Being Away

Last season, there was a 3 1/2 week stretch of the season in which I was working at a camp and could not watch any Phillies games. Before I left, the Phillies had won just 4 of their previous 18 games. The next game I watched upon my return, JA Happ lost his first start of the season after being 7-0. In between, the Phillies went 15-2. They then lost 6 of the next 9 games right after this.

This series of events indirectly led to the demise of this blog last season. The Phillies seemed to step it up when I was unable to watch, and I brought some type of horrible vibe to the team upon my return as a loyal viewer. This led to an obvious detached feeling from a team that I live and die with. At times, I considered a complete boycott of televised games for the good of the team. I selfishly continued watching, and things eventually turned around anyway.

Leaving for California last Friday was a nerve-racking time as I was experiencing flashbacks to this time last season. Although I was excited for the Phillies to go on a 10-day run, I was nervous as to what horrendous events would transpire as I made it back into the Philadelphia area.

Lucky for me, the Phillies didn't play any games while I was gone (with the exception of Roy Halladay*).

Although looking at results every day proved costly to my morale, I could find a slight silver lining as our offense mustered just 12 runs in 9 games while going 3-6. This meant that the Phillies could actually succeed with me being a regular viewer! While not watching any of the games during my vacation, I realized that there was no way the Phillies could play worse once I was back in the game.

What does this all mean? Well, it certainly doesn't mean that I'm happy or that anyone should be with the way the Phillies have played in the past 3 series. But it does mean that I can continue watching, and, in doing so, I can continue posting on this blog. It also, hopefully, means that the Phillies can begin playing baseball again. It took them awhile today to warm up to my eyes again, but 4 straight doubles today gives us some reason to hope that more hits are on the way.

Placido Polanco** should be back in the lineup tomorrow, and that should certainly provide a spark in Atlanta. He is batting .450 against the Braves this season. A day off for Werth will hopefully have him back on track as well after going 0 for his last 19. He has 2 home runs, 4 doubles, and 7 RBIs in 21 at-bats against the Braves this season.

*Roy Halladay threw a perfect game?! And I didn't get to see it?! Majoke! I am in no way actually angry that he threw a perfect game, and I want to take nothing away from it, but it is definitely a little disappointing that I couldn't witness with my own eyes as it happened. BUT! I would like to thank those people who helped me out in experiencing that perfect game:
Zack Schanz - for texting me with Roy Halladay's stat line at the end of each inning starting with the 4th. He knew something special was happening early, and he managed to avoid jinxing it
Brianna Link - for answering her phone and handing it to her husband and my brother-in-law
Jeremiah Link - for giving me a play-by-play of the bottom of the 9th inning over the phone
Mom - for calling me afterwards to share the good news (after I called her to tell her to turn on the game). Also for DVRing the encore so I can watch it this week
Mike Costello - for calling to share the joy upon completion of the game
Phil Nase - for letting me know that he and his girlfriend made a big scene in a fancy restaurant upon finding out the results. Respect
Cheese - for sitting by (he was in Cali with me) and making sure I didn't have a heart attack while getting the play-by-play on the phone. I've never been that excited/sweaty during a phone call
Ben Link - for reminding me that I got one of my predictions wrong because of this
Alex Schuh and Abbey Fries - for calling me about something completely unrelated while this game was going on. I just thought they'd like to be mentioned
"The Man Upstairs" - because this feels like an acceptance speech, and I'm a young person so I'm required by law to only refer to God as "The Man Upstairs" during this
And anyone else I'm forgetting! You are all so special to me! (*fighting back tears*)

**Placido Polanco will from now on be referred to in this blog as "Duke." First of all, I think this is an awesome nickname, and he definitely needs a nickname. Secondly, his head looks like that of a boxer (the dog, not the fighter), and my good friend Bean has a boxer (once again, canine variety) named Duke. Thirdly, I hate Duke basketball. That just needed to be said.