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Taming the jitters with Phanaticism

I WAS AT THE VET in '93 for Game 4, sure that the upper deck - which was trembling under the phrantic pheet of thousands of shrieking phans - was about to come crashing down.

Phan Heather Steinberg: She scrawled the roster on her car.
Phan Heather Steinberg: She scrawled the roster on her car.Read more

I WAS AT THE VET in '93 for Game 4, sure that the upper deck - which was trembling under the phrantic pheet of thousands of shrieking phans - was about to come crashing down.

But our mass hysteria wasn't enough to add a few miles-per-hour to Wild Thing's phlaccid phastball so we watched the game and the Series slip away, long before his Game 6 gift to the Blue Jays' Joe Carter.

So if you're feeling as nervous as I am about tonight, here's some uplifting stuff that fellow diehards have been sending me at Phillies@phillynews. com.

Send me your Phils-phan

photos and stories because: This is Our Time! This is Your Page!

Pheel-Good Phight Song: Jim Foley and his Canadian Invasion rockers, all Philly and Jersey die-hards - the band name is from an epic "South Park" - can be seen on www.myspace.com/atcoghost singing their Series phight song:

"J-Roll will be stealing

And Chase will be fielding

Another sharply hit line drive

The Big Man will homer

And we'll cheer the town over

It's a wonderful time to be alive!"

In fall '93, after a summer of hanging at the Vet, Foley and his best friend, Jeff, camped outside the ticket window for 2 days to score tickets to Game 5.

"We made a sign: 'We just scalped some Braves; now let's smoke some Jays,' " Foley said. "It lasted about 20 minutes before they made us take it down."

They'll be at Game 4. No word on the new sign.

Heather the Phanatic: Heather Steinberg from Northeast Philadelphia writes: "Here at the Steinberg household, we eat, breathe and sleep Phillies. Too bad we got rain today. My car looks like a million birds pooped on it."

That's because her black Monte Carlo is covered with the Phils' roster, "Phillies Phever!" and "I Werth!" - in washable paint.

Heather's front window features a life-size cutout of a grinning Cole Hamels saying, "World Series! Here We Come! NL Champs, Baby!"

Her 80-year-old grandfather, Seymour "Pop-Pop" Steinberg, has been selling hot dogs, cotton candy and ice cream at Phils games since 1954.

"Because of his age and all those years of walking up and down stadium steps from Connie Mack to the Vet to the Bank, he's in a stand on the 300 level now," she said.

"Why's he still working Phils games? Because like all us Steinbergs, he bleeds Phils red!"

Bottle-Breaking Bulletin: Daily News beer reporter Joe Sixpack reports that 9th District cops were hand-delivering a letter to Center City bar owners yesterday asking them to "please refrain from serving glass bottles to patrons" during a potential Series-clinching game because "patrons may exit the establishment after the game ends and throw the bottles" at people and/or property.

My interpretation: Philly cops BELIEVE! Go Phils! *