MaineDolFan
Global Moderator
Uber Member
Posts: 11671
|
 |
« on: October 29, 2008, 10:51:05 pm » |
|
As the 2008 season comes to a close and the celebration rages on within the park in Philadelphia, let's take a quick look back on a fantastic season of baseball. Shall we?
From the first pitch of the season at Yankee Stadium, to the All Star Game, to the final out, all of baseball bids a fond farewell to the "House that Ruth Built." May she rest in peace.
For Mike Mussina, dead and buried by his critics, winning 20 games for the first time in his career - ever - in the twilight of that storied career.
For Josh Howard, a man among boys. He's faced demons most will never know and came out of it the league's RBI leader.
For Jon Lester. From prospect to promising rookie to cancer patient to cancer survivor to no hit pitcher. Hope Springs Eternal indeed.
For a group of young men in the bottom part of a state that bakes in the sun in the summer, those men of the lowest payroll team in the league, showing the Braves, Mets and Phillies that they can run with the Big Dogs. The Marlins gave people reason to cheer. Hopefully those people will begin to notice soon.
For the team that gave Southern California reason to cheer all season long - and the best record in the league - the Anaheim Angels. A gritty crew that couldn't quite get over the hump.
A chin up to the fans of the North Side that thought, and prayed, that this was their year. There is, gratefully, always next year.
To a team in the South Side that no one, and I mean no one, picked to finish above third, making a stand and winning their division.
For teams that learned the hard way that chemistry is not overrated and sometimes you can't buy your way to the top. Maybe Seattle and Detroit will find a winning formula some other way.
For the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that stuck it out and almost made late season magic behind a skipper that ain't just any ordinary Joe.
For the defending World Series Champion Boston Red Sox that couldn't quite climb that mountain one more time, but gave a new sell out record's worth of fans in Boston reason to 'Keep the Faith.'
For BJ Upton, Carlos Pena, Scott Kazmir and the head bashing, 97 game winning, more come from behind victory, win with defense, win with offense, win any freaking way possible Tampa Bay Rays: Welcome to the Big Boys Club. Don't you dare hang your heads.
For the 2008 World Series Champions - the Philadelphia Phillies. The long wait is over. Congratulations.
To every pitch, every swing of the bat, every cheer, every home run, every out of the 2008 Major League Baseball season:
Thank you.
Personally I do live for this. Three months, two weeks and five days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training.
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings. And then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops...and summer is gone."
-A Bartlett Giamatti "The Green Fields of the Mind"
|
Author