Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel (sort of)

After a full day and change of anxiety, nerves, Selig-directed anger, and emotional blood-letting, it's on. I'm nowhere near the fever pitch of Monday night, but that'll change in the next hour. The thing that worries me the most - this is a sprint. The team that scores first in all likelyhood is going to win; since the Phils have an extra AB, they certainly have the edge there, but anything can happen in the cold at the Bank. If they start out slow - and these Phils can certainly start slowly before all those late-inning heroics - they don't have the time to make up runs over 9 innings tonight.

Soooo.... Same shorts and shirts from Monday night, same hat, sandels, and yes, even boxers. It's been 25 years... taking NO CHANCES here. The wife needs to get her butt home soon, so we can get there. And DAMN YOU BARACK OBAMA for pushing this back even further. Philly can't take this. My liver can't take this. *I* can't take this. Go Phils.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Why, God, Why?

If this doesn't cause you to at least pause and question the Almighty's apparent disdain for the sports fans of Philadelphia, then you have much stronger faith than I do. 10 outs away with a 1 run lead and Hamels cruising, and the Big Man decides to ratchet up the miserable weather. He even opened the door for Satan's Lapdog (aka Bud Selig) to decide to wildly interpret the set of rules governing baseball, and not call the game. Yes, winning the World Series like that would have been anticlimatic... still, I don't quite believe things have turned out like they did. This is agonizing. C'mon, God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, throw us a bone here. 25 years is long enough...

(P.S. While you're at it God, do something vile to that a-hole who stole the Sirius radio out of my Jeep last night.)

Monday, October 27, 2008

The Final Hour


I have a $100 ticket to Game 6 sitting in Tampa with my brother in law Matt that I hope I never see (the ticket, not Matt). I had a ridiculously difficult time concentrating today at work, the day dragged on forever. I just spent 20 minutes trying to pick out what to wear to a bar on a Monday night (dark camo shorts, Howard jersey over "Man or Machine" shirt of Krukker, blue Phils hat, and my Croc flip flops). I've got "The Rocky Story" blaring, and I've been randomly shouting at the TV every time they show something about the World Series. Every time I think about how tonight might go - check that, SHOULD go - I get chills. To all the Philly/Jersey guys, I wish I was there with you to enjoy this, but I'll do my best to bring a little bit of Broad St. to A1A. Come on guys - 27 more outs until you carve out your place in the annals of Philadelphia and the hearts of every sports fan from the Delaware Valley. Like Fred Shero said, "Win today, and we'll walk together forever".

LET'S GO PHILS!!!!
(photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/pompomflipflop/)

Sunday, October 26, 2008

27 outs

What a weekend. I'm pretty much a permanent resident of the Parrot at this point, with Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday nights all being spent there. Jen and I did curtail it early tonight (left after 6), mostly because last night was soooo late there - of course, it was our 6th month anniversary too, so we left early for a romantic dinner (OK, early being 10pm and dinner being Primanti Bros while watching the end of the game at home). Combine the HUGE PSU win and a late-starting rain delayed World Series game, and it ended up being 3:30 before the cab finally dropped us off at home. The place was PACKED, with the PSU and Phillies games on every other TV and the PSU audio inside, and Phils outside. Needless to say it got a little crazy - OK got a lot crazy. Shots flowed, high 5's everywhere whenever something good happened (Devlin's TD, the game-ending INT, all of Ruiz's heroics...)

And now, we have less than 24 hours to wait for what could be the biggest moment in Philly sports history in the last 25 more years. Tomorrow night is going to be ridiculous. 27 more outs... 27 outs and it's all over. 27 outs...

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Game 1

It wasn't the prettiest win, but that's OK. It was a win. A World Series win. We'll take it. Three batters in, Chase gave us a lead. Cole rode it the rest of the way. It wasn't perfectly pretty, but it's a W. A great night at the Parrot. Three more...

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Day is Upon Us

First pitch to J-Roll in 2 hours. I’m beyond amped for this game; it’s like pre-game at Gesling Stadium, only on a scale about 1,000,000 times more magnified (actually, a million might not be enough). Departing for the Parrot in 35 min; unfortunately my $100 tickets to the game fell through, although Barnebie’s cousin tried his best to hook me up. According to two different people at the Trop, tickets are going for face value or below. Ridiculous for Game 1, Tampa doesn’t deserve this. Still trying to decide if i can get out of work in time tomorrow to get there for game 2. Got my NLCS shirts courtesy of Dad and Jay ready to go, even sporting powder blue boxers to channel my inner Bob Walk. This is it…

LET'S GO PHILLIES!!!!

P.S. Joe Buck is a complete jerkoff - I hope he gets hit by a bus... no, this bus...




P.P.S. 1-0 good guys

Thursday, October 16, 2008

And We're In!!!!!


Phillies 5. Dodgers 1. 2008 National League Champions.

Another dominant performance by their 24 year old stud ace. Another game where they won as a team. Another great defensive performance (Chase and Shane especially). No idea how I'm expected to go to bed tonight (unlike my wife, who slept through the *ENTIRE* game). You would have thought there was something else on TV tonight that was more important than Game 5.

Screw the Dodgers and their sushi-eating fans. Tickets were selling in the lower level at their stadium were on stubhub for less than face value today. Losers. Go kill yourselves with $18 Red Bull Martinis in your smoggy atmosphere. And while we're venting, I'm already sick of seeing the goddamn Joe Carter home run, so enough already Fox and ESPN. Seriously.

The next two weeks are going to be fun. If you can't get on board with a team like this, then you don't appreciate what team sports is all about. (or you're a New York fan) This can only get better if Tampa closes it out and I'm a drive (a long drive, but a drive) away from 4 games. I sense a mid-week flu coming on. The biggest thing I noticed - the on-field celebration was not too crazy. These guys mean business. They want more. Four more.

And we want it too. See you next week in St. Pete.

Monday, October 13, 2008

If You Think I Look Bad, You Ought to See How I Feel


A trip to Bimini sounds soooooo nice. Fred eased down the throttle as we approached the small and westernmost of the Bahamas, I couldn't help but think that that it's pretty amazing to live 50 miles/90 minutes from the northwest corner of the islands of the Caribbean. The small twinkling lights came into focus, and as the island's contour came into focus under a bright 3/4 moon, the smell of a beach firepit mixed with the salty sea air personified everything a Buffett ballad is supposed to represent. We docked up right behind the condo Fred got - our place was pretty sweet, Bimini Sands, on South Bimini, with a balcony overlooking the beach and sunset and a boat dock right out the back door and across the path.

Turns out that intoxicating arrival may have felt so good because it *was* as good as I felt all weekend. Goombay smashes on the ride over definitely got the ball rolling, and Crazy 8's Island Style put me over the edge. After traveling cross country twice for work already this month and landing from Vegas at midnight the night before, my body did not adjust well to an overabundance of rum. So I spent most of Saturday (and a good deal of Sunday) under the weather. My travel companions - Jen, Fred & Doreen, and Fred's friend's Justin and Maura - gave me the requisite amount of shit for being a wreck on Saturday morning; some redemption was had when I had a fever that was as high as 102 and lasted until Monday night. (see? I wasn't just a wuss all weekend) And despite battling fevers and Irish flus, I did all the fun stuff both Saturday and Sunday:
  • skin diving for lobster (can only snorkel in the Bahamas, so while Fred & Co. got 8 keepers, the best I did was snag a toddler of a bug that they threw back)
  • Snorkeling wrecks - an old barge, some reefs, and an upside-down Curtiss C-46 airplane that was pretty damn cool
  • Fish - luckily we caught enough lobster to survive because fishing didn't go so well
So in hindsight, Bimini is a great place, just don't try and squeeze in all your fun on Friday night. The pictures do a better job showing the weekend then I can do typing it up, so without further ado...

Our Pics (with a broken camera none the less):
http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=tsharpe2&P=&AID=5582517&T=1
Doreen's Pics:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=11kbvjee.46yazg4m&x=0&y=-ehngom&localeid=en_US

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

NLCS Gambling



From ESPN.com's Jayson Stark: The Marlins have been around for 16 seasons. They've won six postseason series. The Phillies have been in existence for slightly longer than that -- like 110 years longer. But they've won only five postseason series. In the history of the franchise.

So this is what it comes down to for us Phillies fans, and the generations of fans before us - my wife has been "rooting" for her Marlins for half her life, and she's already seen more wins then me and the three Thomas Sharpes that came before me.


Time to hit the blackjack tables, and the sports book. How to bet (*if* to bet) the NLCS is driving me crazy. Part of me thinks push all in on the Phils, which just means I don't know the concept of "all your eggs in one basket". Part of me thinks to bet on the Dodgers, which would soften any blow or lose me some money, and I'd feel like a douche. So maybe (probably) the best move is to avoid the sports book altogether. Regardless, after one night of sleeping, and another of stuffing myself at one of the best steak places I've ever eaten at, it's time to hit the casino for a bit and get us some money for Bimini.

UPDATE: Planet Hollywood sucks. There's only one redeeming thing about the gaming at this place. The only decent game I could find here was a $10 single deck blackjack game, which on the surface seems pretty good except for 6-5 payouts for a Cannon and a face card. It took me less than 15 minutes to fork over my 80% loss limit (including a $25 match play that got sucked up by this Asian's blackjack) and walk meekly to the slot machine; luckily I hit for 800 nickels on the Wild West slot, recouping some of the losses. And the sports book was closed, which means, by default, I went the "no bet" route. Too bad we're going to be eating sand crabs and jellyfish in bimini unless Fred and I come up with some lobster. And I guess my new tattoo didn't work much tonight, either... So much for the luck of the Irish.

Also, after reading the rest of that Stark article above, I completely agree with him. Baseball fans across the country have/had this "poor them" thing for the Cubs and Red Sox fans, but it's exponentially more than what it would be for the franchise that has LOST THE MOST GAMES IN ORGANIZED SPORTS HISTORY. And won ONE World Series. I don't feel bad for them at all; if anything, Cubs fans should be rooting for the Phils, in a kindered spirit kind of way. As for the Sox fans... well, you and your Nation have worn out your welcome pretty much everywhere south of Foxwoods, so any goodwill from "1918" has long disappated. It's our time.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

The Two Stooges

I love my wife dearly, but put her and Stacy (one of her best friends and bridesmaids) together and dumb stuff happens. Just in the two hours this morning, they've managed to:
  • Lock Stacy's keys in her trunk
  • Park right next to a "No Parking" sign
  • Fail to figure out who was taller in the 15 years they've known each other
  • Take an abbreviated bike ride to the liquor store that is 5 miles away (they got as far as the end of the driveway before realizing neither one had long enough legs to ride my bike; in retrospect, this might have been a good thing, cause God only knows what could have happened in that 10 mile round trip)
And this is all before 11am. Now we're heading to the FSU-Miami game, and then to a concert in West Palm, so it's not like things are going to be getting any calmer. Now I just gotta go find the camera since words don't usually do their antics justice... :)

UPDATE: The FSU game ended up being a complete rainout but at least the won. The girls had fun but we missed the concert afterwards.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

1601 Construction Updates (Go Phils)

Between travelling for work and recent social trips, it’s been a tiring month of September so far – and October isn’t going to offer many reprieves, with visitors the next two weekends and my work trip to Vegas. Doing home improvements has taken a back seat for most of the month to the daily grind, so with a full weekend off of any real obligations, it was time to get to work. Of course, we started it out at Dolphins Stadium, watching the Phils lose, but both Friday and Saturday nights ended up being (relatively) tame nights. Early Saturday morning, I was digging up a couple of irrigation lines so that a new driveway could be poured; I was glad I got up early enough since 7 guys in several trucks rolled through Shady Banks around 7:30am and began digging up the yard next to the existing driveway as soon as they got there. 3 hours later, it was expanded 10 feet to the right and completely asphalted over, and we had ourselves a new driveway.
While the driveway was getting knocked out, Richie and a couple of guys from his Lukes’ Landscaping crew came over and knocked out a new fence. The old lousy chain link one and all it’s accompanying vegetation got ripped out; in its place (and where no fence was on the south side) is a nice wood 6 footer with gates in the middle. The north side is now ready for Mike to do some AutoCAD planning to see how we can make this place look a bit like the tropical paradise Jen and I pictured when we took the plunge.
To add to the fun, Schaen’s been over, doing mud work to the ceiling of the Florida room and the 2nd bathroom. By the end of the month, both of those rooms should be sanded, painted, and redecorated, and pretty much ready to go (Jen wants new tile in the Florida room, but the stuff we have in there now is serviceable, if not beautiful, so it’s not going anywhere anytime soon). And we’re adding two new exterior doors, in the FL room and office, to go with the impact windows we should be getting in early October. The only other thing to get done then will be a slider door where the windows are in the Florida room, but that might be pushed out to sometime in 2009 for fiscal reasons.

BIG W today for the 2008 NL East Champs Phillies. They're set to take the Brewers down, one game already done, two to go, and we can only hope the Dodgers and Cubbies push each other to the brink. I know, I know... a Philly fan can never get ahead of himself. Still, things are aligning much better this year then they did last year (although the lack of offense is still concerning). This afternoon, though, Cole Hamels threw an utter gem, no runs and only two singles over 8 innings, with 9 K's. Lidge gave a little life to Milwaukee before (finally) slamming the door. It's hard to believe, but Hamels is only 24 and is the youngest player on their roster. This is going to be a fun October.