The Yankees Win The World Series!

It was not the 5-star classic that I think fans from both teams were expecting, nonetheless, with his World Series record tying 6 RBIs in a game, Hideki Matsui led the New York Yankees to a dominating Game 6 win and was MVP of their 27th World Series championship.

The Phillies gave it everything they had, but in the end, it was not enough. You can put the blame on a number of things, such as Pedro Feliz's ABs ending 4 of the 9 innings, all of which the Phillies had runner(s) on base, the Brad Lidge meltdown in Game 4, the not scoring off of A.J. Burnett in Game 2, the not taking advantage of Andy Pettitte not pitching his best games, but in the end, it all comes down to the simple fact that the Yankees outplayed and were a better team than the Phillies. The only 2 games the Phillies did win were the games that Cliff Lee started. Despite pitching well in game 2 and being more rested than Pettitte, it was Pedro who struggled in this game, giving up crucial runs when the game was still close. And like I stated before, the Phillies are not fans of giving Pedro any run support.

My props and congratulations to the New York Yankees. Anybody can buy a team, but that's only half of the battle. You have to get that team to function as an actual team and the Yankees did that this year and they have been rewarded handsomely for doing so.

Not to slight the Yankees anything, they do deserve it, but I want to spend the rest of this post talking about the Phillies.

What an incredible season.

Sure it startedo out heartbreakingly tragic with the passing of the late great Harry Kalas, but look at how this team came together over it. Hours after learning of his passing, (maybe not even that long) they played a game and they won that game. That's the kind of team they have been all year.

They constantly fought and battled back and even in this game, they tried to mount the rallies, but Yankee pitching along with tyhe fact that eventually the #7 spot in the order must come up, spelt doom for the Phillies in this game. That is nothing to be ashamed of.

After that Game 4 loss, I urged the Phillies to show heart and to care and to never give up and to never surrender, do-da, do-da. Guess what. They did that today. Sure it was a blowout, sure they did not win, but they kept trying to battle on offense. They stuck with it. Even with Rivera on the mound, they were not just randomly waving their bats to get the ordeal over with.

I'm sure you are wondering why I have yet to show the video of the Yankees winning. Frankly, there is no greater piece of evidence of this than the last out of the game. After fouling off pitch after pitch of Rivera, watch Shane Victorino after a groundball.



Never gave up. Never surrendered. Ran it out until there was nothing left. Dedicated to the end. Run it out. Don't have your head down. Be proud of what you've accomplished this year and don't wallow in any self-pity. There should be no self-pity for this team. They've accomplished so much.

Victorino has his detractors outside of Philly and while I'm sure you got a kick of him being the last out of the World Series, that was a real at bat and something he and Phillies fans can be proud of. With that last out, he represented everything this team was about and gosh darn it, watching him run it out like that, even though everyone knew what was about to happen, brought a smile on my face. He knows the game is over and even if there is an error on the throw, the chance of a rally against Rivera is still slim, but despite it all, you never know what can happen, the chance of the rally is slim, not none, and even if it's a sure fire thing, keep on running. No slow pace jog bullshit to let the other team celebrate. Keep fighting and represent your team well. That's what Victorino did.

The Phillies accomplished so much this year. They are NL champions of 2009 and they are still that. That's a title that can't be and won't be taken away from them. A flag will be raised at Citizens Bank Park on opening day commemorating that achievement. It's a proud achievement, one they should still be proud of. It's an achievement and a season that all Phillies fans should be proud of. No shame at all in what they accomplished this year and through it all, they gave us one hell of an entertaining World Series despite the end result.

RIP Harry Kalas. This tremendous season was for you.