Philadelphia Phillies

Without the benefit of a Farmer's Almanac or sophisticated meteorological computer modeling, it is clear that it will be a long, cold winter in Philadelphia.  

It really is a mesmerizing ballclub, not because the wildest crowd in San Francisco swings orange towels to erupt in a crazed frenzy, and not because the Giants closer Brian Wilson wears a beard to initiate a catchy mantra that has fans chanting “FEAR THE BEARD,” but they are an amazing ballclub because the Giants comprise of all the components to produce an epic classic.

Last night the season of the beloved Phillies came to an end when the San Francisco Giants defeated the favored Phillies in Game 6 of the NLCS.

Already fans are complaining, "The Phillies should be in the World Series! or The Giants got lucky! This isn't fair!"

My response is that it is fair.

Don't get me wrong, being a huge Phillies fan I'm very disappointed that they lost.

Games like this make baseball the greatest sport there is. Playoff baseball at its best, with one team trying to reach the World Series for the first time since the Barry Bonds era and the other attempting to keep their season alive. Philadelphia was packed full of fans not ready to say goodbye to 2010, while the San Francisco Giants blocked out the enthusiasts in their effort to end the National League Championship Series here and now.

Juan Uribe's solo homer with two outs in the eighth inning and seven innings of shutout relief by their bullpen led the San Francisco Giants to a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, advancing the Cinderella team to the World Series.

It's the law of gravity. Something that must be very delicately handled and respected. The question remained are we going up? Or is this the law of science forcing us to accept, there is no other way to go?

What goes up, must come down.

After too many years without a championship in Philadelphia, 2008 brought the end of a drought. 2009 assured us that we had something special on our hands.

A mark of a great team is its ability to overcome adversity to achieve success. The 2010 Philadelphia Phillies have surely faced an ample portion of challenges this season with a disabled list transaction report that reads like an MLB "Who's Who" list. 

The team has already proved to be tremendously resilient by turning a 48-46 midseason record into the best record in baseball (97-65) with a remarkable 49-19 finish.

Ryan Howard's biggest contributions to the Phillies so far this postseason has been his celebratory high-fives to his teammates after they get driven in by Placido Polanco . 

On the brink of elimination, Philadelphia need first basemen Ryan Howard to wake up from his eight-game slumber and re-energize a dormant Phillies' offense. 

Even the great ones need a hand sometimes.