My Sports Tees And Miscellaneous Caps, Part 4

Time for another chapter. And something embarrassing if you get to the end. Let's start with caps. Other that the first cap, this entire post is an all-Phillies edition.

  

From the Hockey Hall of Fame. Pretty sure this was from my epic trip in August-September 2004 to Montreal and Toronto for the World Cup of Hockey (an Olympic-style tournament, won by host Canada that year), but possibly I bought it on a later trip.

This is old. The Phillies added the blue cap option to their uniforms for day games in 1994. The defending NL Champs lost their first two games wearing them and the players were up in arms. Some fans didn't take kindly to them, either, although they sold rather well. The compromise for the players: they'd only wear them on weekday "Businessperson's Special" afternoon games. I think it's a nice-looking cap, but the jinx theory (final record: 1-6) won out.

You can probably guess that this was a giveaway item.

Aaron Rowand will be remembered forever for this catch and his comment a day or two later in reply to a question about the famous Ricky Watters "For who? For what?" quote when Watters short-armed a ball to avoid being hit in his first game as an Eagle.

The Flyin' Hawaiian! And a rare Harry Kalas home run call in which he did NOT use his famous "Outta Here!" Victorino, no ka oi!

Just looking at the condition of this shirt, it's very old. Steve Carlton's first year as a Phillie, 1972, when he went 27-10 (including a 15-game winning streak) for a team that only won 59 games, was what got me interested in baseball.

Greg Luzinski. The Bull. What a hitter in the mid-70s. Then injuries and slumps took their toll, but at least he was part of the 1980 World Series Champions.

Roy Halladay! First of three. This one was something the MLB Players Association did to raise funds for the Wounded Warrior Project.

This one might have come from a store like Walmart or Kmart or something.

On this night, the Doctor was definitely in. In the middle of the glory days, when it seemed like multiple World Series wins were the Phils' destiny. Sigh...

...and speaking of World Series wins...

 ...and finally...the right pic turned out a little blurry. It commemorates All-Star games hosted by the Phils as well as some of the NL and WS championships through 2010.. I wanted it badly but it took a while to be marked down to a price I was willing to pay.

There is only one problem with this t-shirt:

I somehow ended up with TWO of them. The exact same shirt, even the same size. And I only discovered this the other day when I was choosing the t-shirts for this post. I have no idea how this happened!

Scott Rolen In A Gay Bar*

Harry and me in 2003

On my flight out to San Francisco on the 13th I finally finished reading "Harry the K: The Remarkable Life of Harry Kalas," by Randy Miller. It's a must-read for Phillies fans, Philadelphia sports fans, baseball fans in general, fans of Kalas' work for NFL Films, or anyone interested in a fascinating biography. Miller's book is not a fluff piece. He spares no details in telling the life story of the late Phillies broadcaster. Harry was a drinker, although he never let it interfere with his work. And he was a womanizer. He was living with, and had a son with, the woman who eventually became his second wife years before his divorce from his first wife became final. He cheated on both wives for some time. Yet, for all his flaws, he was beloved by his family and friends, not to mention Phillies fans.

But that's not why you're reading this, are you? You read that headline and want the dirt, you naughty little minx. Well, you may have guessed that the following tale comes from Miller's book.

The team traveled to Pittsburgh for a series in June 2001. The night before the series was to begin, a group of Phillies personnel was at the hotel bar, including Kalas, fellow broadcasters Larry Andersen and Scott Graham, and third baseman Rolen (who eventually moved on, of course) and his fiancee. At 1 a.m. the bartender announced that it was last call -- early for Pennsylvania, since the bars are allowed to stay open until 2. The group, except for Graham, wasn't ready to call it a night.

So the bartender directed them to a nearby block where bars were still open:

No Time To Read!

What's a boy to do? While downtown yesterday I stopped in Giovanni's Room, the oldest LGBT bookstore in the country. Sure, my financial situation requires I save as much as I can when shopping, so I'm often buying from Amazon or other discount sites, but I still think it's important to spend locally and support local businesses, particularly those that are gay-owned or gay-friendly. So those of you with more disposable income, please pick up the slack for me! Anyway, today I picked up the paperback edition of Gregory Maguire's "A Lion Among Men," the third volume in the "Wicked" series -- the original, of course, having been turned into the spectacular Broadway musical.

Problem: I now have a backlog of four books to read! In addition to the book I bought today, I have the Harry Kalas biography "Harry the K" by Randy Miller, Simon Doonan's memoir "Beautiful People" (turned into the delightful BBC series that aired on Logo in the USA) and the novel "Boomsday" by Christopher Buckley (the hardcover, picked up for $1.80 at a Borders Express that was having a store-closing sale). I've read the first chapter of the Doonan book, and that's it. Four books -- no, wait! I also have the five Scott Pilgrim books I got at more than half-off through Amazon. Even though they're graphic novels, they're like little paperbacks, ranging from 184 to 248 pages. So that's nine books to read! Plus I get Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated every week, the Phila. Daily News six days a week, the websites and blogs I read online, Facebook and Twitter...and then there are the TV shows I watch regularly, and sports...Eagles and NFL, Phillies in the baseball playoffs, and now this coming week the Flyers begin the new season? Helllllllp! I'm drowning!

Hating The Phils -- On TV, That Is

Way back in that magical year of 2008 I did a series of posts on the Outsports Jock Talk Blog in which I reviewed a game broadcast of every major league team (thanks to my subscription to the MLB Extra Innings package that year) as well as nationally televised games on ESPN, TBS and Fox. A summary of my grades for every broadcast can be found here. For the Phillies, I assigned a C-plus grade to the Comcast Sportsnet broadcast of a Phils-Nationals game. One key quote from my writeup: "It’s impossible to imagine a Phillies broadcast without Harry Kalas. It’s unfortunate that the Phillies haven’t built a better broadcast around him."

Sadly, the "impossible to imagine" became the norm in April 2009 when Harry Kalas died. Since then, Tom McCarthy has exclusively done TV play-by-play. Chris Wheeler (1st-3rd innings, 7th inning on) and Gary "Sarge" Matthews (4th-6th innings) handle the "analysis." And the broadcasts have, of course, suffered. McCarthy continues to talk and talk and talk, especially rambling during his innings with Sarge. Matthews still hasn't met a cliche he doesn't like. Wheeler, unpopular as ever, now is even getting on my nerves at times.

Talkin' 'bout my Phillies

The first real post here (not that the first one isn't real, but...) just has to be about your defending World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies. It has been a surreal season thus far. It began with all of the attendant pomp and ceremony commemorating the 2008 champs, which was tempered by the death of legendary broadcaster Harry Kalas. The starting rotation, a strength down the stretch and in the postseason last year, got off to a horrendous start. It's gotten better but was weakened by the likely season-ending injury to Brett Myers. The bullpen was strong at the start but stints on the disabled list by Brad Lidge and Scott Eyre (and, as of tomorrow according to reports, Clay Condrey) caused a cascade of role adjustments and a series of lousy performances.

The offense kept the team afloat for much of the year despite a season-long slump by leadoff hitter Jimmy Rollins. Raul Ibanez has been a godsend, putting up MVP-like numbers, but is now on the DL himself, and since then the team hitting has really taken a nosedive. Strangest of all, the Phils have a 23-9 record on the road, best in the major leagues, but are only 13-22 at home, second-worst in the majors (ahead of only the woeful Washington Nationals), after a just-completed 1-8 homestand, among the worst in team history.

Despite all of this, the Phils are in first place, 1 1/2 games ahead of the New York Mets in the NL East. It makes for a glass half-empty/half full debate: despite their many issues the Phillies are still in first place; or, despite all of their problems the Mets are right in the hunt -- and since both teams have struggled, the Florida Marlins and Atlanta Braves are not far behind.

With all of this going on, especially lately, it would be easy to be outraged. I've been more annoyed than angry, though. I guess coming off a long-awaited championship will do that. Besides, I've figured all year that it will come down to September, and we all know what's happened to the Mets the last two Septembers.

Next up for the Phils is a road trip (what a relief) that starts with a World Series rematch against the Tampa Bay Rays.