Ode to a baseball season

Utley Howard Hurt

‘Pen started season Qualls’ed

Now No Phils this Fall

I’m not sure how haikus and odes relate to one another.  They’re both poetry, right?  Where, aside from picsofmeinfrontofstuff.com, do you look for poetry?  If ESPN can be the worldwide leader in sports, yet exhaust 80% of their energy on a sport only played regularly in the United States, then I am going to call PoMiFoS the blogger.com leader in Philadelphia Phillies related haikus and/or odes. 

Cliff goes 10 in loss

Doc hurt his lat in late May

Nats win the East easy.

It’s going to be a difficult Autumn without my favorite boys of summer in the playoffs.  Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen have been the soundtrack to my summer and fall these past five years, ever since I’ve had enough money to buy the mlb.com radio package, but too much frugality to buy the mlb.com TV package.  I splurged and bought the smart phone app this year…and still paid almost $100 less than the cost of the TV package.  No one in their right minds should choose listening to the inanity of Sarge and Wheels over the dulcet tones of Franzke and LA.  LA may be a big dummy, but at least he knows he’s a big dummy.  Listening to them 2008-2011 has provided a soundtrack to fill my summer nights.  At 7:05 the Fightin’s were on and it was time to listen to LA complain about the umpires.  Clearly, I’m biased and I say outside of Vin Scully there is no one better at calling a baseball game.  I’ll give the Mets TV announcers credit because they make for an entertaining broadcast.  They are far superior to the crap the Yankees pump out to their deluded masses.  Still Keith ‘No Play for Mr. Gray’ Hernandez, Ron Darling, and whoever the 3rd guy is can’t hold a candle to the men in the Phillies radio booth.  One positive of the Phillies not making the playoff is not having to listen to Joe Buck call the NL playoffs or World Series.

Franzke and LA

They fill my summers with joy

No Playoffs No Buck

The season started like it always does in December with the purchase of the annual 6-game pack.  The Gang and I have continued our tradition of the Phillies six-pack started back in 2008.  We even all went to Baltimore to see the Phillies play the surprisingly good Baltimore Orioles.  There was some inkling from the start that this season would not go as well as the previous ones.  T-Rev, the steady one in the group, normally procures tickets to 6 Saturday games for all of us to attend.  The 2008 tickets included Opening Day.  We’ve been to Picture Day at least twice.  The first two years featured large volumes of Jaegermeister and Miller Lite and more than our fair share of Bearfights.  Opening Day tickets are much harder to get now and the drinking has curtailed in recent years.  We’re all in our 30s, half of the male contingent is married and the other half is in some sort of serious relationship so the drinking was bound to slow down.  The 2012 edition of The Gang’s adventures did include some inebriation in Baltimore and Towson, MD but not much more.  Throw in the requirement of a Friday night game the day before and a midweek game and the opportunities for being ridiculous were severely limited.  Even before the Phillies season started they were really killing my buzz. 

A Wednesday Game?!

And Happily married too?

My liver’s thankful.

Our ticket season started on a chilly day in April down 4 out of 6 members of the gang.  The Official Parents and Baconlb filled as more than suitable replacements.

 

And the season started off well as the new skinnier Joe Blanton pitched well enough to earn a W and Jonathan Papelbon entered the game to ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ by Metallica and shut the door on the Cubbies.  Brian Dawkins even threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Jimmy Rollins following his retirement as an Eagle. 

It was a good start to the season that would watch the Phillies come close to eliminating themselves from the playoffs before the All-Star break.  I was with The Gang as we watched them lose to the Red Sox, Marlins, and Orioles in the first half of the season.  They drifted further and further behind the Nationals.  I missed a dismal loss to the Diamondbacks.  As a new fan, Baconlb was uncertain she had made a good choice in teams.  Even her favorite player as chosen by me, Freddy Galvis was busted for PED use and then fractured his back.

It’s Early August

We’re behind the New York Mets

This season is crap

As they have so often done over the past several years, the Phillies came alive in August and September.  Our Wednesday game was a success as Cliff Lee shutdown the Marlins and the bats scored enough runs to seal the game.  They’ve been here before I told myself.  The beginning of this recent run of success started in 2007 with a trip from 7.5 games with 17 to go behind the Mets.  The playoff romp in 2008 was made possible when the Fightin’s came from 3 games back to overtake the Mets again.  This was 2012 and the 2nd Wild Card was made for the Phillies.  Just sweep the worst team in the majors in Houston and they’re practically in the playoffs.  Yeah, except the Phillies have been owned by the Astros since 2004.  Whatever the Phillies do when they play Houston, they need to stop because they lost 3 out of 4.  That slowed down any playoff talk.  A sweep of the Mets including a 15-1 drubbing in Queens and a win versus the Braves helped to quicken the pulse of Phillies’ fans.  It set the stage for the 6th and final game of the 2012 6-pack.  With Roy Halladay taking the mound, the offense firing on all cylinders in a playoff hunt, and beautiful early fall weather, what more could we ask for?  Well, not giving up 7 runs in the first two innings is what we should asked for.  The normally reliable Doc Halladay got shelled in the first two innings.  It was revealed following the game (or maybe I read it after the game) he had felt spasms behind his shoulder area on Thursday, but was cleared by doctors on Friday. 

He doesn’t look so spasmy there…

Spasms hinder Doc

Braves score seven in two innings

Looks like no wildcard

But there was German dancing…

The Phillies highlights were limited.  Ryan Howard clobbered a ball into centerfield for his 300th career homerun.  Darin Ruf the current single season homerun record holder for the Reading Phillies also hit a sac fly for his first career Major League RBI.  And the weather was nice.  And that’s it.  The Phillies have been so great over the past 5 years it’s tough not to be disappointed with them missing the playoffs.  I’ve been spoiled.  Not douchebag Yankees fan spoiled, but still spoiled.  There are plenty of young Phillies fans who don’t remember when guys like Von Hayes, Juan Samuel, and Tyler Greene lost a lot games in the Vet.  There’s a reason they have 10,000 plus losses.  So 2012 ended with a whimper for the Gang and Phillies.  We will have to look forward to February 2013 when the Phillies head down to Clearwater. 

Twenty-twelve’s a bust

The Phillies can’t catch the Cards

Hope’s back in ‘13.

Gettysburg National Military Park - Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here...- Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address

  

Remember Lincoln's.  You can probably forget these.  The world will never forget what Abraham Lincoln said at the dedication of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg on November 19, 1863.  The funny thing is he wasn't even the main speaker that day.  Anyone remember who was?  

Abe and I talked about it some and decided it didn't really matter.
What really mattered is that 7 score and 9 years ago  Pennsylvania was invaded by Robert E Lee's Army Northern Virginia.  Lee's Army fought General George Meade's Army of the Potomac on this nation's 87th birthday.  Abraham Lincoln showed up 5 months later in November 1863. PoMiFoS was just behind about 150 years later.

Baconlb and I arrived on the Saturday night before Labor Day and set off to explore the battlefield.  She loves paranormal television shows including, but not limited to The Haunted Collector, School Spirits, Paranormal Witness, and Dead Files.  The tourist industry in Gettysburg sells itself as a haven for the paranormal and so we explored the battlefield in the dark doing minimal ghost hunting.  I do not have any grainy or night vision video of us shouting what was that or searching around in the complete darkness.  I also don't have a faux hawk or a ton of time to hit the gym.

That's a flaslight and a slow shutter speed.

There weren't any at the summit of Little Round Top either.

Oooh, spooky soldier

I had my Canon Rebel T1i , Baconlb, and a couple of flashlights.  Not surprisingly we did not run into any ghosts on top of Culp's Hill

It was far less interesting than what shows up on Syfy or Discovery or whatever channels churn them out these days.   We did not run into any ghosts or apparitions though we did encounter a black cat on top of Little Round Top.  It's caterwauling was upsetting but since it was not accompanied by any ghostly apparitions we did not waste our time chasing after it.  Clearly, that was not quite the stuff that makes riveting television. It's barely the stuff of a half-assed blog.  The highlight of ghost hunting was the way Baconlb impersonates The Haunted Collector John Zaffis way better than actually listening to him.  You might be shocked like I am that no one has posted a video of themselves impersonating his Yankee accent.
Thanks for nothing,Youtube!
We eventually did the Carlisle Street tour with Ghosts of Gettysburg through town.  It's definitely worth a try if you're into learning about some of the history.  That was nothing like Ghost Adventures but if you like history, give Ghosts of Gettysburg a shot.
The next day started bright (well, overcast) and early with a return trip to Little Round Top.  In our hurry to beat the sun over the horizon I ignored multiple Do Not Enter signs.  We learned that the National Park Service does in  fact partol the roads in and around the battlefield since we were pulled over when we ignored one Do Not Enter sign too many.  Fortunately, due to the early hour and my 'acting' confused the National Parks Officer let us go simply with correct directions.   Unfortunately he did not issue us a recipe for clearer skies so the view from Little Round Top was foggy.  
While we did not get a fantastic view of the sunrise ala the Grand Canyon, but t we did get a chance to enjoy the more popular sights in the area before breakfast and everyone else waking up and getting in the way of our pictures.  

I had insisted on hitting the Triangular Field early in case whatever supernatural forces were located there sucked my camera battery dry.  That's a widely reported effect of visiting the Triangular Field and our very own Baconlb reported it had happened to her.  Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you feel about my photography, my battery stayed strong throughout the trip.

My camera still works even after entering the gate to the Triangular Field.

Is that a ghost on Little Round Top?

Eventually we restarted our tour of the battlefield with an audio tour narrated by Wayne Motts.  If you are looking for a battlefield tour you can't go wrong with his Battlefield tour on CD.  I initially picked a different one and our cashier scoffed at my choice and immediately asked us if we wanted to be zeroes or heroes when we toured the battlefield.  I responded with the latter and with a sly grin she sold me on Wayne Motts' battlefield field guide. It's listed as 3 hour tour (cue Gilligan's Island theme) but that's just if you sit in your car and don't get out to explore the monuments and battlefield.  I forced Baconlb to get out of the car and explore the monuments and other landmarks that abound in the battlefield. 
 

John Reynolds fearlessly led his men at the opening shots of the battle and is commemorated at Auto Tour Stop 1.

Eternal Peace and Light Memorial

Cannons are more fun than peace memorials!

My favorite monument.  The 90th Pennsylvania Regimental Monument.

Posing awkwardly at the Pennsylvania Monument abbreviated PA, not Penna.

Baconlb showing the correct way to read a weathered monument.

Recreating Pickett's Charge minus all that bloodshed.

Pickett's Chrage with all the bloodshed, depcited at the Cyclorama.

The Tennessee Monument: It's not that they didn't finish it.  The base has the shape of Tennessee on it.  I was initially confused.

Google what Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine did on Little Round Top.

After the battlefield we toured the museum and watched movie and hit the Gettysburg Cyclorama.  The movie was narrated by Morgan Freeman aka God and gave me all kinds of chills discussing how amazing our country is.  PoMiFoS is a proud American blog and I can't help but get a little misty eyed being told about how our country has faced and overcome adversity.  We still strive for freedom everyday.  Clearly, freedom of speech is a guaranteed right in this country.  How else does a shoddy blog like this one continue to exist?  Based on grammar alone, the government should probably consider shutting it down.

Luckily for me and my readers, 150 years ago Honest Abe freed the slaves and saved the Union..