I remember just like it was yesterday when a 45 record from the 1970’s was released featuring members of the Philadelphia Phillies singing a cute novelty tune about the hometown Phillies and the “hippest place in town” Veterans Stadium. That was an era in Phillies history that is attached with deep sentiment to me. That is when I truly caught Phillies Fever. As the years progressed, there were many more teams, some great, some not so great. We all remember the World Champion 1980 team, and the 1983 National League championship team named the “Wheeze Kids”. After a 10 year drought we made it to the World Series with a new group of scrappy, tough players in 1993. Since then it was many years before we really became a competitive team again. I will admit, some years, my interest in the team was not as enthusiastic as some other seasons. With that said, the Phillies have always been my team. And now in recent years, Phillies fans are enjoying a rare treat. No matter what happens in the 2011 post season, the Phillies organization has brought a level of excitement that has never been experienced before in the Delaware Valley with 5 straight National League East Championships, 2 National League Pennants and a World Championship in 2008. Following this team night after night has been an incredible roller-coaster ride of excitement. Phillies Fever is indeed at an all-time high. Helen and I have seen this as we travel and watch the Phils on the road. A few years ago we traveled up to Toronto to see our Phils take on the Blue Jays. We were amazed at how many Phillies fans were there proudly wearing their Phillies attire. A couple of years ago we took another trip up to Boston to see the Phils battle the Red Sox. Although the Sox beat us that day, again I noticed how many Phillies fans were at Fenway, decked out in their Phillies best and proudly rooting for their Phils even in defeat. This year Helen and I toured Washington D.C. and again caught another Phillies road game, this time against the Washington Nationals. By far this was one of the most amazing and magical moments in time that I have ever experienced at a major league stadium. The amount of Phillies fans was overwhelming!!! Every where you looked, there was a sea of Phillies shirts, jerseys, hats, of many different styles. Fans had players’ jerseys from many different eras of Phillies stars. Along with the Cliff Lee, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard shirts, I saw many Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski, Steve Carlton, Tug McGraw, and Pete Rose shirts from the 1970’s and 1980’s. I even saw a couple of Richie Ashburn jerseys and a Del Ennis one from the 1950’s!!! And this was all in Washington D.C. That game was a record attendance for Nationals Park in the 45,000 amount and it seemed that 40,000 were Phillies Fans. The memory of that game and the amount of enthusiasm for the visiting Phillies is a magical moment in my life that Helen and I will never forget. As I mentioned, no matter what happens in the 2011 post season, the Phillies have given us a lifetime worth of excitement the past 5 seasons. There seems to be no stopping this major epidemic of…..……Phillies Fever!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR4_OMa5Bs8
Mr. and Ms. Holmsey displaying their "Phillies Fever"
Posted by JHolmsey 
The Holmsey Blog 