Unbelievable. Unforgettable. Unreal. Indescribable. And now, completely undeniable. I didn’t know what to do with myself today. I couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t calm down. I couldn’t think about anything but how great yesterday was, and what a rollercoaster of emotion this whole thing has been. What a way to end such an incredible season. There were flashbacks to key moments this year; to recent disappointments; to Joe Carter; to watching a team for my whole life and just wondering what it would be like if they won it all. The feeling of loving this particular cast of characters, and knowing I’d feel devastated if they didn’t get what I truly felt like they deserved.

The 1993 Phillies were a colorful bunch, for sure. But this Phillies team was just as special, and the gift they gave me of watching my team in a World Series for the first time since I was 10 years old made me appreciate them even more. Chase Utley, a cornerstone of the team, a still seemingly unsung player with the best stats of any second baseman in baseball for the past few years. He made the team a force to be reckoned with by storming out of the gates with an MVP first-half performance. He is the very essence of a great all around player that can lead by example.

Ryan Howard can bring some mixed reactions from some people, but the fact still stands: even when he slumps, a pitcher must fear him. You never know when he will bust out of that slump with a home run binge that will make everyone else look like they belong in little league. For every defensive error, he provided a genuinely impressive play at first base. Don’t criticize how often he strikes out; recognize that he gets more RBIs in a year than most players can even dream of. Oh, and we share a birthday, so he must be cool.

Jimmy Rollins had an unusually mediocre year. But the fact is, the 2007 NL MVP is a born leader and part of the heart and soul of the Phillies. Pat “The Bat” Burrell may be gone soon, but I’m glad he was a part of this win. I don’t care about all the times he under performed, and I don’t care that he’s slow. He played a huge role in the Championship season.

What more can one say about Victorino? An amazing player with versatility and drive. Aaron who? Shane is our center fielder. Werth stepped up big time and filled in for a disappointing Jenkins (who had one hell of a big hit in Game 5). Feliz had some clutch hits (including the game winner for the Series) and was an obvious step up from Wes Helms. Ruiz showed me that he is one of the smartest and most patient batters on the team, despite his modest batting average. Coste has heart and can swing a bat. Bruntlett proved to be an indespensible utility man. Dobbs and Stairs (or Stairmaster as I call him) are clutch pinch hitters.

And how about that pitching staff? Cole the 24 year old ace, Myers the minor league comeback story of the year, old man Moyer and his bafflingly slow but well-placed pitches, Blanton and his World Series home run, Romero, Madson (bridge to Lidge), the whole rest of the bullpen, and let’s not forget Lights Out Lidge. How often do you get to see perfection?  Not very often.

This is a team that, when firing on all cylinders, is literally unstoppable. Most of these players are streaky, so the end result was very truly a team effort and a result of everyone’s contributions and Charlie Manuel’s superb managing (never really thought I’d ever say that).

And then there’s the city. The city of Philadelphia. The forgotten town that’s near New York. The birthplace of America. The home of some of the most passionate and interesting people in the country, who reflect the character and attitude of this very team. Starved for an opportunity to celebrate. Jaded by constant disappointment. Constantly haunted by feelings that everything is about to go downhill. I had ‘em right up to the last pitch. But they didn’t go downhill at all this time. Was it because William Penn is finally resting peacefully after his (small) statue was placed atop the Comcast building? Or was it just that we played good enough baseball this year, plain and simple?

Long waits have been a theme for this town. Long waits for a major Championship team. A long wait for the end of a sometimes-excruciatingly-long baseball season filled with so many ups and downs, hopes and doubts. And, in true “that would totally happen to us” Philadelphia fashion, a two day wait to even finish the final game of the World Series. Tuesday morning couldn’t have been worse for so many of us. Left to wonder what would happen while recovering from the emotional crash that followed a rain-suspended game. I was afraid I had lost the enthusiasm I had the night before because it came to such a screetching halt.

Those fears were unfounded, of course. I couldn’t have been more excited yesterday. I was shaking, scared shitless watching one of the most exciting games (er, half-games) of my entire life. Scratch that… the most exciting game of my life. I was in a Philly bar, surrounded by friends, friends-in-spirit, and even family. It erupted in joy; I always wanted to know what it would feel like if we won. I don’t have to wonder anymore. And I couldn’t be happier. Chugging champagne, not caring about the inevitable hangover that would follow. Driving home way too fast, blasting music (”Glory Days” by Bruce Springsteen appropriately graced the airwaves that night). Happily tearing my “tortured Philly fan” t-shirt in half (pictured below). Happily dropping way too much money for all the merch I can handle. This is something I have been waiting for my entire life. And you know what? It wasn’t the least bit disappointing.

I’m sure Philly was insane. In fact, I know it was; I saw photos and videos. It looked awesome. I got a taste of that when I was in Boston when the Red Sox won (and the Patriots, three damn times). But deep down my heart was not at all into those. My heart sure was in Philly last night and all of today. Of course there are a few bad seeds — I heard about the 76 people getting arrested and couldn’t help but wonder if they did that on purpose, such an appropriate number. But for the rest of you, that must have been a lot of fun. And going to those games must have been incredible, though I was lucky enough to get to an NLCS game between the Phils and the Dodgers here in LA.

I considered flying home for the parade, but tickets were way too expensive. In the end, all I can really say is this: Philly, I wish I could have been there to share this moment with you. But you can rest assured I am there in spirit, along with every Philly fan around the world. A part of us was completed this week. PHILLIES WORLD SERIES CHAMPS 2008!!!

The only championship that a Philly team in one of the four major sports has won while I was alive was when the 76ers won in 1983. Fittingly, basketball is the sport I care/know about the least out of any of them. With the Flyers’ recent big embarrassing failure against the Penguins, they’ve made it official: it’s been one hundred straight sports seasons without a trophy in the City of Brotherly Love. That’s a pretty staggering number.

I’ve seen each team get to the “big one” and choke. The Sixers’ loss to the Lakers in 2001. The Flyers getting swept by the Red Wings in 1997. The Eagles’ agonizing Super Bowl debacle against the Patriots in 2005. The Phillies’ heartbreaking meltdown against the Blue Jays in the ‘93 World Series (damn you Joe Carter/Mitch Williams).

Over the years there have been many happy moments for a Philadelphia sports fan, but we’re not interested in remembering them. No, we’re much more interested in wallowing in self-pity, depression, self-loathing, devastation, uh… Did I mention self-pity? Anyway, a fine reporter at Sports Illustrated put together this dandy list of the 100 shittiest moments in the past 100 loser-laden seasons of Philly sports. Browse through the list, and let my people mope in misery forever!!!

Yeah, that’s right. I said it. SportsCenter is a terrible show. I used to absolutely love it. In fact, that old theme song still takes me back to summertime as a kid, sleeping in and watching baseball highlights in the late morning before doing anything and everything I could think of for the rest of the day (likely playing home run derby in my friend Mak’s backyard, cranking tennis balls over a pile of firewood that made for one hell of an outfield wall).

But these days? The show is 40% flying graphics and 50% fluff/worthless analysis and commentary. It used to be a half hour show (an hour on mondays to cover the weekend), but a little while back they switched it to an hour format every day. Ostensibly, this was so they could fit in some more quality material and be able to include clips from all the games instead of just a few. But they’re not filling that extra half hour with any more real content.

Two days ago, I tuned in to check out highlights from the Phillies game. I subscribe to MLB audio and can listen to the radio broadcast of any major league game. But being on the West coast, I don’t get too much exposure to my beloved baseball team, and I like to catch all the video clips I can. That day, Philly hit four home runs in the game, and I thought I’d take a gander at the highlights. I sat and watched the full hour and got through all the talk about NCAA basketball (which I don’t care about) only to realize that I was not going to see any Phillies highlights. I had left the room occasionally, but only during commercial breaks, and only for a short time, since SC breaks tend to be brief. But somehow I missed the one thing I wanted to see. It had to have been on at some point, right?

No matter. The next day, the Phils beat the Mets for the 9th straight game and Chase Utley tied a league record by being beaned by a pitch three times (plus he got hit in the back with a bad throw during an attempted double play). Gee, I thought to myself, that’s pretty funny. I’d like to see the highlights, and hear what clever thing the SC anchors must have to say about it.

They showed the double play error, but nothing else. They barely mentioned that he had been hit by multiple pitches. Oh, and had I blinked, I might have missed the entire clip segment altogether. But can you blame them, really? They had to rush through all baseball highlights so they could devote 20 of 60 minutes to NCAA women’s basketball this time. To top it off, I saw a teaser for a later highlight between the Blue Jays and the A’s (neither team is one I care about, for the record). It said that the Jays played “home run derby” against the A’s. Gee, I thought again, I’d sure like to check out that clip! It came on later, and they started at the end of the game and didn’t show any Jays homers. They didn’t even mention how many homers they hit during the game! What the hell?

It’s true I’m not much of a basketball fan, but that doesn’t have anything to do with it. I am still happy to watch basketball highlights, anyway. But is it so much to ask to have a clip from a game that doesn’t end so fast that you didn’t even realize it started? I’m still registering their first witty comment before the next game highlight has begun, and this is from an hour-long show.

SportsCenter: you could be so much more. I used to love you. But now you’re far too flashy and ADD for your own good. I will not be going out of my way to watch you any time soon. I hope someday we can be friends again.

The last time I got to see my Phillies in the playoffs was when I was 10 years old. I lived in Boston when the Red Sox won the World Series in ‘04, and that was fun for sure. But it certainly left a lot to be desired, being surrounded by the joy and the triumph of an adopted home team. I was rooting for the Sox for sure, but this wasn’t the team I grew up watching. I hadn’t been to so many Red Sox games that I couldn’t even begin to count them. Quite the opposite in fact; I had been to exactly one Red Sox game at Fenway Park, and that was when the Phillies were in town.

The past few years have been unbearable for fans of the Phillies and the Eagles. I watched the birds go to four straight NFC Championship games, then finally take that next step to the Superbowl only to lose by 3 in a game they could have won. That season took so much out of me I could barely watch the next year, I was still worn out from putting so much energy into my team. The Phightin’ Phils didn’t fare much better. Two years ago they were eliminated on the final day of the season, last year on the second-to-last day. Even this year they brought it down to the last day, but FINALLY won the East for the first time since ‘93. I repeatedly played the video footage of the final out and the celebration afterwards, listening to longtime commentator Harry Kalas with a lump in my throat. It was a similar feeling to when I got choked up as Donovan McNabb held the NFC Championship trophy high above his head to a roaring crowd at Lincoln Financial Field with confetti streaming down.

The Phillies have a long way to go before they can get to the World Series, but baseball is the hardest sport to make it to the playoffs so it was a special moment all the same. I can’t even really describe how I felt on Sunday after it happened. There seems to be a general feeling among fans that just making the playoffs was all we needed. Even if they don’t go all the way, we’ll be happy with the season. That’s not to say I won’t be bummed with anything less than a world championship, of course. They lost the first game to the Rockies today, and my stomach gets tied in knots just thinking about the next game. Sunday morning I literally woke up on 3 separate occasions from nightmares that the Phillies were losing and the Mets were winning. I can’t help myself. There is a part of me in this team.

To the 2007 Philadelphia Phillies I say thank you for an exciting season. It was filled with ups and downs, frustration and happiness, but we finally made it. I drink this beer for you. Hell, better make that 5 or 6.