My beloved Philadelphia Phillies are in the playoffs for the fourth time in a row. Very impressive when you consider in my first 31 years, they made the playoffs about 4 times my whole life. I can’t remember 1980 at all, and my memories of 1983 are distant and fuzzy (sorta like college). But 1993 I can certainly remember. It was the year my pimples finally cleared up, I got my drivers license, started my senior year of high school. In fact, the day they lost the World Series to the Blue Jays, I was down in Baltimore looking at Loyola College. What an up and down day in my life, the rush of meeting girls from exotic places like Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware, then the heartbreak of seeing Joe Carter smash the ball Mitch Williams threw to him into the stands at the Skydome. That playoff run was so memorable though, and everything took a backseat to those ’93 Phiiles, even my awkward pursuit of trying to pick up girls.

Fast forward 14 years before the Phillies get to make it to the playoffs again. I make it through four amazing years of college supporting four dreadful teams from Philly. (Except the 1997 Flyers who made it to the Cup) And all throughout my booze hound early twenties, most of my teams were in the basement with the exception of the 2001 Sixers and the 2004 Eagles. Now I am “grown up”, please try not to chuckle. And we have been blessed with all this Phillies magic. This time around I work in higher education in the admissions department and I responded to one of my applicants from the Philadelphia area about how exciting this time of life is for him and that when I was his age, the Phillies were in the World Series too. His response was something like “OMG, LOL, WTF, LMAO” or whatever the hell these kids say to each other via text and IM.

I only wish Jack, my 2 1/2 year old son, could remember all of this. The Phillies have been playing well since his conception. Another one of my up and down days was the day we found out he was a boy- the Phillies lost their first playoff game in October of 2007. We were in the ultrasound office finding out he was a boy about the same time the Phillies lost. (It was the first and only time I was ever excited to see a penis.) The next year though, when Jack was about 6 months old, they made the playoffs again. And we were lucky enough to see the Phillies beat the Brewers in Milwaukee to move onto the next round. Jack was at his first Phillies game, and what a first game. A playoff game! It was my first playoff Phillies game too. Except I was 32 and Jack was six months, what a lucky kid! They went on to win the World Series of course, and the day of the parade was Halloween. So after partying it up on Broad Street, something I looked forward to my entire life, I came home to take him trick or treating dressed as the cutest little chicken ever That day was all up for me, the only down was trying to get back to Jersey with all the chaos in Philly.

So here we go again, I can’t focus, I don’t know what day it is, and all I can think about is how great another parade down Broad Street is going to be!

 

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