Trick or treat

We took out the Penguin, err, Trent to show off his costume. (I grabbed a couple of treats on Trent's behalf.)

We got home relatively early and got the most trick-or-treaters we've ever had in the six years we've lived here.

But no Phillies. I'm starting to wonder whether the Phaithful have jumped ship.

Oh, and yesterday, we did see a kid dressed as a local athlete. Andre Iguodala. Almost as weird as seeing kids dressed as Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain.

Halloween Eve

No time for baseball today. The Red Sox and Phillies could have traded Chase Utley for Dustin Pedroia and I wouldn't know it.

We bought a car to replace the wrecked one, then took Trent to a costume contest at a mall. His penguin duds got him to the finals, but he didn't win. It was a crock only in that a bunch of generic store-bought costumes were selected over Trent's, which was handcrafted by Grandmom.

Even though the mall is in the area where loyalties between New York and Philadelphia begin to blur, I was surprised we didn't see any Phillies costumes. We saw a couple of Yankees - Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes. That was an odd pairing.

A better Friday

At least I didn't get into a car crash tonight, like last Friday. But I'm drained and taking a night off, just like the World Series, which heads to Texas with the Giants up 2-0 and embarrassing the Rangers.

I'm thinking about pulling a Brett Favre - not with the sexual harassment stuff, but in ending the streak. Nothing lasts forever.

Forget Game 2, we have old guy news

Game 2 is overshadowed tonight by news involving the elder statesmen of the SoxandPhils - although one of the tidbits could be the beginning of the end for a legitimate SoxandPhil.

A true champion, Tim Wakefield, won the Roberto Clemente award. Without a rooting interest in the series, that's the best baseball news I heard today.

On a sadder note, Jamie Moyer, a true SoxandPhil and champion, filed for free agency. Do you think he'll sign early to set the price for Cliff Lee? Let the bidding begin.

World Series Game 1

The World Series has begun, and for the first time since the dark days of 2006, the authors of this blog have no rooting interest. That was the last time neither Sox nor Phil represented their league in the World Series. It was also the last time neither team made the playoffs.

Despite the lack of rooting interest, I have the game on in the background. Christine can't watch. Trent's indifferent. He's snoring as his Mommy files his nails.

Meanwhile, here are the SoxandPhils alum playing in the series:

Former Sox on the Giants: Javier Lopez, Ramon Ramirez, Edgar Renteria and Freddy Sanchez.

Former Phils on the Giants: Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand.

Former Phils on the Rangers: Cliff Lee.

Former Sox on the Rangers: Darren Oliver and David Murphy.

Offseason begins

While everyone is preoccupied with Jayson Werth and whether he will become a SoxandPhil, there's a good chance that J.C. Romero has officially become a former SoxandPhil. Unless some team is interested in a 34-year-old reliever who has a surgically repaired arm and walked more hitters than he struck out the last two seasons.

A day late

Happy belated birthday to officially SoxandPhils-sponsored Ken Ryan.

I didn't get to Nick Cafardo's weekly column yesterday, so our birthday wishes are a day late.

I feel like it's been a week since baseball was on.

Knocked out

I conked out last night. I was too tired from Trent and my car crash to make it to the end of the game. I woke up to Christine grumbling about how the umpire rang up Ryan Howard to end the game. It took me a minute to remember that this meant that the 2010 season is over for the SoxandPhils.

Christine was not happy today. She hasn't yet broken out her "Stinky Phillies" lament, but it's only a matter of time. I appreciate how the Giants played Game 6 as if it were Game 7. I liked their sense of urgency and respect of how difficult it is to beat the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. That doesn't make Christine feel any better.

Christine had planned on debuting Trent's Ryan Howard shirt today. (It almost fits him.) She still put it on anyway because we shouldn't shy away from our teams when they lose. I often make it a point to wear some Red Sox garb after a season-ending defeat like last night.

Fight

The day after taking a beating from an air bag, my body fought back and is doing pretty well.

The Phillies came out swinging tonight, scoring two runs in the 1st inning; the Giants swung back with two in the 3rd.

In the bottom of that inning, the real skirmish occurred when Jonathan Sanchez hit Chase Utley in the middle of the back. That set up an instant-classic Chase Utley moment. He wound up with the ball and flipped it back to the pitcher. Words were exchanged, and both teams were soon on the field. No punches were thrown (it's Game 6 of the NLCS), but it was a pretty good baseball fight for a game with so much at stake (it's Game 6 of the NLCS).

I don't know how this game will end, but win or lose for the Phils, it's going to be an epic battle.

In the 6th, it's tied at 2.

Doc has nothing on me

So Roy Halladay won a must-win while pitching on one leg last night.

Big deal.

I'm blogging tonight, mere hours after I was involved in a head-on car wreck. It wasn't my fault. No broken bones, and my brain scan came up fine.

I'm going to sleep it off while hoping the Phillies play a night game tomorrow.

Trent needs new PJs

The baseball jammies didn't work. Yesterday's game couldn't have ended any worse - a walkoff win off of Roy Oswalt, who is scheduled to pitch Game 6* on Saturday.

Trent is back to his elephant PJs tonight as the Phillies attempt to join the 1986, 2004 and 2007 Red Sox on the short list of teams that came back from a 1-3 deficit in an LCS. (I have to remind readers that the 2004 Red Sox came back from an 0-3 deficit against the Yankees.)

Being keenly aware of two of those comebacks (and nearly another one in 2008), I feel comfortable with the Phillies' chances. Roy Halladay came to the Phillies for a situation exactly like tonight's game (he's leading 3-2 in the 6th), and then the series will swing back to Philly. I'm a bit concerned about Oswalt in Game 6 because he threw a side session before pitching in relief last night. But if the Phillies can survive that, there's no way Cole Hamels, and the vocal Phillies fans, will allow the Giants to win on Sunday.*

*if necessary

Lucky PJs?

On Monday, the choice of PJs for Trent was between his elephants and baseball uniform. Christine voted elephants because the Phillies were off.

Yesterday, the Phillies had already lost when we were picking out PJs, so Christine voted for his doggies because she was mad at her team.

Tonight, we went with the baseball uniform.

It didn't work early. Joe Blanton threw two wild pitches (Carlos Ruiz prevented a third) and had the Phillies behind the Giants 2-0 by the third inning. Then, the Phillies bats woke up in the 5th inning, scoring four runs (there could have been more if Chooch wasn't thrown out at home).

But Blanton couldn't survive the bottom of the inning, and we have to keep watching to find out whether we have to do laundry to bring back the baseball PJs tomorrow or whether they're getting banished to the bottom of the drawer.

They're leaning toward banishment. In the 6th, 5-4 Giants.

No homework

Back in the day, I would rush home from school and do my homework while watching the League Championship series, which were still on during the day. (I'm old.)

Today was reminiscent of those times as we all hustled home to watch the Phillies play the Giants in an afternoon tilt. Incidentally, one of my strongest after-school playoff memories was the 1987 NLCS featuring Jeffrey Leonard and the Giants against the Cardinals.

We could have taken our time today - the Phillies were in no hurry to score runs. Or even hit. They had three hits and no runs in the 3-0 loss.

Christine's not happy. Trent is sleeping it off. I'm just glad that once I finish this sentence, my homework for the night is done.

Brad Lidge, the mentor

Brad Lidge has had an interesting career, toggling between dominant and punching bag.

SoxandPhils beat writer Scott Lauber says his story can be a lesson for both of the guys at the back of the Red Sox bullpen, Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon, which is odd because you get the feeling that both the rising star and the declining veteran can't coexist much longer in the Red Sox bullpen.

But Lidge can relate to where each is in his career:

Lidge, now the Philadelphia Phillies' closer, knows the feeling. He took a back seat to Billy Wagner in 2003 and Octavio Dotel for the first half of the 2004 season. When the Astros traded Dotel in a three-team deal for outfielder Carlos Beltran, Lidge finally got his chance.

"You just have to be patient," Lidge said before Game 2 last night of the National League Championship Series, "and you really have to put in your mind that the team comes first. You have to sell yourself to that idea, and you'll get your chance."

*****

And if Lidge can recapture his dominance, he's certain that Papelbon can, too, as long as the Sox closer doesn't lose faith in his ability.

"For any closer, I think confidence is huge," Lidge said before last night's game. "Last year, I didn't get the results I wanted, and it definitely hurt my confidence. For me, you've got to go through a couple games where you feel like you're making (hitters) look silly again, and then, all of a sudden, you're like, 'Wait a minute, I don't even remember why this was so hard.'"

Series update: Lidge wasn't needed last night as the Phillies turned a game that was a tense duel for most of the night into a comfortable 6-1 win over the Giants. It's all tied heading to San Francisco. That was a real Phillies-type "no more fooling around" win, so I wouldn't be surprised if the next game in Philly is against an American League team.

Game 2

Christine and I are almost done with our daily tasks and should be able to sit down and watch the second half of Game 2 - barring any unforeseen problems like last night when we had to take care of a little ant infiltration.

Hopefully, the Phils can take care of business tonight, unlike last night when Roy Halladay succumbed to the playoff pressure and lost 4-3. Christine said he sucks. I offered to trade her a proven playoff winner, Daisuke Matsuzaka, who is 3-1 in five starts. She declined.

After the Giants tied it up at one in the 5th, Christine came in to tell me she's blaming me should the Phillies lose the series because I forgot to do predictions. How could I ever let that slip my mind? There's nothing else going on in our not-so-busy lives. But now the Phillies have regained the lead, 2-1.

Now that I have a head start, here's what I would have predicted before the games began: Giants in four; Yankees in five.

Christine: Phillies, no doubt. AL: Rangers.

Trent has never been so insulted

Three months after Trent arrived, I finally felt safe enough, sleep-wise, to make the two-hour drive to my parents' house for a visit today.

While we were visiting the Yankee - blech - side of the family, Trent would sometimes look at the TV, where the Rangers were on their way to a 7-2 win over the Yankees. (Stupid Rangers. They had CC Sabathia beat in Game 1, but blew it. They should be up 2-0 with Cliff Lee waiting to drop the hammer.)

Everyone kept saying Trent is a Yankee fan because he looked at the TV. Our son is not a brain-dead sheep. He's a free thinker capable of making his own decisions. He was simply scouting out the Phillies' World Series opponent. He found a hole in Josh Hamilton's swing and the secret to beating the Yankees - knock out their starter early and don't let them back in.

After our trek north, we tried to watch the hyped Roy Halladay-Tim Lincecum matchup, but, of course, we couldn't. It was on in the background as we battled some ants. Final: Giants 4, Phillies 3. Christine is cranky about it.

SoxandPhils revelations

After yesterday's wrestling snafu, Todd Zolecki redeemed himself with today's post.

Nothing has consistently driven traffic to our humble SoxandPhils blog like people looking for the names of players' intro songs - especially Jayson Werth.

Today, Zolecki listed every Phillies' intro song. We couldn't place our finger on J-Dub's current song all season. Thanks to Zo, we know now it's Right Above It by Lil Wayne. We've also been fascinated by how Carlos Ruiz uses Phil Collins' In The Air Tonight, but we didn't know that his backup, Brian Schneider, uses the same song.

Zolecki still needs to work on his knowledge of wrestling history, but I certainly appreciate this effort.

That wasn't the only SoxandPhils theme in the news today. We've often discussed how injured both teams were this year. SoxandPhils beat writer Scott Lauber takes a look at how the Red Sox are home licking their wounds, while their brothers in pain have survived.

Even our general managers felt a kinship:

At one point during the summer, Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein and his Phillies counterpart, Ruben Amaro Jr., even had a phone conversation in which they commiserated over their teams’ respective misfortune.

"We were having some trade dialogue," Amaro recalled yesterday, "and I guess we were both woe-is-me-ing for a while."

I wonder what they were talking about ... Werth for Jonathan Papelbon, perhaps? {Ugh, the idea of Papelbon as a Phillie ... awful.}

If you're interested, Lauber has a sidebar listing every injury suffered by a Red Sox or Phillie.

Zo needs to know Mo'

Christine and I have always liked Todd Zolecki. He lives baseball, is sarcastic and knows his pop culture.

Well, that last part isn't so true anymore.

He started off tonight's blog post with such a strong theme, linking Pat Burrell's compliment of the Phillies - "To be the best you've got to beat the best" - to Charlie Manuel's reaction to the line with a Ric Flair reference.

Then, it went downhill:

Does this make the Giants the Iron Sheik?

Update: I'm told Flair and Sheik were in two different wrestling leagues. So I guess that makes the Giants "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes?

So I guess Zo isn't so good with the pop culture after all. {Zolecki's pop culture knowledge is just fine. Greg's the one who regularly doesn't know basic pop culture references.}

But that reminds me of my Iron Sheik story. I knew a guy in high school who did some low-grade professional wrestling. One night the Sheik was on his card, and afterward when we hooked up at our usual watering hole, we were told the Sheik had been there, ran up a huge tab and left, apparently thinking it was still 1983 and that he was World Champ and that wrestling was real.

Sorry for the tangent, it's been a long week.

Elvi

While waiting for the Phillies to begin the NLCS against Pat Burrell and the rest of the Giants, we spent last night watching Game 5 of the ALDS between the Rays and Rangers.

Former Phil Cliff Lee (are people still upset he's gone?) went the distance and induced a pop-up to shortstop Elvis Andrus to end the game.

It's an omen. The Phillies will beat Pat Burrell and his bulldog Elvis Burrell, while former Phil Cliff Lee and Elvis Andrus knock off the Yankees.

Then, the Phillies will have passed through two Elvi to win their second championship in three years.

The painful truth

All season Christine and I debated which of our teams was struck with the worse injuries. I still think Dustin Pedroia, Clay Buchholz and Kevin Youkilis trump Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Madson.

Someone with a lot more time on his hands than we do settled the debate with numbers: The Red Sox were hurt more often than the Phillies in 2010, according to a database of teams' DL use compiled by FanGraphs Jeff Zimmerman.

The Red Sox used the DL more than any other team in baseball; the Phillies were fifth. And, when it comes to total days spent on the DL, the Red Sox ranked fourth, the Phillies 23rd.

Case closed. I win. And my team got an early offseason because of it. Christine's consolation prize is another chance to go to the World Series.

Now what?

The Phillies' domination of the Reds - fewest hits ever allowed in a first-round series - is over, and now we have nearly a whole week until Game 1 of the NLCS.

What are we going to do with all this time on our hands? Trent, who nearly made it to the end of Sunday's 2-0 finale because he still was not feeling well, is already getting antsy about the prospect of five whole days with the Phillies. Christine also is not happy there's such a long down period.

I'm sure Trent will find ways to fill our Phillies-free nights.

Meanwhile, we had a little reprise of Daddy Daycare today. (Apparently, real day care closes for occasional professional development days.) We caught the end of Curt Schilling's SportsCentury. I didn't know they made one, and I would have liked to see the whole thing. Trent knows they don't make them like Curtis Montague Schilling anymore.

Because of the show, I chose to wear Curt's "Why Not Us?" T-shirt today.

Off day

The Phillies play Game 3 tonight, but it's been an off day for the SoxandPhils Pham. Trent had his second batch of shots yesterday, and he was out of it as we hung with out-of-state family.

He was better last night, and we expected him to wake with wide eyes and big grins before we visited his friend who shares my name in the afternoon and then watched to see if the Phillies could finish off the Reds tonight.

But at 2 a.m., I woke to awful screaming, which was repeated often throughout what was left of the night. Trent's first fever. Christine and I can't remember the details as to which one of us got up with him at which time. So we just vegged out today, watching some baseball and football while waiting for our baby boy to feel better.

Needless to say, I won't get tonight's results into this post. I know that two of the three of us won't make it until the end ... and I'm not so sure Trent will make it, either.

We'll check back tomorrow, hopefully feeling better and with the Phillies resting up for the Giants or Braves.

Memories II

I remembered 2008 yesterday. Today, as the NLDS heads to Cincinnati for the Queen City's first playoff game since 1995, I remember all the way back to ... July.

Actually, Christine remembered that when Trent came home, the Phillies started a four-game sweep of their first-round opponent.

And, they were all in dramatic fashion: a 12-inning game, one won with six runs in the 9th inning, an 11-inning 1-0 game, and a ho-hum 1-0 9-inning shutout.

The latter was won by Cole Hamels, who starts Sunday night. This is the game I picked the Phillies to lose. We'll see what our little Phillies good luck charm has to say about it tomorrow.

Memories I

Two years ago, when we had guaranteed playoff tickets and more flexibility in getting to the ballpark at the whims of the baseball gods, we were able to squeeze in a trip to North Carolina, the day after we went to Game 2 of the NLCS, to visit Christine's brother and family as our teams played their respective LCSes and came very close to a SoxandPhils World Series.

We weren't good guests, monopolizing the TV until all hours of the night. (They were long and painful nights.)

This year, they have come up to visit Trent. It shouldn't be as bad with just one team in the playoffs, but I had a similar vibe as I tried to squeeze in all our regular errands (grocery shopping, bathing Trent, vacuuming, etc.) in between visits, caring for the baby and work.

It'll get done.

Tonight, Roy Oswalt became the first of the Phillies trio of starters to give up a hit and a run, but the Phillies survived a subpar outing to come back and win 7-4. They're up 2-0. I want to type that this series is over, but Christine says it's not till it's over.

The day after

I tried my best to avoid coverage of Roy Halladay's no-hitter, but it was impossible.

It still hurts. I still suck. And the Yankees still suck.

At least Christine has started talking to me. But Trent won't say a word, which is odd because he wouldn't have been going anyway.

Just great

What a day.

We wound up selling our playoff tickets at a whopping $10 profit because I couldn't take a day off on the first week back at work.

Then, I had to unexpectedly work late, forcing me to renege on a dinner promise to Christine, miss watching the game with her and Trent, and totally miss an evening with our son.

And, of course, to make matters worse, as soon as I got into the car I heard the announcers say, "I wonder if Don Larsen is watching this." I knew Roy Halladay would pitch a perfect game.

He didn't. Doc gave up a walk, but finished with the second no-hitter in postseason history in the Phillies 4-0 win over the Reds in Game 1 of the NLDS.

To recap: My family's upset, I'm upset, work's probably upset that I wasn't enthusiastic about staying late, and I cost Christine and myself probably our best shot at ever seeing a no-hitter in person.

What a great night.

Left out

MLB Network is previewing the playoffs. I can't say I don't feel a little left out. I guess that's sort of what Kyle Kendrick, Paul Hoover, Danys Baez, David Herndon and Jamie Moyer are feeling because they didn't make the Phillies first round roster, but they're traveling with the team.

I guess that means there's a chance that any one of them could wind up playing if the Phillies advance to the NLCS. I bet Jamie Moyer is lobbying to start the series against the Braves or Giants.

Meanwhile, they announced the starting times for the rest of the playoff games in the first round. I heard it on WFAN. Don't worry, Yankees fans - besides Thursday's 6 p.m. start, every game starts at either 8 p.m. or 8:30 p.m.

Yankees suck.

First-round predictions: Me - Phillies in four, Giants, Twins and Rays. Christine - Phillies, but won't put a number on it, Giants, Twins and Rays.

Yankees suck

Of course MLB wouldn't schedule the Yankees to play a game that's not in a prime-time slot. That wouldn't be fair to New Yorkers. They should never have to choose between work and watching a playoff game. That would be un-American.

We're not surprised that Phillies fans got the shaft, but we thought baseball would throw us a bone and give us a 6 p.m. start for Wednesday's game, not 5 p.m. We would have missed the beginning, but we still would have made it, unless Roy Halladay decided to set the record for the quickest perfect game ever. Unfortunately, it looks like we won't be attending an NLDS game for the first time since the Phillies four-year playoff run began - unless Trent's super-secret plan to get rich and allow us to retire occurs before Wednesday. He's been working very hard on it.

Rooting

I didn't think I'd care much about baseball today, but it was nice to see the Red Sox win the final two games against the Yankees, knocking them down to the Wild Card. Congrats to the AL East Champion Rays.

It was also nice rooting for the Phillies as they gave another scare to the Braves, who survived to make the playoffs. Finally, we were rooting for the Padres to win against the Giants and set up a three-way tie in the NL, but that also fell short.

Farewells

After six weeks, Daddy Daycare closed up shop yesterday. Sadly, it's time for me to return to work on Monday and for Trent to go to real day care after nothing but Mommy and/or Daddy for his first 12 weeks home.

I haven't been informed of any special ceremonies, such as the "Thanks, Mike Night" the Red Sox are holding today for the retiring Mike Lowell.

But Lowell won't be the only 2010 Red Sox not returning for 2011. Adrian Beltre, who took off for the birth of his child, cleaned out his locker, a sign suggesting he's one and done. Plus, there's always the speculation about the Red Sox ancient warriors, such as Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield, and those who may have just overstayed their welcome, such as Jonathan Papelbon and Jacoby Ellsbury.

So today, let's enjoy the present, remember the past and look forward to good things in the future. Of course, for the Phillies, there's no use worrying about 2011 yet when they have Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels lined up for the playoffs.

Red Sox postmortem

As it grew clear that the Red Sox would not make the playoffs this year, I could not decide whether to call this season a disappointment because it was supposed to be a transition year and they still won 87 games (with the possibility of reaching 90 with a sweep of the Yankees this weekend).

But Theo Epstein and Jon Lester made it clear that despite the rash of injuries, this season was an unacceptable disappointment:

Pitching and defense, the two expected strengths of this Red Sox team when it began play six months ago, were "not acceptable" this season, according to general manager Theo Epstein.

"We didn't pitch like we wanted to, we didn't play defense like we wanted to, and we allowed our opponents to just score way too much," Epstein said during an appearance on WEEI radio yesterday.

Lester, whose rare poor performance cost him his chance at win No. 20, said missing the mark wasn't as disappointing as not getting to compete in October:

"It's more disappointing not making the playoffs," he said. "Would it have been nice? Yeah, I'm not going to lie to you. But regardless of all that we didn't make the playoffs. We didn't meet our goal this year and that's more disappointing."

But even if this season is considered a disappointment, I'm heartened by two things today: 1) This team did not fracture and held together, as seen in Adrian Beltre and Marco Scutaro's desire to play for Lester:

(Terry Francona) intended to give second baseman Marco Scutaro a night off to rest his aching right shoulder and to use third baseman Adrian Beltre as the designated hitter. Both came to Francona and asked to play their usual positions to try to help Lester.

"After I thought about it, I was really kind of impressed," Francona said. "It made me feel good."

And, 2) That Theo knows the team needs improvement, but not a complete overhaul:

Epstein believes the Sox are "pretty close" to being a championship team again.

"I think this offseason presents us with a lot of challenges, but at the same time it presents us with a lot of opportunities," he said. "You have to sort of be reasonable about everything.

"In a year that ends like this, sometimes there's a tendency to look at all the issues and all the problems, and you think that you're nowhere close to a championship team. Certainly there are elements to a team that are close to championship-caliber.

"We have to completely fix the bullpen. We do have a lot of important position players eligible for free agency. We're going to have to keep those guys or replace them, or some combination thereof. You can't let the way things happened this year cloud your judgment about what you have."

So, forgive me for looking past whether the Phillies should go full bore at the Braves this weekend; I'm waiting for the SoxandPhils 2011 World Series.