MY PHELLOW phanatics, I've had a phantastic week, thanks to the phlood of Phils stuff you've sent to
Just between us, if you're going to a Series game, Horgan sits in Section 117, Row 9. Stop by and give him a rub. Tell him Broad Street Billy sent you.
Kelly's Phillies Bedroom: Kelly Bloor, 27, turned her bedroom into a Phillies shrine featuring a Chase Utley couch with his life-sized face casting those cool hitter's eyes around the room, artificial-turf carpeting and a closet in which only her Phightin's wardrobe hangs. "I cannot wait for the parade!" she said. Kelly rocks!
Jerry Makes Phriends: Jerry Marshall, 41, deaf since birth and a Drexel University restaurant worker for the past 20 years, walked into the Daily News wearing his Ryan Howard jersey and could hardly hold his pen still long enough to write on a pad:
"3rd Game! McFadden's! TV! Many friends!"
So, if you're in McFadden's pub at the Bank tomorrow, say hi to Marshall. He loves his Phillies as much as he loves seeing strangers become pals.
Phillies in Heaven: Upper Darby native Evy Petrone, 77, who has been a phan since her Shibe Park childhood and who now lives in Ocean City, N.J., called to read a poem that her son Marc, a South Philly doctor, wrote her as a World Series gift:
"Imagine, if you will, the scene in heaven . . .
A sea of red for the Best of Seven . . .
Whitey, Pope, Tugger and the Vuke . . .
Front-row seats next to Marzano and St. Luke . . .
Believe in their power as we pound the Rays . . .
For heaven is red this October's final days . . . "
"Marc's father is also up in heaven," Petrone said. "So I know the Phillies are going to win for him, too."
How big a Phils phan is she? "Remember when they played the 1980 World Series and Tugger [Tug McGraw] used to slap his leg all the time?" she said. "Well, I actually had a hand mark on my thigh from smacking my leg right along with him."
Hit Man for Howard: Chestnut Hill native Jaime "The Swing Mechanic" Cevallos is a Phillies diehard who now teaches batting technique to the pros, including the Rays' red-hot late-season hitter Ben Zobrist.
Cevallos believes he can help struggling slugger Ryan Howard.
"He doesn't give himself a long enough area of impact - which is how long the bat is square to the ball through the impact zone," said Cevallos, who played shortstop for LaSalle College High School's 1994 Catholic League Northern Division champs.
"You want to be able to swing as late as possible. Because of his mechanics, he has to make that decision way too early, and he's not getting a good look at the pitch.
"It's a mechanical problem that can be very easily fixed. The change would be immediate." Ryan! Call Jaime! Like, now!
Sister Phillie: Sister Mary Angela, 86, who also has been going to Phils games since Shibe Park, is at Maria Joseph Manor Assisted Living in Danville, Pa., hanging on every World Series pitch.
It's been a year since she and her colleagues moved there from the shuttered Dominican Retreat House in Elkins Park.
Although she loves being surrounded by mountains, she said, "There just aren't enough Phillies fans around here."
Sister Mary Angela, who caught for her Tacony youth-softball team, is so Phillie-centric that recently an aide cheered, "Yay, Rays!" just to get her goat.
"I said, 'You get out of here!' " Sister Mary Angela exclaimed, laughing. "I guess I'm the most diehard Phillies fan here." *
