The atmosphere at Citizen’s Ball Park in Philadelphia was electric, as cocky Philly fans strode into the stadium, and valiantly waved on their sports heroes business as usual.
Fear the beard?
Perish the thought!
In spite of rustling up a spat of wins in recent days, the Giants didn’t get much respect initially, when they humbly sauntered into town.
By the end of the night, however, sports critics were scrambling to fathom a victory, that literally knocked the Philadelphia players out of the ball park.
Well, their psyches, at least.
Until last night, the Phillies boasted - that over the past 7 years - they’d always won the 1st game in any play-off series they participated in.
It was a crushing blow to die-hard fans when - come the 9th inning - the Phillies went down.
Of course, there will be a lot of Sunday morning “dugout” analysis on the specifics, sure to run the gamut.
Big outs! Highlight moments! Strikes & walks (that wowed ‘em).
But, the assessment by one spotlighted ball player, was the only one on the money.
“We checked our egos at the door, put our personal stats aside, and came together as a team,” Cody Ross (Giants) uttered up sincerely, at the bottom of the 9th.
For Ross, it’s been a classic Hollywood-style story.
A star pitcher (rolling out the fastballs for the Giants) got sick one night, so Cody - usually twiddling his thumbs in the dugout after being traded-off - got a call from the brass.
“You’re up kid!”
The rest, as they say, is baseball history.
If you go along with the scuttlebutt, without doubt, Roy Halladay - a “Golden Boy” in Baseball circles - was at the top of his game last night.
So, when one fan underscored from the sidelines that it was “all in the pitching”, some were left to scratch their crotches and replay all the smooth moves in their heads, to figure out the surprise turn-of-events late in the match on the diamond in Philadelphia on Friday eve.
What happened?
A torture tour, indeed!
“When the 2nd home run came, it totally changed the direction of the game,” an astute sports observer - rooting for the Giants - asserted to all within earshot.
Perhaps die-hard fans - who flew out on red-eye flights to catch the kick-off game - provided the inspiration the Giants needed to hang tough (with quiet confidence), push that much harder (and ultimately) lift the bar.
Meanwhile, it was a real hoot catching the reactions on the faces of a handful of players, when they struck out (walked, even).
Fear of the beard?
Not an urban myth, by any stretch of the imagination!
In fact, by the end of the 1st game of the playoffs, it was a grim reality.
After all, the Giants roared from behind, ripped the turf from under the Phillies - and before the players knew what hit them - suddenly owned the night.
The general consensus?
The Giants earned it!
Now, the frenzied “Playoff fever” has definitely settled in.
At trendy watering holes in San Francisco, fans started to tip their elbows early in the day, and the chug-a-lugging continued into the long good night.
A sea of orange and black said it all.
If ‘ya didn’t catch a “fear the beard” t-shirt in the crowd, it was for legal reasons.
The two gents (paramedics from Santa Cruz) who drummed up the catchy slogan have a copyright pending on the intellectual property which is currently stirring up a rant around the country.
Although relentless fans may be able to rustle up a shirt in the Santa Cruz area, the shelves at the Giants’ souvenir shop remain empty ‘til the rights to the novelty item have been signed, sealed, and delivered.
Curiously, the two creators of the celebrated phrase of the day, stated for the record on the news last night that they weren’t out to make a fistful of bucks on their idea.
“If we make enough to pay for trips to the games, that would be great,” they gushed to the reporter who tracked them down.
If that’s the case, just maybe, the visionary duo wouldn’t mind if fans scrawled the message on an old sweatshirt or two, as they head out to catch Game 2 Sunday afternoon.
By the way, clear skies are expected in Philadelphia.
It may end up being a starry night, in more ways than one, eh?
See ‘ya there!
http://www.thetattler.biz/
Go Giants Go!
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