For the final time from Philly ...

This e-mail came in not long after I got back from the clubhouse to the press box following Philly’s Series-clinching 4-3 win. It comes from a Phillies fan and I’ll let it stand on its own.

Dear Tampa Bay Rays Fans,

The World Series is over and your team has come out on the short end.  If there was ever a place that understands how you are feeling right now, it is your Fall Classic brethren in Philadelphia.  Contrary to what you may have read, Philly fans are not all bad (in fact, there are many among us that you would be happy to know, but I digress).  So while nothing that I pen will truly replace that sickness you feel today, do not lose sight of what you have witnessed this past year, for you have a Rays team about which you should be extremely proud, and excited for years to come.

Worst to first is no small feat.  In a division that counts amongst its members the most storied franchise in the history of the game and the then-reining champion (with a storied cursed history all its own), that accomplishment is all the more astounding and revealing.  An ALCS which demonstrated that this youthful bunch, a bunch so flippantly dismissed by those who profess a rarified knowledge of this game (apparently lost on the rest of us) pontificating of the Rays impending doom all season only to save their precious TV face, has more spine than any out-of-town beat writer could ever muster. 

You have a very young and very talented roster that makes you the envy of every team, including the team who had the privilege and good fortune of competing victoriously (this time) against them.  A deep group of top shelf pitchers that stifle and awe at the same time.  A group of sluggers that will only get better.

Furthermore, you have a front office with the foresight to lock up many of these future stars long before unions and agents and bigger market teams and celebrity make them rethink the sanity of lifetime financial security and the freedom of contentment for incomprehensible financial security and the prison of impossible spectacle.  And a manager that dares to think that 21st century wisdom belongs in the 21st century dugout.

Again, I do not expect that this letter will make that knot in your stomach go away.  But, hopefully, maybe just a measure of solace that will bring you some peace this winter until your swingmen of spring return from their hibernation.  This is our day, Philly’s day.  But your day will surely come.  Your team has done you proud.

All the best,
Brian S. McEvoy
Long-Suffering Philly Fan since 1978

I leave Philly with the following impressions:

1) The Phillies aren’t really all that different from the Rays. Extremely balanced, great bullpen, a middle of the lineup that is tough to negotiate.

2) I wish we could take Citizens Bank Ballpark and drop it in along the river in downtown Tampa because it really is a jewel. But as we saw in two of the three games here, there are plenty of times when the Catwalk Confines at the Trop can be pretty nice, too. A roof here in Philly would have really come in handy Saturday and Monday.

3) I absolutely love the passion of the Phillies fans, at least the ones I heard from - and I heard from plenty. They are smart, tough, and demand the same standards in sports writing that they do from their baseball team. They challenge your points, pick on details, and expect even us ink-stained wretches to have our act together. I probably received as much email from Philly fans as I did from those following the Rays, which is saying something. I enjoyed them all.

4) However, to the chowderheads who threw mustard packs at Joe Maddon’s 7-year-old granddaughter, get a freakin’ life. There is rowdy, which is great, and there is classless. That was classless.

5) And lastly, I hope Rays’ fans have a true appreciation for what they just saw. From 96 losses to this stage was an incredible ride and no one can take for granted anything like this will happen again. It’s also true, though, that there’s no going back now. I was chatting with owner Stu Sternberg for a while after this game and I saw all sorts of looks - pride, sadness, all the emotions. But mostly I saw someone who was almost in awe of what had been accomplished in this season-long magic carpet ride.