A Show Of Hands, Please

I'm sure I had the same experience as many of you last evening. I was watching the Birds train wreck of an effort, but was flipping back and forth with the Phils. Once the Phils got up by 11 in the 6th, I figured it was safe to concentrate my efforts on the floundering Eagles. Clearly, we were all wrong.

As I got more and more frustrated with the Birds' inability to put together competent, professional looking offensive plays, I happened to notice that the Phils bullpen was making a complete mess of things. Once the score got to 12-5 and the Cards loaded the bases, the Phils got moved to the big screen and received priority status. While I was able to see McNabb misfire over and over again on the PIP screen, Jose Mesa came in and acted as starter fluid on a BBQ and allowed to Cards to creep back to 12-9 by the time the Phils got out of the 7th.

At this point, I was apoplectic. The Birds were embarrassing themselves on national television and the Phils were about to become the first team in six years to lose an 11 run lead. However, somehow, someway the immortal Antonio Alfonseca, Kane Davis, Fabio Castro and Francisco Rosario were able to get the next 6 outs without giving up the lead.

Thank God. Can you imagine the level of violence that would have swept across the city had the Phils blown this game in addition to the Birds laying a giant egg? I'm sure police officers across the Delaware Valley breathed a sigh of relief.

In any event, last night's game got me to thinking. I can't remember a more entertaining Philly team in my lifetime. Maybe this group does not have the personalities of the '93 Phils, the '01 Sixers or some of those Buddy Ryan Eagles' teams, but these guys have played some of the most whacky, entertaining games I've ever seen.

Let's hope they have another one in them tonight as this game heads to extras.

One last thing....who's worse: The Phils' pen or the Birds offense? I'm going with the Phils' pen, but right now it's close.