The Theme from "Rocky" filled the jammed yard with its "Gonna Fly Now" promise.
Mike Lupica, the ubiquitous New York Daily News sports columnist, turned to a lineup of Philly writers and chirped, "I think you guys have heard that one before."
"Yeah," I replied, "just not in the first flippin' inning."
Desperate times require desperate measures . . .
By the time the first inning was over, the sound system could have belted out Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy."
Cause every little ting gonna be all right.
Right?
In a dizzying six-pitch sequence, Rollins drilled a 1-2 single to center. Squaring to bunt, Shane Victorino took a 94 mph fastball off his right hand. And Chase Utley joined street person Lenny Dykstra as the only Phils batsman to hit four homers in a World Series with a booming three-run shot into the porch in right. In the seventh inning, the second baseman gave Lee a 7-2 lead that made Dykstra a mansionless former recordholder. His titanic shot to right, No. 5, tied Reggie Jackson for the all-time single Series record. And he became just the second hitter in Fall Classic annals to have two multihomer games.
The baseball gods giveth and they taketh away . . .
On the night No. 3 hitter Utley made history, No. 4 Ryan Howard tied Willie Wilson's record of 12 strikeouts - set in 1980 against the Phillies - with two more in a tense, backsliding 8-6 victory that conjured up visions of epic Phillies meltdowns of the past. But Ryan Madson, who followed Chan Ho Park's shaky eighth, pitched a Perils-of-Pauline ninth that ended with Mark Teixeira representing the tying run. Madson struck out the slugging first baseman with a changeup and this entertaining circus has loaded the wagons and headed up the Jersey Turnpike for another round of drama.
