WORLD F'ING CHAMPIONS!

Not the most original title for a post, but it fit the mood that Friday...
Where to begin...How about Wednesday night watching the conclusion of the suspended game 5?  After being pissed for two days following Bud Selig's inept management of a potential World Series-clinching game, I watched a compressed version of a game.  It was intense, and made what is normally a very dramatic playoff game that much more so.  Every pitch, hit, inning, out seemed magnified because they only had to play 3 innings to finish it.  Not more than 2 minutes after Brad Lidge was gang-tackled at the mound, Ma calls to get my reaction, which was pretty much shock.  We talk for a little and she hands the phone to Pa because she was going to bed.  We both watched some of the post-game festivities (I think they may have shown the crazies coming out in droves on Broad St.) and took it all in.

Next day, after I sent an email to see if anyone was thinking of going to the parade, one of my co-workers who has a season ticket package mentioned that free tickets to the Bank are available first come-first serve to season ticket holders (he got his, and tried to get extras when they went up for grabs at 3PM to the general public, but didn't get any more).  He mentioned to one of my bosses that he probably wouldn't be in the next day and I said I might not be either.  Fortunately, one of my Birds compadres is also a Fightin's ticket holder, but couldn't go.  Three of us said that we're going and after a flurry of emails and phone calls later and it turns out that we have 4 tickets at the Bank, right field line, 4 rows from the field.

Now the punchline - we find out later that 2 of the Bank tickets have been promised to others, but we also have 2 tickets to the Club level at the Linc, so somebody's going to be the odd man out.  "We'll sort it out on Friday" was the decision.

Friday morning.  I go in to work to print out my ticket (all sent through email so there were multiple copies floating around) and I get a call around 9:45:  "I just got a call from Rob [one of the parade-goers], he's on his way down there now and there are a LOT of people down near the stadium already.  I'm going to roll the dice and drive in."  The city the night before had urged people to take public transportation and our tentative plan was to meet where we do for Birds games, on Penrose Ave. off of the Schuylkill exit (free street parking about 1 1/2 miles from the stadium complex).  I had emailed the rest and said I wasn't sure if I was going to drive in and park at "the spot" or take SEPTA.  We agreed we were going to leave ASAP, so I checked the traffic report:  "Regional rail lines are reporting delays of up to an hour".  Guess I'm driving down...(best decision of the day, by the way)

After running into virtually no traffic whatsoever I pulled into a spot to park minutes before the ones nearby filled up with others who were suspicious that SEPTA could handle the passenger load.  It was an hour and a half before the show would start at 20th & Market, so we crossed the street to the Penrose Diner for breakfast.

Walking down Packer Ave. towards Broad, we see a bunch of kids scurry under the 76E overpass carrying 12 packs in the open.  Some cops pulled up, nailed one kid and the rest scattered through the back streets of South Philly.  Mind you, once we got to Broad St., the law about carrying open alcoholic beverages pretty much was ignored, but I think the cops had to be less tolerant of the under-age imbibers.

It's strange to think of it now, but on the walk down to Broad St. it didn't seem like there were any more people there than what you'd see for a Birds game.  We stopped in at Chickie & Pete's with the agreement that if it was mobbed, we would just continue walking down.  There were a lot of people out front, but inside it wasn't anything out of the ordinary.  A beer later, we left for the largest parade I've ever seen.

Crossing Broad St. at Packer Ave., it was obvious that this was going to be huge.  Thousands of people on both sides of the street and in the median strip.  People were throwing footballs around, barbequeing, drinking (of course) and getting geeked-up for the parade which had already started 4 miles north to reach there.  Oh, and it was Halloween, so there was an added layer of madness to the scene, with a lot of people dressed more weirdly than usual (later on, we had the misfortune to see a really fat guy in a dress, didn't need to see that).  I pointed out the line for the porta-potties and my one friend said, "Why the hell are there guys in line?!"  After I said there really wasn't a lot of bushes or trees to pee in private, he said, "Who's going to care?!"  It was a valid point.

After we got to what would be the end of the parade route, we doubled back to just walk around and check out the sights.  One was a guy dressed in a Santa suit supposedly collecting for a charity (most likely, himself).  I threw out a comment like, "Get your snowballs ready" to someone behind me, but was not proud of evoking the cliched and ancient Philadelphia fan stereotype.  I got a laugh or two; nobody was going to get offended or pissed at that on a day like that.

We finally stopped somewhere near the 3rd base entrance to the Bank and had to make a decision - who was going to miss the ceremony at the Bank.  We decided that we would try to trade the 2 Linc tickets for a Bank ticket, but everyone we approached was either doing the same thing or just laughed at us.  Not really a surprise, but it was worth trying.  My one friend manned-up and said he would go to the Linc, so I respectfully agreed (I will thank him Sunday night at the Giants game for the classy move).  He was at the Monday night sham of a game, but it was very big of him to do that considering the moment.

At the Bank:  For some odd reason, there were 3 sections that were closed in the 2nd level along the left field line (seems like a waste of space considering the amount of people at the parade).  Also, shortly before the parade arrived, there were 2 people on the roof in right field.  They quickly disappeared, so I thought they were just goofy fans.  However, there were a couple of people on the left field roof as well.  I mentioned this to my co-worker on Monday who was there and he said there were people on the roof throughout the playoffs and they were probably security.

Lots of kiddies were at the stadium, which was a little surprising considering it was Halloween and the enormity of the event would disrupt normal activities for the day, but given the rarity of it all, I think most if not all of these parents realized that Halloween occurs every year; Phils winning a WS does not. Of course my neurotic companion was checking his watch every 15 minutes or so, worrying that he would miss his son's 1st trick-or-treating. If it was so important, why the hell did you come down to a parade that anyone with even a passing interest in sports in this town knows will be the biggest thing in 25 years?! Ehh, I've had to hold his hand for years at Birds games when the going got rough, why should a championship parade be any different?

Speaking of kiddies at the Bank, there were a lot of parents letting their kids either sit on the fence separating the stands from the field or walk the top of the fence. I thought it was great, but was wondering when one of them would fall on the field. As it turned out, several of them were leaning against a gate to the field and spilled onto the field. No harm done, but the grounds crew couldn't lock the gate shut, so a cop on the field (there were cops stationed every 15 ft. or so along the stands) handcuffed the gate shut. I remarked to my compadre, "He might need those later...", but the general mood of the crowd wasn't violent. A woman asked one cop if he would take a photo of her kids on the fence. He obliged, and then some of his fellow officers grouped together on the field in a mock, "Now take our picture, too," way. Everything was very light-hearted, considering that the cops were there for riot-control...OK, that's a bit dramatic, they were there for security. The cops on the street had riot-control duty.

There were some women sitting next to us in the seats, I assumed, that were the ones that through miscommunication had the tickets that we thought were promised to us. I broached the subject and asked if they knew my friend who had hooked us up. They didn't, so I knew there was something amiss. I talked a little more with them and found out that they were teachers from Allentown with season tickets. I mentioned that one of our crew who declined in attending was a high school teacher who was strongly warned to not take the day off and they replied, "Oh, there are a lot of no-shows at our school today." Still trying to find the source of their tickets, I told them that the four seats we were in, including theirs, were obtained by a friend of ours whom it became apparent that they didn't know. With the cat out of the bag, the neurotic one tried calling our other buddy at the Linc, because he still had a ticket to the seat, although I kept telling him, if these other people got in, his ticket would be voided. After some conspiracy-theory nonsense as to why the Phillies would issue duplicate tickets, the rightful ticket owners show up. Tickets are checked, and lo and behold, the women sitting next to us were in the wrong seats. Ah, that explains it...

The Phils Arrive at the Linc:
Right before this happened, we gathered from the TV coverage on the big screen that the parade was near, so that there would be a great view from the upper deck of the Bank, so we raced up to see the end of the parade. I realized that the players had all departed the parade vehicles when we saw that Pat Burrell was not on the beer-wagon that he had been on since the start of the parade. Also noticed an SUV pulling into the Bank with flashing lights, probably a police vehicle with the team on board. Race back down to our seats, only to be teased with several false starts of "Make some noise!" from the big screen, anticipating the start of the show. That was annoying and insulting as hell, did they really think that people who have waited for this, in a lot of cases since they've been alive, need to be told when to stand up and cheer?! And so the show starts...

The Phils Arrive at the Bank:
The word in the crowd is that the Phils will enter via the right field gates and be driven in convertibles to parade around the field. A guy in front of me jokes to his friend, "Did you bring your tele-photo lens?" since, I'll repeat again, we are in the 4th row from the field. As it turned out, that's exactly the way it happened. Another cruel twist of fate: entering from right field, the caravan proceeded towards the right along the outfield and ended when the players were dropped off at home plate, leaving us in right field to witness the whole thing from afar. We had seen the procession in the Linc where the players there had done an entire lap of the field and it seemed as though despite the great seats we had that we were going to be left out. Well we had great close-up views of empty (except for the drivers) convertibles driving past us back to the right field gates and it seemed like the general consensus in the section we were in was, "We didn't really get to see the parade so that we could see this up close, these are the best seats we've ever had, and NOW WE WOULD HAVE A BETTER VIEW WATCHING ON TV AT HOME!" It all worked out it the end, so it was all good.

Memorable moments:
Cole Hamels tripping on his way up the stage
Charlie Manuel's awful Rocky impression - makes Pa's look good
The now legendary pronouncement from Chase Utley:
"World Champions...World Fucking Champions!!" Despite the backlash it created ("How could he say that with so many children present?"), as far as I could see, people were cracking up laughing (even the ones with the now-corrupted children). You could argue that it was not an appropriate comment, but I disagree. It has been far too long for this city to celebrate like that and that statement summed up what I think a lot of people had said the previous Wednesday or were thinking since then - ONE OF THESE FRICKIN' TEAMS FINALLY WON IT ALL!! If that is the venue that one of your children first hears the "F" word, I would let it slide. If you want to rationalize it, tell them, "Yes, he said a bad word in a moment of happiness. When you win a World Series, you can say it too."

Denouement:
Jimmy Rollins had a tough act to follow, and he said as much, before he poked at the Mets again. I hope it doesn't wind up biting him in the ass one of these days. A couple of speeches later and the team did a final victory lap, thankfully passing by the right field line so we could finally not feel like bystanders to the whole glorious event. Walking back to our cars, we weren't sure if we should take a detour from Broad St., considering the amount of people that had been there that day. We didn't, and it was like walking back from Woodstock - broken glass and trash everywhere. Amusingly, it was announced on the loudspeaker at the Bank that anyone who had a ticket for the Bank/Linc extravaganza could obtain a $10 ticket for the Sixers game that night. I think the reasoning was, "If you're going to be around the stadium complex, you're not going to be able to leave for a while so why not take in a Sixers game?" This premise turned out to be false for those of us who drove down to South Philly - not so much for the suckers who took SEPTA. It did take a while to drive from our "the spot" down to the Platt Bridge (1/4 mile maybe), but once I made the right onto 76, it was smooth sailing home.

This has taken me 2 weeks to write, as I've had other things going on, but I wanted to document this experience because while being alive for the other parades, I haven't been to one, for various reasons (too young [Flyers], lived in Seaville - too far away [Phils/Sixers]) and who knows when the next one will occur?