Broad Street Billy: To some, the Fightin's are a screaming good time

IF WE WANT to go back to New York with a puncher's chance to win the World Series, we have to keep believing in the dream, like this die-hard barber:

WALL-TO-WALL PHILLIES: "I live in a twin and during Phillies games, my neighbor Rick and I yell back and forth, sometimes through our open front doors, sometimes through our closed storm doors," said Frank Watson, 54, from Northeast Philadelphia, whose Gentlemen's Preference barbershop in Wyndmoor is wallpapered with 2009 Phillies-playoff newspaper clippings.

"If a guy hits a home run or something, we yell through the doors," Watson said. "Sometimes, I get up and run into his house screaming, 'Did you see that?' We both have families. They've gotten used to this. They understand."

One of his daughter Marissa's friends, who happened to be visiting during the National League Championship Series when Watson started screaming and running into his neighbor's house, was alarmed by his behavior.

"She lives in Boyertown with farms and cows all around her," Watson said, laughing. "I was thinking, 'There's no cows outside this house, Sweetheart. This is the real world. This is how it's done in the real world.' "

HOWARD'S BEARD: During World Series games 3 and 4, when Ryan Howard kept striking out, Watson and his neighbor shouted themselves hoarse.

"It's all about that stinking beard that Howard grew on his face after the Dodgers series," Watson said yesterday, before settling down within shouting distance of his front door to watch last night's game.

"Like most fans and most ballplayers, I'm superstitious," he said. "Ryan's the MVP of the Dodgers series without the beard, right? He grows the beard for the World Series and suddenly, he's striking out. I'm yelling at the TV, 'Take the beard off, Howard! The beard has to go!' My neighbor Rick agrees."

WHO'S YOUR BABY? Best friends since kindergarten in Moorestown, N.J., Brian Fitzgerald, dressed as Batman with a Phillies patch, and Mike White, who had a baby doll strapped to his chest, watched Halloween Night's Game 3 from the Rooftop in Ashburn Alley.

Broad Street Billy asked if the baby doll was a comment on former ace pitcher and recent new father Cole Hamels' fall from grace. "No," White said. "I'm supposed to be that guy with the baby in 'The Hangover.' "

By the time Hamels left Game 3, most of us standing in the nosebleed sections were feeling hungover, whether or not we'd had any beer.

HE SAID, SHE SAID: Sitting close to the cold night sky in leftfield, Justin Arena, 27, and Jessica Katsikas, 26, both living in Old City, put their 9-year relationship to the ultimate test.

Katsikas wore the Yankee cap of her Long Island, N.Y., ancestors. Arena's Buffalo, N.Y., hockey/football roots allowed him to become a Phillies fan in 2000, when he went to Penn and met Katsikas, little dreaming that 9 years later, they'd be sitting at Game 4 of the Phils'-Yankees World Series, screaming for opposite sides.

"I asked her to agree that no matter what happens tonight, we won't be at each other's throats afterwards," Arena said as Game 4 got underway.

She said no.

Asked if he would protect Katsikas in the unlikely event that Phillies fans showered her with abuse, Arena said, "If she eggs them on, she's on her own. To which Katsikas replied defiantly, I do not keep a low profile at baseball games. I can't help it. The Yankees are in my blood."

Send your Phillies anecdotes to Broad Street Billy at phillies@phillynews.com