a team sitting top of the heap
a lead they’re intending to keep
asserts its dominion
enjoys our opinion
and searches again for the sweep.

you’d bottle it if you could, then it would travel with you…confidence, the happy brashness that leaves doubt aside, the fun they’re having…and yes it feeds on itself, why not…has there ever been a four game series we start down five runs then systematically annihilate? to the point and at a level where you start feeling sorry for certain individuals on the other side – empathy misplaced you might say but their man with a long name beginning with E whose pitches had been pummeled all series took one on the calf in his final inning, spun like a top, had no idea where the ball was, didn’t seem to care, maybe smiled, maybe cried, you couldn’t tell…it summed it up, we were a class apart…

‘I didn’t come here for this’, Jonah Keri quotes Papelbon as saying after a recent loss…No he didn’t – he came because he was overpaid to, another one…Attendance at Citizens Bank Park (ugh!) is down fifty two hundred a game(crowd 35,000 tonight) …maybe the huddled masses tire of their aging stars, where do they go from here?  We go on the road, to them, we are on fire, they cannot be looking forward to this…what are they thinking/dreading?  Kipling, Hymns Ancient and Modern we do not need at this new summit, this heady time…we need composure, ruthlessness, disdain for the foe and his followers…W.S. Gilbert would have laughed at the discomfort in their gaze…

To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock
In a pestilential prison with a life long lock
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock
From a cheap and chippy chipper on a big, black block!
A dull, dark dock
A life long lock
A short, sharp shock
A big, black block
To sit in solemn silence in a pestilential prison
And awaiting the sensation
From a cheap and chippy chipper on a big, black block!                                          ( u-tube, the musical)

 

THE GAME

Medlen location poor early on, back to back homers in 2nd…Phillies 2/0
Heyward RBI in 3rd after Simmons l/off walk..Phillies 2/1
Home Cooking returns in the 5th!  a 5 run ouTburst for the Bravos via Heyward l/off double, JuP single, Mac and CJ homers…massive blow by CJ to deep center…Braves 6/2
Medlen struggles again in the 6th, location..Utley solo homer..they add a 4th run via Delmon Young double..getting tight, Braves 6/4
7th, Carpenter replaces Medlen, strikes out the side 1,2,3…lovely
8th  Walden in  1,2,3 with 2 k’s…bullpen terrific again so far, set up for a well rested CK…not too rested hopefully
9th  Upton flies out deep, still swinging like a man reborn..Mac and umpire smiling jaw(?) called 3rd strike
Bottom of the 9th…
Delmon Young(3 for 3) k’s on awful call…Charlie tossed..Rollins tossed..Asche k’s, Kimbrel sharp..Frandsen flies out, 3 out, BRAVES WIN 6/4…

Great hitting from Heyward, Mac and CJ…so so from Medlen but terrific bullpen again…I have changed my mind – winning breeds arrogance and no one can pile on like Kipling, the imperialist to his toes…

Come you back to Mandalay,
            Where the old Flotilla lay:
            Can’t you ‘ear their paddles chunkin’ from Rangoon to Mandalay?       
            On the road to Mandalay,
            Where the flyin’ fishes play,
            An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China

            ‘crost the Bay!                                                                          U-tube, the second musical

come you back to philly, yay!
where the old curmudgeons play
can’t you ‘ear their dentures rattle as they boot the game away?
on the road and ‘ere today
they could use a rain delay
an’ Amaro’s broke asunder payin’ deadbeats to decay.