Sweet!

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Jose Mesa made the postseason roster! Other interesting notes from the roster: my boy Rod Barajas made the cut. Apparently Ruiz has a sore shoulder, so we could see a fair amount of Coste in the playoffs. Adam Eaton did not make the final cut. To be honest, I felt pretty bad for him at the pep rally yesterday when the only person who got booed louder than Eaton was Mayor Street. I mean, my dream in life is to get booed by 150,000 people, but I wanna get booed for being an a******, not for sucking.

Steve-O parties with LA, Hugh, the Phanatic and Mitch Williams on a bus


Only in Philadelphia would a guy who impersonates the head football coach hang out on a bus with Mitch Williams, Hugh Douglas, and the baseball team’s mascot. I still don’t think I understand where the hell they were going, just cruising around South Philly on a bus. I mean, what??? Here’s Steve-O’s report (That’s him, above, with LA’s NLCS ring). This is pretty insane.

Last night was Comcast Sportsnet’s 10th anniversary special at Chickie’s and Pete’s in South Philly. The place was full of Philadelphia sports personalities and I was invited there to participate in the live broadcast of “Monday Night Live”. I was there as part of the cast of the Eagles documentary film “Green Fans”. Other fans included “helmet man”, “cheesesteak man”, “Tattoo man” – it was like a dysfunctional Ocean’s 11/Island of Misfit Toys/SuperPhriends. Our Superpower? Strong Spelling ability.

There was a VIP party in the back, but the real fun was on the “Scotty Express” – one of the premier Eagles tailgating group buses. Once the players, broadcasters, etc., left the VIP party, we guided them towards the bus for some drinks and Philly sports talk.

Each time one of the name guys would get on the bus, we would joking yell, “Lock the doors! Let’s get moving”!!!!

Some of the more notable names to hang with us on the bus:

Mitch Williams – was in awe of the bus and called Philly fans the best fans ever. When we were taking group pictures, I suggested we should exercise terrible aim and capture shots of our feet as a tribute. He found that pretty funny.

Phillie Phanatic – Well he has no real mouth, so there was no drinking. Just the usual craziness he brings to the table. He has serious ADHD.

Bob Kelly – Former Flyers legend of the 70s. Not very amused when I yelled out, “Hey. It’s Charlie Manuel”.

Ike Reese and Hugh Douglas – both are still baffled about the lack of adjustments made during the Eagles game to help Winston Justice.

Steve Coates – Flyers play-by-play announcer. Fun guy.

Gary Matthews – Drinking water when we saw him last night. Very uncharacteristic if you knew of some of the legendary stories involving him as a 1983 Phillie.

Larry Andersen – I’ve hung out with him before. But for most of the guys on the bus, it was their first time. At first he was reluctant to get on the bus, and wanted to make sure we were all Phils fans too (which we all are).

He had plenty to say about this bunch of Phillies. He is still in awe of how they put it together. Along with Mitch and Sarge, he gave tons of credit to Uncle Charlie. He said other managers would never have been able to weather the storm from early this year. He said that he likes Eskin, but that Charlie woulda taken Eskin out if they had fought. We were going crazy when he said that.

We also celebrated seeing all the Mets fans in tears.

Then LA, Mitch and our group started singing High Hopes (seems like we only knew the one line about apple pie in the sky). LA knew the whole song and as we all started drinking, we suddenly hear him singing the 2nd verse (and possibly 3rd).

It was a good night. People are pumped about the Phillies.

Chip’s gonna be at Helium Wednesday Night. Be There.


Ok, rarely do I post things that compete with me, but I’m willing to make an exception this time, since Chip’s the guy that introduced me to Lou Pearlman when I was 14. Chip Chantry’s gonna be shooting a resume video Wednesday night at Helium, and he needs a good crowd to show up. Tickets are $15, but if you tell them that you saw his Myspace post, you get two for one tickets (it’s ok if you didn’t actually see it. Just tell them you did. See kids, sometimes it’s ok to lie.) Anyone who has seen Chip do standup will tell you that he’s damn funny, except for that one time we did that show at the Balcony at the Troc and the people who had just left the heavy metal concert downstairs came up and were really loud and it was Chinese New Year so then fireworks started going off during the middle of his set and then he called one of the Troc employees a whore and then we got fired from the Troc. He was pretty crappy that night. But every other time he’s been hilarious, so get your tickets asap.
Helium Comedy Club
2031 Sansom St, Philadelphia
Wednesday, October 3rd
8pm
Call for reservations: (215)496-9001

Uncle Charlie

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Hey remember when Eskin went after Charlie after the 4-11 start and said that Charlie should throw a fit to get his players fired up, and instead of going after his players, Charlie went after Eskin? Yeah, well the team was 85-62 after that, best in the NL by far. Charlie pisses me off sometimes, but I can’t help but like the guy, especially now. With this team on the ropes, he took all the pressure off them and put it on himself. Lou Pinella did the same thing a few months later and everybody called him a genius. Charlie did it and everybody called him a knucklehead. Well, vindication must be sweet. Now, if we can just get him to finish the job and beat the hell out of Eskin to get the team fired up for the playoffs.
RELATED: Great article about Charlie that includes this amazing quote: We had 13 kids in my family and I used to have to fight for my breakfast.

Sunday

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I had a free ticket to Sunday’s game, and I almost didn’t take it. Those of you who follow this blog know that the Phils lose almost every time I go to a game (I honestly think that before Sunday they were 3-13 in games I went to this year, including the opening day loss, the 10,000th loss, and the loss on Saturday), and I was going to honestly blame myself if I showed up and they lost again. But a free ticket is a free ticket, so off I went with my buddy Brian.

We sat beside a father-son duo. The father was in his 80s and the son was in his 50s. They were both delightful to talk to, and it was obvious that they had been to dozens of games together over the years. They had been through a lot of frustration together over the years, but not today. The energy at CBP reached a fevered pitch, the crowd began to sense a victory, and the towels began to wave furiously after every called strike. The grandfatherly man leaned over toward me, smiled and said, “This is the greatest day I’ve ever had at the ballpark.”

Things only got better. After the game, I ran into D-Mac, and we headed toward the subway. Before getting on, I saw a couple of people wearing “Phillies-NL East Champions” shirts. I asked, “Where did you get those from?” Before they could answer, a 20-something gentleman leaned forward and asked brusquely, “How many do you need?” I answered two, and he rolled up his pant leg, showing off the new white shirts tied around his leg, giving new meaning to the term bootlegging. We each bought a shirt for ten bucks and hit the Express.

Continue reading “Sunday” →

Wow

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Watching the Padres-Rockies game and a promo comes on for NBC10’s local news team. After the usual stuff about fires and weather, all of a sudden the cheesy announcer dude says in his serious voice, “A psychic poodle…a deadly message. Exclusively on NBC.” Wow, I bet FOX and KYW are just kicking themselves or not being able to land the psychic poodle story.