As the crowd settled in on a rainy, windy night to watch the Phillies try to clinch their second World Series, the notion of 10,000 losses actually was on the mind of season-ticketholder Joe Oaster, of Folcroft. He remembers the final out of that game against the Cardinals in July 2007. He also thought of the sweet irony yesterday morning in anticipation of attending last night's game with his 8-year-old son, J.J.
"We went to the 10,000th-loss game last year," the elder Oaster said from his seats in Section 329. "Ryan Howard struck out - right down there! I kind of feel like I've seen two milestones.
Including postseason games and heading into last night, the Phillies are 41 games above .500 since that loss. They're 145-104 (.582), have won two division titles, one National League Championship and were a win away from the second title in franchise history.
The atmosphere since the team moved to Citizens Bank Park in 2004 is the most palpable difference between the current Phillies and all those 90-loss clubs that wandered around Connie Mack and Veterans stadiums, among others.
Oaster began preparing his son for last night by watching DVDs of the Phillies' 1980 run. He said he easily could have gotten $2,000 for his seats, but there was no way he was selling. He brought J.J., spiked, red Mohawk and all, to witness history – much different history from what the Phillies made 15 months ago.
"I told him on the way down here," Oaster said, "this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Sense a trend?
OK, this has to be more than a coincidence.
When the Phillies won their first world championship in 1980, Mike Schmidt led the league with 48 home runs. That same year, Charlie Manuel was playing for the Kintetsu Buffaloes, where he set a record with 48 home runs. This season, Ryan Howard led the majors with, of course, 48 home runs.
