It took me 2 days to even start writing up this post and probably 3 days to finish it. I still haven’t come down from my cloud enough to really express all of the thoughts that have gone through my mind in the last few days. I mean so much stuff has happened from the victory to the celebration to the TV appearances and the parade I never thought would happen. But it all happened. It was all real. And I don’t need to wake up. I have one final picture of a victory pile to splash on this page. The World Series Victory Pile.

A month ago on September 27th, the Phils clinched the NL East and Matt said to me, “Only 11 more”. It sounded so crazy at the time. I mean the Phils had just climbed out of a 3 game hole to take the division and this team did feel special, but c’mon, it’s the Phillies… from Philadelphia. But they did it.

They played amazing down the stretch, 24 for 30 to end the year including 11 and 3 in the playoffs. The games were almost always nail biters but only losing once per series kept it semi comfortable. Game 1 they jumped on top and game 2, well fortunately I was flying to Philadelphia that night and missed the entire thing. But game 3 was crazy with hours of rain delay to start the game, then the game coming down to a walk off 30 foot crappy base hit from Ruiz that scored Bruntlett in the wee hours of the morning. Then game 4, the Phils unleashed the beast. Howard hit a couple dingers, Blanton pitched the best game of his career and even hit a monster shot himself. Just unbelievable. It was all so unbelievable that everyone cashed in on all the fun. The long weekend I was home witnessed 2 Flyers victories, a Penn State victory and an Eagles victory. 6-0 for the trip.

Everything was unbelievable until some supernatural forces completely destroyed all of our hopes in the 3 day game 5. I mean of course everything was going right so something had to completely go wrong, turn the series around and give it to the Rays. That seemed inevitable seeing as how Joe Buck and Tim McCarver sucked so bad, I’ll hate them forever and their complete and utter bias was simply trying to will the Rays to victory. I hate them, I hate them, I hate them. McCarver, did you forget you spent many years in Philadelphia not only playing but getting your start as a broadcaster? You should be ashamed. Dealing with those 2 every night was complete torture. I could spend forever talking about how much I hate them.

But it’s all over now. I’ve gotten to watch the last baseball game of the season and see the Phillies win it. I’ve celebrated in a way I’ve never been able to before. Just the thought of popping open champagne after game 4 was making me ecstatic and when we finally did drink champagne 3 days later it was the most delicious champagne ever created.

You know, waiting an entire lifetime for a championship was extremely, unnecessarily, painful however I think it definitely made this victory all that much more incredible. Year after year you see so many people eating up that steak stuff but you can’t have any part of it. Well you know what? Steak is delicious and really appreciating the steak makes it that much better. Right now, Boston and New York don’t have anything on me. I have the shirt to prove it.

I’m currently watching: The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XIX