thursday, becoming the first month to accomplish the feat.
The month will join such Phillies greats as Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton and Harry Kalas on the Wall of Fame, but is the first inductee to be enshrined as an active member of the team.
“Plain and simple, the Phillies aren’t the Phillies without you, September,” Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins said during the ceremony. “It’s not just that you make us better players, but it’s also that you make everyone else in the league play like butt cheeks. We pretty much owe our careers to you, so from the whole team, we just wanna say ‘thanks, September.’ Don’t ever change.”
Following the ceremony, the Phillies announced the finalists for next year’s induction into the Wall of Fame which include Desi Relaford, Toby Borland, Kevin Sefcik and October.
Procrastinating Phils finally get around to clinching division
The Philadelphia Phillies clinched their third straight NL East title after putting it off for the past week by spending entirely too much time on Failblog and Hulu-ing those old episodes of It’s Always Sunny they missed.
“It was rough, man,” Ryan Howard said of the Phillies’ late-season procrastination. “As much as we wanted to secure our spot and get it over with, someone would send out an email about a funny video and by the time you start looking at all the related videos, you look up and it’s the ninth inning and you’re down by like 10. At that point, you just try again the next day, but then Chase [Utley] starts talking about how Journey is the greatest band of all time, which starts a three-hour-long debate and you end up in the same place as yesterday.”
The Phils finally pulled it together on Wednesday to down the Astros 10-3, though technically the team clinched the division a few minutes before the game ended due to Atlanta losing on an epic Matt Diaz baserunning error to end the game against the Marlins.
In a moving gesture to once again prove his commitment and eternal love for Brad Lidge, Charlie Manuel called on the team’s pseudo-closer to record the final out of the 10-3 route in a non-save situation. Lidge warmed up for about five minutes and threw one pitch to Lance Berkman, who grounded out to Ryan Howard at first base to end the game.
“Any other guy would have left me by now, but Charlie isn’t just any other guy,” Lidge said after the game. “We pledged our lives to one another when I signed here and I’m blessed to be able to have him right by my side no matter how badly I screw up. I’m definitely one of the lucky ones.”
The Phillies also paid a fitting tribute to the late Harry Kalas by embracing the HK sign in left field after the game. Harry is still very much a part of this team and I personally hope the Phillies are able to pay the greatest tribute to him by rolling down Broad Street one more time, in his honor. Go Phils!
Total 'Dick' praises Madden as better sports broadcaster than Harry the K
Pro Football Hall of Famer and foot fungus ointment pitch-man John Madden announced his retirement on Thursday after 30 years in the broadcasting booth.
NBC Sports chief Dick Eberhart has selected Chris Collinsworth to replace the man he refered to as “the absolute best sports broadcaster who ever lived.”
When pressed to confirm that Eberhart was actually referring to Madden and not Vin Scully, Howard Cosell, Harry Caray, Jon Miller, Jim McKay, Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Curt Gowdy or the late Harry Kalas, Eberhart responded with “…did I stutter?”
Area Philly fans have taken issue with Ebersol’s comments not only based on the absurdity that Madden would rank higher than any sports broadcaster in the long history of sports broadcasting, but because of the poor timing the imbecile had in making the statement days after the passing of Harry Kalas.
Hall of Fame human being and announcer Harry Kalas showed us how it's done
It’s very profound when you look back on an individual’s life and see just how many complete strangers can fondly recall how he’s touched them. It inspires you to live life the way Harry Kalas did when you see the joy he brought to people’s lives while he was here, and the love and admiration those that never even knew the man display in his absence.
Kalas was the Phillies. He represented the franchise for the past 40 years almost as much as the actual “P” logo itself, but the great thing about such a unique voice as HK’s is that it’s not going anywhere. No one that’s spent any time in front of a radio or TV when Harry K was on will ever be able to forget “Struck him ooooout!” or the great “Oooutta heeeere!”
There’s really no other way to describe the impact that Kalas had on our world other than to say that it was a better place while he was here. It is my personal goal for others to be able to say the same for me one day and I’m grateful to be able to share this planet with folks like Harry K that show us how it’s supposed to be done.
It obviously goes without saying, but he will be terribly missed.
