Despite World Series heartbreaker, Phillies fans remain faithful

NEW YORK - The look on Sean McKinney's face told you everything you needed to know about what was going on in the top of the ninth inning in last night's World Series Game 6 at Yankee Stadium.

McKinney, president of Mitchell & Ness, the Philadelphia-based maker of retro athletic jerseys, stood in the concourse behind home plate, his visage a veritable billboard of dismay as Yankees' reliever extraordinaire Mariano Rivera finished off a 7-3 win over the Phillies that would nail down the hated New Yorkers' 27th world championship.

"Of course I'm disappointed," he said. "I'll go home heartbroken."

But even in his sorrow, McKinney had kind words for his baseball team, noting that its back-to-back National League pennants were no mean feat.

"It's tough to get back to this point," he offered. "You appreciate the fact we're here."

And so it went for the Phaithful as they watched their dreams of another cakewalk down Broad Street go up in the smoke of a six-RBI fire set by Hideki Matsui, the Bronx Bummers' designated hitter.

Though "bummed" and "depressed" by the defeat - and the performance of the Phillies' bullpen during the Series - Bill Watson, of Gladwyne, said he was "proud of our team. It's always nice to be back in the World Series."

Watson saw the relief pitching as the biggest culprit. Shawn Duff, of Huntingdon Valley, pinned the blame on slugger Ryan Howard, who, despite an ultimately irrelevant two-run homer last night, pretty much went south in the Series.

"I really expected him to come up big tonight," lamented Duff. "He just didn't get it done."

Nonetheless, he already was looking forward to next year. "I think we'll be back" in the Series next year, he proclaimed.

Duff's brother, Bob, a political science major at Columbia University, summed it up as well as anyone. "It was a good season, a good run," he said. "It just didn't end the way we wanted it to."

Not surprisingly, the evening ended far differently for the Phans from how it began. Before the first pitch, hopes were sky-high that the Phillies would send the Series to a Game 7 showdown.

The spit-and-vinegar attitude of the Phanatics in attendance was embodied by Mike Chernow of Sicklerville, Camden County.

While walking through the stadium concourse before the game, Chernow spied a group of Yankees fans whooping it up for a TV camera. Without hesitation, the teenager made a beeline for the noisy gaggle, pushed his way through it and, with an insouciance that did the Delaware Valley proud, thrust his Phillies cap right into the camera.

"It just pissed me off," he replied when asked why he had done it. As for a prediction, Chernow was equally unequivocal. "We're taking it in seven-no doubt!" he prophesied, albeit incorrectly.

And then there was John Hunsinger of Runnemede, Camden County, who, invoking the memory of the sainted Tug McGraw, refused to stop believing in his beloved baseball team.

Standing in the concourse at the back of an infield-seating section, he acknowledged things looked bleak when the Yankees took a commanding, mid-game, six-run lead.

"It's not looking good, but you don't know. They could put up a crooked number and get back into it," he said, using terminology for runs favored by former Phils' manager Jim Fregosi.

When Howard hit his homer, Mike Rustuccia still had hope in his heart.

"I was thinking, maybe a comeback," said the Chester Springs, Chester County, resident.

"They fell behind early in Game 5, and came back," he said from his seat along the left field foul line. "They'll battle back. They did it all year."

Alas, all the optimism in the world ultimately wouldn't translate to more bent digits on the Phillies' half of the massive Yankee Stadium scoreboard.

In the end, the Yankees' clutch hitting and strong pitching proved to be too much for the boys in red pinstripes to handle. For the past week, at least, the Steinbrenners were simply the better team.

Just wait till next year.