Phillies fans celebrate a night of good karma

Tonight was the kind of night when good things happened.

After being whipsawed through the first four games of a National League Championship Series, a span that included a heartbreaking loss in Game 2, an 11-0 laugher in the next game, and a dramatic bottom-of-the-ninth finish in Game 4, the faithful were anticipating a win long before tonight's home-run-fueled 10-4 romp.

By game time tonight, Phillies fans had cheered, booed, shouted, jeered - they'd done everything but weep. They had serenaded the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez with "You Took Steroids!" and sent up regular, in-unison chants of "Beat L.A.!"

In the end, it was the kind of night when total strangers hugged, high-fived and bought each other beers for no reason other than they were happy and their team was on top.

Case in point: On their way into Citizens Bank Park, sisters Joan Buehler and Barb Royal struck up a conversation with a man in a Phillies shirt, a Los Angeles native who is relocating to Philadelphia for work. In the spirit of the evening, he sprung for Miller Lites.

"It's good karma," said Royal, 40, of Cherry Hill, who hooked multiple rally towels onto her belt loops, for luck. "The energy here is unbelievable."

"We didn't want to play a Game 6, especially if the Yankees win," said Buehler, 47, of Collingswood. The Yankees lead the American League Championship Series three games to the Angels' one, and could clinch tomorrow night.

Even before game time, Center City sidewalk vendor Craig Brooks was selling red shirts emblazoned with: "2009 National League Champion Phillies."

Was he being a little overconfident, or worried he'd get stuck with worthless stock?

"It's a done deal," said the North Philadelphia man, who operates his booth six days a week, selling shirts and DVDs. "You've got to have confidence in your team. They're the champions. Champions don't lose."

At 7:31 p.m., woman in Rittenhouse Square calling herself mmmeghan on Twitter posted this observation: "Dude walking across the street with an open Heineken in front of cops? Yeah, we're winning tonight and everyone knows it already."

And as soon as the game ended, fans inside Citizens Bank Park took in the celebration while fans around the city took to the streets.

First out were the people in Mayfair. By the time the game ended, they were ready.

The celebration at Leneghan's III on Frankford Avenue was well under way by the top of the eighth inning. The air smelled of beer and sweat, and jersey-clad fans pounded the wooden bar with each strikeout.

The bar exploded with the final out, firecrackers went off in the street outside, and thousands gathered at Frankford and Cottman Avenues.

John Grisillo offered high-fives to everyone around him, screaming at the top of his lungs. "This is it!" Grisillo, 24, yelled. "We've got it this year, next year . . . Bring it on, Yankees, bring it on!"

Smoke from fireworks filled the air, a police helicopter hovered overhead as throngs poured out onto the street as the sound of "High Hopes" flooded out from the bars.

A man marched down the center of Frankford waving a large Phillies flag like a soldier in a parade. Women danced in the street outside the bars, screaming and hugging. Women carried on men's shoulders flashed their breasts. Guys tore off their shirts and crowd-surfed.

One man managed to climb atop a stoplight and rode it like a mechanical bull.

Next up where the folks in South Philly, who began what is now their traditional trek up Broad to City Hall.

In West Philadelphia, hundreds of Drexel University students heading toward City Hall on Market Street were quelled by police stationed at Schuylkill Avenue who closed the thoroughfare.

The Drexel fans, cheering and screaming, hit the wall of police, turned around, and walked back along Market.

Shawn Busolits, 20, in his third year of computer science, said: "Last year the cops were really cool. We're not trying to do anything illegal."

At the University Crossings building at 32d and Market, residents were hanging out of windows cheering as crowds came by.

The people in North Philly joined the masses last, but then they had been warned by in an e-mail sent Temple University officials that university and city police would ben on North Broad to keep things under control.

Half hour after the game was over, they were heading down Broad.

In anticipation of more-than-exuberant celebration of a second consecutive trip to the World Series, Philadelphia officials took some never-before-done precautions.

They removed the high-tech garbage-compacting bins from South Broad Street and replaced them with old-style cans chained against light stands; they removed Phillies banners from utility poles, and they coated poles, bus shelters and even trees with a yellowish goo that bears a resemblance to petroleum jelly to discourage people from climbing atop them.

Also, they deployed more officers in Center City, the South Street area, and parts of the Northeast that were hot spots of trouble during last year's World Series celebration, and supplemented them with state troopers on horseback.

Good call, but largely unneeded as early on the revelers were loud, but mostly well-behaved.

Later on, apart from a few sporadic fistfights throughout the city, reports for some minor property damage, including reports of a few broken windows and people jumping on cars, the mayhem did not approach last year's chaos after the World Series.

(Indeed, the sum of police activity early this morning was: some vandalism at Broad and Shunk in South Philly; a few people throwing bottles at Frankford and Cottman - police responded by clearing the area; a few recalcitrant fans at Broad and Walnut, Broad and Oregon, and other locations south of City Hall - officers began herding them into police vans; a few injuries requiring medic units; and no reports of serious injuries or looting.)

Seems Philadelphians are getting used to winning.