a house divided

Do any of you follow baseball?

Well, the World Series is finally over. I say "finally" because it has been a rough week in the Brown Wall household.

You may remember last year:That's me and my dad at Game 5 of the World Series. Notice how we are rooting for the Phillies?

Here is Christopher. Notice how he's wearing a Yankees hat?

For those of you who don't follow these important events, this fall the Yankees played the Phillies in the World Series.

After 6 games, guess who won? Christopher and I have a very supportive relationship, and all summer we have been rooting for each other's teams. But we both draw the line when it comes to rooting against our own team, which made for some very tense World Series watching in our household. Cheering was banned. Being excited seemed mean, as was making comments about a play. One person's victory meant the other person's defeat. Watching the game in more or less alone and silence was not much fun, and so we were both relieved when the Series was over, even though it meant that my team had lost. At least they put up a good fight.

Yesterday I accompanied Christopher to the Yankees ticker tape parade on Lower Broadway. It started at 11, and we got there around 10:45. Not the best timing, and we ended up with this view: That's a big clump of ticker tape (aka shredded recycling) falling from the sky above that girl's shoulder.

It was disappointing, and later Christopher reminded me that it was a "lifelong dream" of his to watch the Yankees celebrate a World Series victory with a ticker tape parade at the Canyon of Heroes. He even had written this into an essay of his, and now he was sad to have not seen a single Yankee at the parade. Oops. Sorry. At least his team won...

we are the champions!

I went back to Philadelphia yesterday afternoon. It was totally worth a second trip, though it was eerie to sit in the same seats with the same people around us. The guy who gave me my rally towel told me that this was like Groundhog Day. Yeah, it was like we'd never left.
The crowd was about 100 times more enthusiastic than on Monday. (Not being drenched makes a big difference in one's morale) We barely sat down, and were quickly hoarse from the chanting and yelling.Did you hear that we won? Not just the game, but the WORLD SERIES!??We took the subway back to where we'd parked near Spring Garden Street, and when we emerged from the station there were tons of people streaming down Broad Street to City Hall. Everyone was honking and cheering. I thought that they only celebrated like this in Europe; clearly my teams don't win often enough!The parade is tomorrow. I don't think I'll be going back down to Philly for a third time this week; I think I actually need to go to work...

rain delayed

Those of you who don't live in Philadelphia and who might not follow baseball may not realize that the Philadelphia Phillies are in the World Series.
The Phillies. My team.

OK. I'm not the best fan. I follow the team mostly for my dad's sake, and until last week I didn't even know who the players were. At all. Last time I checked, Lenny Dykstra was the main guy. But that was 15 years ago, the last time they were in the World Series.

Christopher and I have been watching this year's World Series games, which have typically had surprise endings in the early morning in which the Phillies magically win. It's been fun learning about the players, and were as surprised as anyone else when the pitcher magically hit a home run in Game 4. Going into Game 5, the Phillies just needed one more game to win the Series, which they haven't done since 1980, when I was in kindergarten.

This is all a lead up to the fact that my father had two tickets to last night's game, and that he had asked me to go with him. This was the game that could win the Series!! I can't really describe the excitement I felt, except to state that I decided that I had to knit a hat for my father to wear to the game. That's how excited I was. Half the people on the bus to Philadelphia were wearing Phillies gear, and when I got off the bus everyone else had it on too.

The spirit was in the air. Winning was within reach!

We took the subway to the field (which is super nice for a stadium, I have to say) and found our seats. Here was our view. Yeah, not so great. And it was kind of chilly, even though we'd dressed for the weather. And before long, it began to rain. At first it wasn't so bad, but then it began to drench us.

We were miserable and disappointed. Here was all this hype, a game that could lift this city's spirits, and we weren't enjoying it. We couldn't see. We were wet. We were cold. I was longing for a lap blanket, and my father started talking about how nice it would be to watch the game from home, in front of the fireplace. Being dry and warm sounded very appealing.Other fans began to leave. I noticed that my feet were sitting in a puddle. In between innings a grounds crew would come out and put more dirt on the diamond. It took forever and it only made us more depressed. Eventually, after the Rays tied the game 2-2 and players were slipping in puddles and dropping balls, the crew started to pull out the tarp. We knew this was it for the night, and headed home.

My enthusiasm is dampened. The game has been postponed to Wednesday night, due to even more disgusting weather today, and though I'd still like to be there for a win, and hopefully a better game, I feel a little betrayed by the whole event. I know a lot of fans are angry about the game, that it was scheduled to start so late and that it went on for so long. But I shouldn't hold that against the Phils, right?