Letters: My father & the Phillies

Philadelphia Daily News

I'VE written periodically about my elderly father and our shared love of the Philadelphia Phillies. I've joined with Dad in the joy of baseball since I was a little girl, and he taught me along the way to embrace the agony and the rare bounty of many decades of Phillies teams.

This year Dad turned 97, and his health prevented him from attending games with me, but he watched all 162 from the comfort of his lounge chair. His humor, loyalty and buoyancy were the perfect recipe to weather the highs and lows of the '09 Phillies season.

And what a season it was. Jayson Werth stole home, the Phils sent five to the All Star Game, they had 43 come-from-behind wins, were the best road team in baseball, Eric Bruntlett completed an unassisted triple play, they battled valiantly to claim another National League conference championship, and Chase Utley tied the all-time home-run record in a World Series.

It would have been amazing to beat the Yankees, but I feel so grateful to be a fan in the time of this very special team of Phillies players - players who will primarily remain a part of a nucleus that can win again and again in years to come.

Dad fell ill in September and saw the beginning of the playoffs from his hospital bed. Despite his diminished strength, he would smile warmly as we watched the games together.

He passed away in early October, and I wondered if I could really enjoy the performance of our fabulous boys of October without him. But it was in playoff Game 4 versus the Rockies, when the Phils were losing in the ninth, down to their last out, that I thought lovingly of my father.

Ryan Howard told his teammates to find a way to get on base. "Just get me to the plate, boys," he said, and he delivered with a double, knocking in the tying runs. The Phillies went on to win that game in dramatic fashion. Dad would have been so proud of the grit and spunk our boys showed because it continues to be one of their greatest defining characteristics.

Dad stepped up to the plate all of his life - for his family, his church, his community - and he respected this Phillies team for their ability to step up day after day through their marathon seasons.

In the fall, when the sunlight glistens on yellow and red leaves - when baseball prepares its final battlefields, and fans ready themselves for the inevitable end of the season - we can get glimpses of the ghosts of our past and the possibilities of our future. This Phillies team will stay for a while longer and I am looking forward to the spring, when baseball comes alive and new again.

Thank you, Phillies, for a wonderful season - and for being one of the many threads of gold in the fabric of my father's luminous life.

Wanda Mial, Philadelphia