The BUZZ in Philly 

For fourteen years Philadelphia has waited for baseball in October. Yesterday, for the first time in their history, the Fightin’ Phils opened up a baseball playoff series at home.

The parking lots started filling up before noon. Unlike an Eagles game, when fans only have to miss church, work and school commitments kept many away from the stadium until close to game time. But plenty of people clearly called in sick.

The stadium was drenched in red and white and unlike every other sellout I’ve attended, nearly every seat was filled for the first pitch. A sure sign that this was more than just a regular-season sellout was that Ashburn Alley was empty during the innings and only sparsely populated in-between.

The crowd was whipped into a frenzy by a video of the last month of the season. The cheering started then and continued until the final out. I’ve never been to a Phillies’ game and heard the fans cheer so loudly, for so long. They never gave up.

If not for one bad half-an-inning and a big zero in the hit column for the first four batters, the outcome might have been different. But as I told my 15 year-old son, who still wasn’t over the loss this morning (and was “home sick” from school yesterday), most series’ start with a split, and if the Phils win today, they have that 1-1 standing flying out to Denver.

Some things of note………

Adam Eaton was booed heartily during introductions. Charlie Manuel was cheered like never before.

Larry Anderson, a member of the 1983 and 1993 playoff teams, threw out the first pitch to Milt Thompson. I guess Steve Carlton is still hiding in the hills. Rumor has it Mitch Williams is throwing out the pitch in game five. Is the Phillies PR department clueless? Or just hoping the series is over after four?

By now you know the first four batters were a combined 0-15 with 9 strikeouts. What you might not know if you didn’t watch or only followed the game on your computer at work, was how helpless they looked in doing so.

Tom Gordon eerily looked a little like his old-self, giving up a homerun to Matt Holliday in the 7th inning to all but put the game out of reach for the lifeless Phillies’ offense.

During “Take Me out to the Ball Game,“ my son pointed out one spelling mistake on the scoreboard (take me out to the croud) and one grammar mistake (one, two, three strikes your out). Maybe that was their way of giving the truant students an English lesson during the game.

Incase you were at the game and didn’t hear the call, according to Harry Kalas, Aaron Rowand’s real first name is Ryan. His call on the homerun was, “Homerun, Ryan, Aaron Rowand.”

With Rowand being the only player on the roster with playoff experience, I can give the Phils a pass on their first go-round and chalk it up to nerves, inexperience, etc. Heck, even the scoreboard people and Kalas were clearly nervous.

Let’s just hope that at 3pm this afternoon, all nerves are gone, the crowd is whipped into another towel-waving frenzy, and the Phils’ offense explodes like never before.

Jon Buzby is a nationally-syndicated columnist who can be reached through his website at www.jonbuzby.com.