Wiley Veterans

For those of you who have yet to see it, the Phillies recently released The Vet, a two-DVD love letter to their old ballpark. We purchased this for our dad and were able to watch some of it before leaving PA to come back to VA. Some parts of it are terribly funny (or funnily terrible, perhaps?), including a reel of old promotional commercials from as far back as 1979. A lot of bang for $15. Comparatively, our Ryan Howard t-shirt cost $22.

In terms of Veterans Stadium memories, our most memorable, as sad as it might be to think about, would have to be sitting in the upper deck by the rightfield foul pole on Oct 15, 1983, to witness Game 4 of the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. The visiting eventual-champs got the best of Cy Young Award and Game 1 winner John Denny, 5-4, including a singles-packed first inning and a late-game bases-loaded walk. Howard Cosell called the game and seemed ready to launch into one of his famous incantations as the Phils notched a run in the bottom of the ninth to rally, but ultimately, the great mouth was silenced as the Phils could do no more. Deep in centerfield that day, a solitary banner hung from the bottom of Phanavision: "Shut Up, Howard."

Whether for Cosell or Eskin, truer words have never faced a sadder ballpark.