about the Red Sox theme this blog has had, I will be blogging about the Phillies game. But hey, at least I'm posting!So, me and my family are currently on vacation. We went to Philadelphia, and did some sight-seeing before heading to the Phillies-Nationals game last night (8/13/11). We're in Baltimore now, and are supposed to go to the Orioles-Tigers game tonight, if the weather holds up.
Anyway, we get to the Citizens Bank Park, passing by the Wells Fargo Arena (boo Flyers) and Lincoln Financial Field (Go Eagles/Dream Team!). To my pleasant surprise, tonight's game had a special promotion. The promotion: The Phillies were inducting their latest member of their Phillies Wall of Fame. Awesomely enough, the player was one of my favorite baseball personalities, John Kruk! Krukkie was awesome when he played. He hit about .300 while with the Phillies, rocked a killer mullet, and played with heart. He is now known for being the silly little fat guy on Baseball Tonight. One of my favorite stories to tell about baseball is about Kruk, told me by my dad. It follows:
One day, on a day game, John Kruk was out on the streets, smoking a cigarette. Kruk has always been known as a guy who plays hard, and parties harder. He was a bit of booze hound, really. Anyway, some woman with some small kids sees him smoking, and walks over to him.
"What are you doing?" she asked him, "You're an athlete!"
Krukkie responded, "Lady, I'm not an athlete; I'm a baseball player."
Classic!
So, to begin the game, the Phillies put a stage out over home plate, and called out the other living members of the Phillies Wall of Fame. Darren Daulton, Mike Schmidt, Garry Maddox and Bob Boone, among others, were all present. It was actually really nice. Then, they had Darren Daulton, who was a good friend of Kruk's while playing together in Philly introduce Kruk. Daulton told a great story about Kruk that I will attempt to recreate below.
One Spring Training, Kruk and I (Daulton) were rooming together. We had the night off, so me and some of the other guys were going to go out on the town, ya know, have a few cocktails. I invited Krukkie to join, but he politely refused, choosing to spend the night in. So, I go out, we have our drinks, and come back to the hotel. By this time, it's pretty late. 2, 3 in the morning. I, being a considerate roommate, don't turn on light. I take off my shoes, undress, and get into bed.
A few hours pass, and then I'm woken up by hot smoke in my face. The room is still pitch black, except for a glowing cherry of a cigarette. I turn on the light, and see that the room has been covered in empty pizza boxes and beer cans, and Krukkie is sitting there smoking a cigarette, blowing smoke in my face. He says to me, "It's 6 am. Time to get to work."
Again, classic.
Kruk then parades around the stadium in some new Toyota convertible, receiving a huge standing ovation the whole time. It was a great thing to see, especially the montages of him they had. He was quite the dude, I'm sorry I missed most of his career.
The game wasn't all that interesting. I guess I'm used to the American League excitement. The most fun during the game was the fans all booing Jayson Werth. Werth played for the Phillies from 2007-2010, before leaving as a free agent last off season. He left the Phightin' Phil's for their division opponent (they're not really rivals, so I won't use the term.) Washington Nationals for, wait for it, a higher paycheck. Golly! Choosing the place that will offer you more money?! That's preposterous! Well, as with anything in sports, if your name can played upon, it will be. Werth is almost too easy. Last year, they said he was "Werth it." Since he has signed, they have begun booing him and refering to him as "Werthless." Couple things: 1. He's clearly not; he's apparently werth MORE than your office was willing to spend. 2. He kind of has been. His monster numbers from the last couple years haven't been even close to replicated this year with the Nats. He's hitting a dismal .224, with only 14 homers and 45 RBI. Sure, those aren't awful numbers, but they're not worth $126mm. Our seats were in right, so every time the Nationals were on the field, he was heckled mercilessly. Phillies phans are known for being just awful. He appeared unfazed, shrugging off the insults. It didn't matter to him; he'll continue to not be worth the money regardless of your taunts.
The other issue I have with the phans hating on Werth was the fact of what has happened since then: They used the money they didn't end up having to spend on Werth in order to sign Cliff Lee, the prized free agent pitcher this past off season. Then, in July, they traded for Astro's right fielder Hunter Pence, who, in my opinion, is actually much than Werth to begin with. So, they got themselves one of the best rotations of all time, and a better right fielder. Quit being so bitter! Also, they currently hold the best record in baseball. Stop complaining!
The Nationals won the game 4-2, but the excitement of the game really had very little to do with the game itself. I'm going to need to watch more NL games, get used to it, if I want to be a baseball writer (I very much do.)
That's all for now. Expect to hear more from me on here and my other blog, http://markcyv.blogspot.com/ from now on. I've decided to become a real blogger. Like, for real.
PS- Sorry for the awkward placement of the photo. Blogspot is mean and won't let me put it where I want.
