Philadelphia Phillies

The 1950 Phillies, affectionately nicknamed the Whiz Kids due to their youthful age, clinched the National League pennant on the final day of the regular season.

What a great story. John Mayberry Jr., son of former major leaguer John Mayberry, forcefully un-tied today's Yankees-Phillies game in the fifth inning.

With two men on, Mayberry crushed an off-speed pitch to center field. His dad was in attendance, and with one fist pump in the air, celebrated his sons' great achievement. (Or did he?...Fox showed the same guy for five minutes after the homer and claimed it was his father—only to find out it was a regular old Phillies' fan...way to go, Fox.)

When Pat Burrell left the Phillies for the Rays, I thought we were in trouble. Get rid of the right batting Burrell to had the left batting Ibanez? I didn't understand considering Burrell was an above average fielder and his bat was always a great addition—when he wanted to hit.

The Phillies make one final stop on their road trip to play the New York Yankees in the new Yankee Stadium. Both teams bring high octane-offenses to the table, and the way Yankee Stadium has been giving away free souvenir balls to fans in the outfield this season, there is no reason to expect a slow weekend in the Bronx.

With the Phillies heading to (the new) Yankee Stadium for a weekend series against the history rich franchise in the AL East, and since I don't usually blog too much on the weekends, I thought this would be a good opportunity take a look at the 1950 World Series.

On Saturday the Phillies won a double-header in route to a series sweep, and a filly ran the Preakness in route to a sweep of the field. 

What’s the difference?

Nothing really, until you look at the failure of Chan Ho Park. 

Last October the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies piled on top of their perfect closer in celebration of his forty eighth save in forty eight chances. 

Carlos Ruiz was the first to wrap his arms around perfection and then the rest of the team ensued. The pile on began a celebration that had been almost thirty years in the making. However, it brought out the flaws in a closer who went through a full season and postseason perfect. That closer was Brad Lidge.

Raul Ibanez continues to show everyone in baseball that he is fitting in quite well in Philadelphia.

So much so that Ibanez was just named the National League's Player of the Week.

In the last week, Ibanez totaled 12 RBI, along with nine runs, which topped the NL. His four homers were also second in the entire league.

Ibanez ended the week with an amazing .481 average and a .963 slugging percentage. This award was the fifth of Ibanez's career, and obviously his first in red and white pinstripes.