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Ed Barkowitz: Diary of a World Series Championship

POSTED: October 30, 2008

By Ed Barkowitz

Daily News Sports Writer

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IT WAS A pleasure driving to the ballpark yesterday.

No rain was in sight and the Phillies were three innings from potentially winning the World

Fans celebrate on South Street after the Phillies win the World Series.
JESSICA GRIFFIN / Staff photographer
Fans celebrate on South Street after the Phillies win the World Series.
Series.

Walk with us as we take in the sights and sounds of an unprecedented day:

3:15 p.m. Pulled into the parking lot across from the third-base entrance of Citizens Bank Park. My 1999 Dodge stood out among the SUVs and Lexuses. Can definitely see a group of

rowdies celebrating in the back of the pickup. Enjoy yourselves, fellas. Just don't wreck anything, and leave a beer behind.

3:17: Growing up a Mike Schmidt homer away from the Vet, walking into an empty stadium on game day will never get old. Gates are still 2 hours away from being opened, and the only ones stirring are workers trying to make things just right.

3:20: Check e-mail and flights to Tampa, just in case. There's not much.

4:15: Run into Tina Curtain, a friend from Second Street, who is preparing her beer stand

behind home plate for the

onslaught.

4:35: Charlie Manuel starts his pregame news conference by

announcing that he will send in

a pinch-hitter for Cole Hamels and that Ryan Madson will be his pitcher to start the seventh. Technicalities aside, it is Madson's first start since July 30, 2006.

4:49: Brett Myers calls Charlie Manuel a "father figure." It was nice to hear, especially in light of their heated exchange in August, when Manuel yanked the starter from a game.

5:03: Rays manager Joe Maddon, an avid rock fan, expresses his regret at not catching up with George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers during the team's stay at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington.

5:08: Maddon calls the circumstances surrounding Monday night's game "kinda freaky." He later says that, win or lose, he will not complain about the situation, because "there's no crying in baseball."

5:20: On the main concourse, two small flatbeds are whizzing around delivering game programs. With gates opening in

10 minutes, it's easy to understand the urgency.

5:22: Run into a fan trying his best to blend in as a worker. Seems he somehow snuck in and was sweating out being spotted. Says he spent a half-hour in the men's room and was angry he didn't have the good sense to bring a Daily News.

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