Phillies Get Bad Omen At All-Star Game

Major league baseball’s All-Star Game just ended a few minutes ago in the 15th inning. Guess who the losing pitcher was? That’s right: Brad Lidge gave up the game-winning sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 15th.

When the Phillies reach the World Series this year, they will have to play on the road. (For those who didn’t know, the team that wins the All-Star Game wins home field advantage for the World Series.) On the plus side, ex-Phillies closer Billy Wagner blew the save in the 8th inning in non-shocking fashion.

The Fightins have a whole two days off, then head to Miami to play the third-place Florida Marlins. Catcher Chris Coste also had a book signing yesterday in North Dakota; apparently he did not believe he was going to make the All-Star Game this year. Way to give up early, Chris! (Well, okay, I guess it was a pretty safe bet.)

AL 4, NL 3 [AP/Yahoo! Sports]
Photo by BenYankee, Creative Commons license

The Audacity Of Hype: Vote Burrell Into ASG

The All-Star teams were announced yesterday, and the Phillies have two on it: starting 2B Chase Utley (the highest vote-getter among all NL players) and reliever Brad Lidge. But the Fightins can get one more onto the team, as none other than Pat Burrell is in the “final five” fan voting.

We did this a few years back and got Bobby Abreu onto the team. Now it is time to do so for Pat Burrell. One can either vote online or text N1 to 36197. The Fightins has more.

It is all up to us now. This is by far the biggest election we’ll have this year. Vote Burrell!

Lady Liberty Loves The Phillies

The baseball all-star game is at Yankee Stadium this season, and to promote it there are tons of little Statues of Liberty all around New York City representing the major league teams (as well as statues for the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, and other related NYC baseball things).

A Philadelphia Will Do correspondent from the Big Apple snapped a shot of the Phillies one. It is, naturally, in front of a Modell’s. Gotta go to Mo’s!

There are a bunch of photos of the statues in his Flickr set.

Update: The way the statue is dressed reminds me of the Phillies’ Turn Ahead the Clock jerseys.

Photo by Vernon Balanza