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READER FEEDBACK

Crowd greets players at 30th Street Station

By STEPHANIE FARR
Philadelphia Daily News

farrs@phillynews.com 215-854-4225

AS THE PHILLIES reached the top of an escalator in 30th Street Station yesterday, they were faced with the statue of an angel holding up the limp body of a fallen man.

They were also faced with a throng of about 200 fans who, like that angel, held up their tired team - not with their arms but with their voices.

"We came because they deserve to know we're all proud of them," said Elaine Palmiero, 46, who came with her son from Washington Township, N.J. "No matter what, it was a great fight."

Only a handful of prominent Phillies, including Charlie Manuel, Brad Lidge and Cole Hamels, took Amtrak back to Philadelphia.

Team spokeswoman Bonnie Clark later said that some players had made their own travel arrangements based on their schedules or desire to drive back to Philly with family members.

Ryan Madson and J.A. Happ offered the best smiles to the crowd, but even those charming grins couldn't warm the disappointed hearts of Angela Dougherty and Ruby Murphy, both 5 years old.

They waited with their moms for three hours to see Chase Utley, who wasn't on the train.

"I didn't get to see our Chase," Dougherty said, pouting. "He's our man."

Several people unintentionally found their way to the welcoming because the SEPTA strike had diverted them or because they'd gone to the station for lunch.

Others, like a group of Amtrak employees on their lunch breaks passed around the news via e-mail.

"I'm multitasking," one employee said.

Brent Haverly, 19, and his Drexel University roommate Matt Castelli, 19, came to the station with rally towels in hand.

"We've got to let them know they're champions," Haverly said.

After the Phils lost Game 6, "the reality of life came in," said Haverly, who stayed up with Castelli to study for an engineering exam."We had our own game to play."

A 56-year-old Mount Airy resident who called himself Town Watch Tony, dressed in a Phillies T-shirt, gray blazer and a cowboy hat, came with three giant Phillies collages to welcome the team home.

"Don't you dare drop those heads," he said to the few players who arrived at the station. "There should be no disappointment from you or anybody else."

As fans waited for the possibility of another train carrying the rest of the team, a message came over the public address system:

"There are no more Phillies," the announcer said. "The Phillies have left the building."

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Comments

Posted 03:22 AM, 11/06/2009

phigglesfan75

Glad to see people cheering for them...

Comment removed.

Posted 09:04 AM, 11/06/2009

justicemsb

People SHOULD be cheering for them. They did the city proud. I for one think they're awesome and they'll be back next year doing the same great job they did this year.

Posted 09:33 AM, 11/06/2009

IrishBrendan

So few of your players returned to Philly?? Ha. If I was a Phillie, I too would probably chose to stay around New York for a while rather than to rush back to Philadelphia... speaks VOLUMES!

Posted 11:49 AM, 11/06/2009

demise1893

Great season, with many more to come.

Posted 11:52 AM, 11/06/2009

CollingswoodResident

Although I am upset that Lee was not played in game 6 and they lost, I am glad they made it to the World Series and that Philadelphia got 3 games at home.

Posted 11:58 AM, 11/06/2009

Jeff

IrishBrendan - Are you drunk? Where does the article say that the players stayed in NY? It says "some players had made their own travel arrangements based on their schedules or desire to drive back to Philly with family members." Have another beer, LOSER.

Posted 12:02 PM, 11/06/2009

nb378

IrishBrendan: I don't know what planet you live on, but here on Earth, there are multiple modes of transportation to take to get from one place to another. Your logic (only a few Phillies on Amtrack=all the others are still hanging out in NYC) is juvenile and elementary.

Posted 12:55 PM, 11/06/2009

whsmith

IrishBrendan: why are you always posting on a Philadelphia newspaper? Just to jeer and mock? Kinda lame, no? SPEAKS VOLUMES! Go join the tepid, jaded celebrations of a city that doesn't know how to really be happy about something.

Posted 12:57 PM, 11/06/2009

whsmith

... and i think it's nice those folks turned out. if i had known, i would have too! at the end of the day, the phillies are human beings and the little things can really mean something.

Posted 01:01 PM, 11/06/2009

donnybrook

phigglesfan, that is a cool name!

Posted 01:13 PM, 11/06/2009

donnybrook

IrishBrendan - aren't there some NY news sites for you to busy yourself on? I think there are quite a few. And, if you're going to be the cool, hip, edgy outsider guy in a Philly site, you need to be cool, hip, and edgy. and have something to say. Philly fans are saying the Yanks are a good team, yanks fans think ridiculing philly fans is just the ticket. ARE YOU GLAD THE YANKEES WON, OR SIMPLY GLAD THE PHILLIES LOST? leave the bedroom in mom's house and take a walk in that extraordinary city of yours.

Posted 01:26 PM, 11/06/2009

w3ar3fr33

i liked the guy who said, "don't you dare drop your head". that right there shows what a phan of the phillies are like; true fans that truly are in their game

Posted 01:39 PM, 11/06/2009

MRD

Hope all of you were upset over what happened to your team in NY. You should have won, but now my team is in the best parade ever and enjoying ever second of it!!!!!!!! Go Yanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!