October 10, 2022

Who won the week in Philly sports: Phillies reignite baseball love in the city

By Shamus Clancy
PhillyVoice Staff

Philadelphia loves their Eagles. That's a given. The fact that the Birds are 5-0, the lone undefeated team in the NFL, only heightens that. This week, however, the city's love for baseball has been reignited, turning back the clock to our younger days for the most nostalgia-tinged of all sports. 2022 is the first Red October in 11 years and the Phils just swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the Wild Card Round, the franchise's first playoff series win since 2010.

Throw it back to the era of "Watch the Throne," pre-regulated Four Lokos and "The Office" still airing new episodes. Baseball is back in Philadelphia and fans are eating it up. For the prestigious honor of "who won the week in Philly sports," I'm going with the entire Phillies organization. As a certain future Hall of Famer center once said, "It's the whole team!"

I Love This Place ❤️

Who was the Phillies' MVP this series? I'm going with a guy who was almost booed out of the city a few months back: Alec Bohm. The Cardinals had nine-time Gold Glove winner Nolan Arenado at third base this series, but Bohm was actually the better defender at the hot corner last week. The Cards were making good contact in both Game 1 and 2, but managed just three total runs. Timely plays in the field from Bohm, who also hit .400 with a 1.425 OPS against St. Louis, helped secure this two-game sweep.

"I f---ing hate this place" has morphed into something way more positive:

"I love this place." 🥲

Alec Bohm and the @Phillies are moving on to face the rival Braves in the NLDS!#RingTheBell | @LGRed pic.twitter.com/QSUjWxgGJT
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) October 9, 2022

Nothing is more Philly than saying you hate it here and then saying that you also love it. One of us!

The Prince That Was Promised 👑

You'd be hard pressed to find many bigger Aaron Nola doubters over the last couple of years than me, but let's throw the cards on the table (dumb pun intended): He was everything the Phillies needed against St. Louis. In his first ever postseason appearance, a potential series-clinching game, Nola pitched 6.2 innings of shutout baseball while striking out six batters and allowing just four hits. Nails. Clutch. Whatever you want to say, give the dude his props.

Coming on the heels of his playoff berth-securing win over the Astros last Monday, one in which he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, Nola has lived up to the promise of a first-round pick who finished top three in Cy Young voting at age 25.

Nola, I'm guessing, will start in Game 3 of the NLDS against the Braves, the first Phillies home playoff game since October 7, 2011. He deserves the nod on a day that means so much to this specific squad's championship hopes and baseball as we know it in Philly.

Party Boys 🍻

The vibes are tremendous. Look at the guys belting out "Dancing on My Own" like it's a Saturday night karaoke session:

The Phillies all BELTING out Robyn's Dancing On My Own is killing us 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/CObR5RigAj
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) October 9, 2022

That may be a bit different than the energy the raucous 1993 National League champion Phillies squad had, but, hey, it was a rowdy affair with Budweiser being poured everywhere. I know Bud is a sponsor for Major League Baseball, but it's still funny that Budweiser began in St. Louis and the Phils did that celebration against the town's own team. It'd be like the Braves clinching in Philly this weekend and Atlanta crushing Yuengling nonstop.

The Night of Wine and Roses 🍷🌹

I say this a lot: Before I was a journalist here at PhillyVoice, I was obviously an insane Philly sports fan. I went to the crushing Game 2 loss in the 2011 NLDS. It was morbid. I wrote about it earlier this year. Then came the painful 1-0 loss in Game 5 of that Citizens Bank Park where Roy Halladay threw out his arm and Ryan Howard's prime came to an end with a ruptured Achilles.

Baseball died in Philadelphia that night. There hasn't been a playoff game in South Philly since.

This Friday, however, Philly is back. This city is oh-so back.

I was a senior in high school for the 2011 MLB playoffs. It was a different world than when I would be some tailgating lunatic during the 2017 Eagles playoff run. It was simpler and purer, but once I got a bit older, I would dream about hanging with my friends in the CBP parking lot, crushing cold ones and watching the Phils take part in playoff baseball as an "adult."

People who may have been a bit young in 2011 to fully do that now get the chance to on Friday. I'm so happy for those people. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

As Japandroids once sang, "We don't cry for those nights to arrive, we yell like hell to the heavens."

Baseball Hell 😈

Welcome to the Thunderdome, Atlanta:

If St. Louis is baseball heaven, I’m embracing Philadelphia being baseball hell. The devil is alive. I am spitting blood. Lets go Phils
— The Shire (@ShireNation) October 7, 2022