Broad Street Billy: Fans pulling for a Phillies repeat
WELL, FELLOW Phillies fans, you are coming through like gangbusters - sending our Fightins into their battle for back-to-back championships on the mighty wings of Fan Fervor:
Send your Phils photos and anecdotes to: phillies@phillynews.com
WELL, FELLOW Phillies fans, you are coming through like gangbusters - sending our Fightins into their battle for back-to-back championships on the mighty wings of Fan Fervor:
From England - "I moved from Northern Liberties to England the year before the World Series," writes U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Lenny Kistler, 352nd Special Operations Group, RAF Mildenhall.
"During the playoffs I would rush home, eat and go to bed, only to wake up at 12:30 a.m. to get ready to watch the games. When the Phillies won the NL, I said to my wife, Concetta, 'We are going home.' "
The Kistlers arrived in Philly just in time to rush to a sports bar and "watch my first postseason game with Phillies fans since I was a chubby 13-year-old rocking the Kruk Mullet," Kistler wrote.
He got to see "Big Joe Blanton crush the Rays with his pitching and bat" in Game 4 at the Bank, "could not eat all day" when he couldn't get Game 5 tickets but, thanks to a record-setting rain delay, "made it back to England and watched those final three innings on the same couch with my dog that we had watched the NL East clincher and the rest of playoffs on."
"I would like a chance to do it better this time!" Kistler wrote.
Hope to see you on Broad Street, Sarge!
From Bucks County - Although Kevin Sica of Quakertown has a Phillies "man cave" featuring a bright red Phillies World Series sofa, World Series bats and autographed balls, and just about every Fightins collectible in creation, his fondest World Series souvenir is a photo of him and his daughter, Amanda, 15, floating on that cloud of overwhelming joy at the Bank when the Phils became World Champions.
Amanda hugged her dad for taking her to a Phillies World Championship game just like Sica's mom had taken him in 1980, when he was 12. Then father and daughter marched up Broad Street together.
Under intense questioning, Sica admitted it's not really a "man cave." Amanda - as die-hard a Phillies fan as her dad - picked out a lot of the stuff. And she is as pumped as he is to do that father/daughter stroll up Broad Street again!