With that, the third home run allowed by Myers in just two innings, it was business as usual at the Bank. The new season was on. The championship season, celebrated with an elaborate pregame ceremony, had officially slipped into the burnished and cherished past.
An hour earlier, the Phillies had filed down the steps just a few feet from where Schafer's homer landed. They walked into the ballpark from beyond left-center, greeted by Mayor Nutter and Manuel, then through the bleachers and down a staircase onto the field.
With the Phillie Phanatic in front, veteran pitcher Jamie Moyer led the team through a gauntlet of fans along a red carpet that reached to second base. The team's two former National League MVPs, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins, brought up the rear. When the players reached the infield dirt, they turned and faced the outfield again.
There, they saw the championship banner - white 2008 on a red field - slide and jerk up a flagpole. Manuel was at the bottom, visible only on the big TV screen in left field, pulling the rope hand over hand.
Howard admitted looking forward to the ceremony, as well as to Wednesday's presentation of the team's championship rings, but stressed how important it was for the players to move on mentally and emotionally from 2008.
"Last year was last year," Howard said in the clubhouse before the game. "It's not going to help us in 2009. Everybody has kind of turned the page and is looking forward to getting started this year, trying to get on track to see if we can do the same thing again. It's a good feeling. We've been to the mountaintop. It's one of those things where you want to try to stay there."
The players have already moved on, some permanently. Pat Burrell and Geoff Jenkins are gone from the team that rushed the mound to celebrate Brad Lidge's strikeout of Tampa Bay's Eric Hinske. Even the ones who remain, though, have been in Clearwater since early February, preparing for another season.
