Dear Phillies: A message from the 1985 Royals

Growing up in Kansas, one of my favorite sporting memories is of the Kansas City Royals’ 1985 World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. What was memorable about that is that the Royals — like the Phillies today — were down 3-1 in the series. For games five and six, we expected the champagne to flow in the Cards’ clubhouse. But the Royals kept scrapping and — aided by a dubious umpiring call — came back, destroying John Tudor’s career along the way. This is what the Royals got:

It’s going to be hard, Phils fans. But it can be done. It really can.

And even if it doesn’t happen, the Yankees still suck.

Tonight: Pedro. But first: Cliff Lee.

Yeah. This is still awesome:

Phillies hangover

We here in Cup O’ Joel headquarters — my office — are feeling a little … drained from last night’s celebrations. Reckless opining to resume shortly.

Harry Kalas, RIP

Harry Kalas, the Phillies Hall of Fame radio announcer, is dead.

I am new to Philly, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have an appreciation of Kalas. He had that voice. And the voice, of course, is what people are going to remember.

But what struck me on Opening Night this year — while the Phils were going down in flames against Atlanta — was how sensible Kalas was in using that voice. Sometimes, he didn’t use it at all.

Instead, he let you live with the sounds of the game. While the batter entered the box and started to get dug in, Kalas stayed quiet. You could hear the rumble of the crowd. You could hear the occasional shout above the din. You could hear baseball. That was part of Kalas’ genius. He will be missed.

Champs.

Wow. Just wow.

A note to all my new Philadelphia friends. The last big sporting event in Lawrence, Kansas while I was there was the winning of the NCAA basketball championship by KU in April.

The very first day I lived in Philly, the Soul won the Arena Bowl championship — marking, by some inaccurate measures, the end of this city’s championship drought.

And now: The Phillies have won the World Series in just my third month here.

Obviously, I brought some championship karma to town — because the teams have ONLY won championships since I’ve been here.

You’re welcome.

Phillies Rap

I know everybody’s grumpy about Game Two. But let this cheer you up:

Holy cow!

When I went to bed at midnight, Tampa Bay was thrashing Boston. I thought we had our World Series opponent picked.

That was dumb of me, heh? But boy, baseball can be wonderful sometimes.

Barack Obama wants to delay the Phillies’ inevitable World Series triumph

From the Washington Post:

Major League Baseball has agreed to postpone the first pitch of Game 6 of the World Series by about 15 minutes in order to enable Fox to join CBS and NBC in running Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s 30-minute infomercial Oct. 29.

Obama had better hope that Chase Utley doesn’t, say, pop a hamstring during extra long warmups that night. You don’t want to mess with angry swing-state sports fans, man.

Mixed feelings about the Phillies

I only moved to Philly a few months ago, but I will of course be rooting for them in the World Series. Especially since the opponent will be Tampa Bay — the Rays need a little playoff heartbreak before they taste victory.

But my very first baseball memory involved hoping the Phillies would lose the World Series. Sorry, but it’s true.

I grew up in Kansas, you see. And I was 7 years old during the fall of 1980. Which meant that I was being groomed to be a fan of the Kansas City Royals — and, more specifically, George Brett, who came as close that year to hitting .400 as any player has in the last 60 years.

So when the World Series came around, I was rooting for Kansas City. But then George Brett took himself out of Game Two with a case of hemorrhoids — and, well, the rest is history.

That was 28 years ago, but it still feels weird to be rooting for the Phills in the fall. I’ll get over it, I promise.

Go Phillies! And please, for the love of God, can’t the Royals at least have a winning season next year?

Oh, and…

…we’ll be liveblogging the debate tonight. I know: You’ll be watching the Phils. But I’m in favor of multitasking: Watch the game with the sound off and listen to the debate. What could be more American?