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Friday, November 6, 2009
The boys of summer and fall
Chase Utley connects for the first of his two homers, a three-run shot in the first inning.

In a year when not much else has gone right, the Phillies gave their fans another thrilling ride.


This year brought a tanking economy, job losses, a city budget on the brink of collapse, a swine flu epidemic, and a transit strike to boot. A winning baseball team doesn’t erase any of that, but it sure helped our outlook on life.


The Phillies’ season ended, of course, Wednesday night, when they lost to the Yankees in Game 6 of the World Series. Losing to New York has a special sting, but the Yankees earned their victory. They played with confidence and didn’t squander opportunities.


In spite of losing the World Series crown, these Phillies provided memories that will linger. For example, there’s the way the crowd in the left-field bleachers paid homage to newcomer Raul Ibanez after each home run.


Or Jimmy Rollins winning Game 4 against the Dodgers with a two-out hit in the ninth inning. Cliff Lee nonchalantly catching a pop-up on the mound while mowing down the Yankees in Game 1. Chase Utley blasting a record-tying five home runs in the World Series. That’s enough good memories to last us through the winter.


And there’s every reason to believe the team will be back in contention next year, as manager Charlie Manuel promised. Among the key players returning next year are Lee, Utley, Ryan Howard, Rollins, Ibanez, Jayson Werth, and Shane Victorino.
 

Any other team would take that nucleus to build a winner. Check that. Any other team would be happy to start with Lee and Utley alone.
 

Professional sports franchises are businesses, and the Phillies organization deserves the thanks of this community for creating another success. The owners, general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., and the employees helped to put a team on the field that fans could be proud of. In the long and often dismal history of Philadelphia pro sports teams, that’s no small achievement.
 

So the team’s journey didn’t end this time in a sun-splashed parade down Broad Street. (Mayor Nutter said the city wouldn’t have paid for it, anyway.) But the Phillies gave their fans much to appreciate.
Here’s to the boys of summer who played all the way into November.
 

Posted by Inquirer editorial board @ 2:05 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
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About The Inquirer Editorial Board
Harold Jackson, a winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, grew up in Birmingham, Ala., during the civil rights movement. He graduated from Baker University in Baldwin, Kan., in 1975, with a degree in journalism/political science. He has also worked at the Birmingham Post-Herald, United Press International, the Birmingham News, and the Baltimore Sun. He was at The Inquirer in the mid-1980s, returned in 1999, and became editorial page editor in 2007.

Paul Davies is the deputy editor of the Editorial Page. His newspaper career has spanned more than 20 years and includes stints at The Wall Street Journal and the Philadelphia Daily News. He graduated from the University of Delaware and received a masters in journalism from Columbia University, where he was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow. He was born in Philadelphia and still lives in the city.

Tony Auth began drawing while bedridden for a year and a half at the age of five. He graduated from UCLA in 1965 and worked for six years as a medical illustrator while doing three cartoons a week for various college newspapers. Tony has been happily ensconced as The Inquirer’s editorial cartoonist since 1971. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976, and has won numerous other awards, including five Overseas Press Club Awards, the Sigma Delta Chi award for distinguished service in Journalism, and the Herblock and Thomas Nast Prizes. Tony is married to Eliza Drake Auth, a painter of realistic landscapes and portraits.

Trudy Rubin is the foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a member of The Inquirer’s editorial board. Her column appears twice weekly in The Inquirer and runs regularly in many other newspapers around the United States. She is the author of Willful Blindness: The Bush Administration and Iraq.

Kevin Ferris is an assistant editor on the Editorial Board who oversees the Sunday Currents section and writes a weekly column on a wide range of issues. In his 15 years on the board, he’s handled letters to the editor and the Community Voices pages and has been Commentary Page editor. He started with The Inquirer in 1986, and his assignments have ranged from the copy and news desks to the Chester County bureau and the national/foreign desk.

As an editorial writer for The Inquirer for the past two decades, Russell Cooke has written on a wide range of topics covering government, legal, civic and social issues. Before joining the Editorial Board, he was a reporter in the Inquirer’s City Hall bureau.

Editorial writer Dave Boyer joined The Inquirer in 2002. He writes about politics, government, the economy, sports and many other subjects, but draws the line at writing about "Jon & Kate Plus Eight." He has won journalism awards and insists bribery was not involved. A native of Allentown, Boyer graduated from Penn State. He and his wife reside in Center City, where they enjoy strolling and paying the wage tax.

Melanie Burney joined the editorial board in January 2008 after covering education at the Inquirer for eight years. She previously worked at the Associated Press in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. She is a graduate of Glassboro State College, now Rowan University, and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Josh Gohlke has been The Inquirer’s op-ed editor since last year, editing the daily commentary page and writing occasional editorials. He came to the Inquirer after eight years at The Record of Bergen County, N.J., first as a reporter covering local and state politics and government and ultimately as the deputy editorial page editor. He also worked as a reporter for several smaller papers in New Jersey and California. Josh was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from Stanford University. He lives in Philadelphia.

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