With the Phils off for a week, I think I deserve a break too. I'll be back Monday with some kind of World Series (WORLD SERIES!) preview I haven't thought up yet. Deal?

Ignore the haters and the doubters. Lose your cynicism and negativity. We're in the World Series! Have a great weekend, I know I will.

I've run out of rants and pep talks and complaints about crappy, negative sportswriters. I have no further thoughts on the brawl, or the media's blatant LA bias, or Dodgers fans booing Shane Victorino because of the unusual quirk of his personality where he doesn't want 95 mph projectiles hitting him in the head. Watching this remarkable team, I've been reduced to nothing but a "fan" in the absolute purest sense: all I want to do now is just watch them. I feel an amazingly calm confidence. Whatever happens tonight and beyond, happens.

And that's my excuse for not having anything interesting to say about Game 5: because after everything that's happened so far, what else is there for a guy like me to say? These Phillies speak for themselves. Sit back and let it happen.

I can't sleep again. Not because I'm worried or horrified like last night, but because I'm totally wired and excited, because I just saw the greatest comeback ever, and someday I will name my first son Matt Stairs Rosenberg.

I really should be asleep because I have jury duty on Tuesday - yeah that's right, actual jury duty, because my life sucks - and therein lies a slightly interesting anecdote. I watched the game over at Andrew's place, and for most of the game we watched the Phils have terrible at bats - I mean, just endlessly terrible - and doing stupid things like putting So Taguchi (worst member of the team by a wide, gaping margin) in to pinch hit even though he's just awful, and playing sloppy D and just generally not being better than the Dodgers, and it was so depressing and bad, and the mood in the room was about as foul as I recall it ever being. (At one point, after Tim McCarver called our catcher "ROO-izz" for the 90th time, instead of "roo-EEZ" which every other human on Earth calls him because that's his name - I went on an obscene tirade about how thoroughly ridiculous it is that McCarver continues to have a job when he's really bad at it and everyone in the country hates him.) Anyway, I spent a good porton of the game just thinking about how tomorrow I have jury duty, and I was dreading it and feeling like crap because I really don't want to go, especially not right after the Phils dropped two in a row like losers and ruined the whole season.

An hour or two or whenever later, I was screaming and running back and forth in Andrew's house because Matt Stairs is the greatest human being alive. And now I feel great and I can't wait for Game 5 - I'm more excited about that than anything else, ever, because it has the potential to be the greatest game of all time, and yes, this is the most hyperbolic paragraph I've ever written, especially this sentence.

I just saw Mitch Williams on the postgame show say "It's never over until it's over", and he's right, this thing isn't over. I'll always be a little nervous, and I won't rest easy until the final out is recorded and I see the champagne bottles. All I know is, I have a ticket to Game 6, and I don't want to go. I want it to end in LA. I want the next game at CBP to be Game 3 of the World Series. But that's only going to happen if Cole brings it on Wednesday and the rest of the guys do what they do, and, well, every time I doubt that's going to happen, these Phillies prove me wrong. And for that, I thank them. I believe, guys, I believe.

Why Jamie Why?

I've had all of today to calm down, but really, that was just haunting. I actually couldn't get to sleep last night. I love Jamie Moyer, but that was probably the least clutch thing I've ever seen. I mean I never thought this would be a sweep (as limitlessly cool as that would be), and if the Dodgers pulled out a squeaker or two, I'd be disappointed and nervous but basically okay. But with a 2-0 lead, you can't go out in Game 3 and just let the other team pound you and get back their confidence.

Or maybe intangibles like "confidence" are overrated, and the Phils just had a bad night and they'll get their act together tonight and everything will be fine. That sounds reasonable too. Who can say? I still believe, and so should you.

Meanwhile, I defy anyone to convince me that Joe Buck and Tim McCarver – and by extension, Fox – aren’t openly rooting for the Dodgers. I understand that Fox would much prefer a Dodgers/Red Sox World Series (as flawed as that logic may be), but is it necessary to be so brazenly obvious about it? The vast majority of their mostly inane babbling revolved around the Dodgers and particularly Manny Ramirez, who they felt the need to talk about at every possible free moment, even, at one point, when he had already flied out to center three batters earlier. (It wouldn’t be quite so bad if they and the rest of the national media liked Manny for the right reasons – i.e. he’s arguably the greatest hitter on the planet right now – but they only love him because despite all his talent he has the mentality and maturity of a four year old, making him suddenly do and say crazy things that must be entertaining if you’re either a bored sportswriter, a bored sportscaster, or a random TV viewer who happened to tune in and has no serious interest in the game and just wants to see someone do something wacky.) They spent a great deal of time talking about a Dodgers/Red Sox World Series as if it was a foregone conclusion, reducing the Phillies to a kind of baseball equivalent of the Washington Generals - a team that was on the field solely to give up home runs to Manny Ramirez, or to be thrown at by headhunting Dodger pitchers. (I know that I was losing sleep over whether the Dodgers pitchers had the respect of the Dodgers batters, and I thank Buck and McCarver for mentioning 40 times that this was no longer an issue.)

At one point Buck spent like four minutes telling us that Tanyon Sturtze and Mark Sweeney, two injured Dodgers who aren’t on the active roster, travel with the team and hang out in the locker room to keep the team “loose”, a story so wildly pointless and uninteresting that I now wonder if maybe I actually dreamt it. Buck even made a point to mention that Sturtze is a former Yankee, a detail that gives the story multiple, almost Joycean levels of irrelevance.

They also found tenuous excuses to mention Vin Scully and Don Drysdale - no mentions of Harry Kalas or Steve Carlton that I remember. None of those four people have much to do with the action on the field, but my point is that there's such a thing as equal time. I don't know, I mean I was at Game 1, and I watched Game 2 in a bar with the sound down, so maybe they talked more about the Phillies during those games. And look, I'll freely admit that the Phils had a crappy night, had no answers for Kuroda, and weren't at that particular moment really worth talking about, but really, they had a 2-0 lead in the series! Buck and McCarver were acting like the Dodgers were about to clinch the whole thing! I know what I heard and if I hear more of it tonight I will stab somebody.

Also: Dodgers fans, how DARE you leave early during the NLCS with your team up five runs? I hate you people.

Also also: Baseball players are bunch of posturing crybaby wusses. That's really all I have to say about the brawl. Shut up and play ball, children.

Enough about Game 3. It's in the past, and all that matters is tonight. It's going to be okay. You've trusted them this far, right?

We're here we will we can finish what we began

This is how good the Wire show at Johnny Brenda's was last night: I actually stopped thinking about the Phillies for an hour. A whole hour!

The legend of the 2008 Phillies continues to grow: Brett's three hits, Shane's spectacular leaping catch, and the team winning one for Mrs. Manuel. Meanwhile, I saw the game immediately after work (I literally ran across the street with some coworkers to the nearest bar) and they won just in time for me to head north for the aforementioned asskicking concert.

Game 3 is crucial. These series are all about momentum, and I don't want LA to get back into it with two more games at home. But everything is starting to look like it's clicking for the Phils, finally, so if Jamie and Joe have solid games, and if Ryan wakes up, then we're in good shape.

I'm seeing Phils hats and t-shirts everywhere, and I feel a new, unfamiliar, and totally fantastic wave of optimism in the city. I really do. Don't listen to the curmudgeons and negativists (a new word I have just coined). This team is for real and we're ready to believe. Lay it on me, Fightin' Phils.

Today's Game 2 start time leaves us no time to breathe or process what we just saw. I can't even reflect on Game 1, I already have to think about the next matchup. That said, I'm probably the one guy in town who's happy about the start time, because I have tickets to see Wire at 9:00, and I thought I was going to have to unload those tickets (Phillies in NLCS outranks veteran art-punks, I'm afraid). I get out of work five minutes before first pitch, so some coworkers and I will be running across the street to the nearest bar. Then it's up to JB's to destroy my precious hearing some more.

It's all about momentum. Happy Friday!

So, today my two favorite AL teams, the White Sox and Angels, got eliminated. Fortunately, I don't have time to care this year.

BEAT LA! It's so nice to be able to say that again. I mean I'm always sort of thinking it, so this just validates it. The picture above is from Game 2 - I'm just that far behind. Game 3 was dumb, let's never speak of it again. Game 4 was fantastic, a real joy to watch. Blanton really gave me hope for the rest of the way - if Moyer bounces back, that's four solid starters.

Just let me add a few words about Game 2, because I was there. Much has already been written about Myers' amazing at-bat against Sabathia but you really kind of had to see it to get it. I've never been one to put much stock in the effect fans have on a team - I figure if a team's good it's good, and could play in a vacuum (not literally) or in the desert or wherever and play roughly as well. (Bill Simmons is always going on and on about how the Celtics play better because Celtics fans are so incredibly great and wonderful, and you know how I feel about that guy and his lunatic opinions.) But I must admit, I really think the crowd urged Myers on - we weren't just going to settle for our crappily-hitting pitcher striking out on three pitches. He needed to foul some off, and he did. I don't know, maybe not. At any rate, I've seen pitchers get hits and RBI, I've seen pitchers hit home runs, I've seen pitchers hit grand slams - but I think it might have been the greatest at-bat by a pitcher ever.

Hey, the Phillies are in the NLCS, I'm allowed a little hyperbole.

I think we match up well with the Dodgers. I'd like to believe that if we can shut Manny down and get some timely hitting, we'll be fine. Maybe it's not that simple. Either way, we will play better than the Cubs did, I genuinely believe that. Stupid loser Cubs.

I just read that Game 2 will be at 4:00 on Friday, which is actually pretty awesome because it means I get to go see Wire at Johnny Brenda's after the game after all (I thought I was going to have to bag the show). Well, other than that, it's a wildly stupid and inconvenient time, but for once, national TV's total unwillingness to put the Phillies in prime time works in my favor.