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.