Recap and photos: ALS Night 2010

So ALS Night/the Phillies' Phestival at Citizens Bank Park was pretty fun this year.  During the Phestivities, I got to...

* Meet Mr. Perfect, Roy Halladay (my dad met him, too!).  He was really nice, very down to earth, and absolutely GORGEOUS in person.  TV/photographs do not do him justice.  He's got amazing blue eyes and a seriously perfect smile! 

* Meet Cole Hamels, who gets hotter every year, and give him a hug.  He told me it meant a lot to him when I said he was my favorite Phillie! 

* Get a big hug from Phoebe Phanatic--the Phanatic's mom

* Meet Ross Gload (looooooovely spiky hair) and Chad Durbin--both of whom were very nice and VERY attractive!

* Take pictures of many of my other favorite Phillies, including CHUTTLES, Brad Lidge, Ryan "I fought the chair, and the chair won" Madson, and the Flyin' Hawaiian.  I also got a baseball signed by JC Romero in a grab bag I'd bought.  All in all, a really fun night (and all for a good cause, too!).  Now if only those Phillies (besides Doc, who was literally perfect!) could get their act together and, like, score some runs...that'd be awesome.  I know there are names for fears of crossing bridges and walking under ladders...is there a word to describe "fear of crossing home plate"?  Because I think the Phillies may be crippled by that silly fear lately...

Hamels pitches tonight.  Let's go, BILFy McBILF!!!!  Let's go, Phillies!



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The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid (and, as always, The Hot)

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It's been a wild past few days for us Phillies fans, huh?

The good: Taking 2 out of 3 in this past weekend's series with the Mets.  Combining Saturday's and Sunday's runs, we had 21...to their 5.  Love it!  Santana got shelled (love that, too).  Victorino hit a grand slam.  Doc was incredible, and Moyer put forth a pretty solid effort (who'd have thought he'd outlast Johan the Great?  AND be the guy that gets walked so that a run scores?)  Beautiful.  Just beautiful.

Of course, there's the bad: We got our asses handed to us on Friday.  Kendrick still sucks.  And people like this moron infested my lovely city of Philadelphia all weekend long.

And then there's the stupid: Ryan Madson, I'm looking at you.  Kicking a chair out of frustration and breaking your toe?  STUPID.  Also, moronic Phillies fan who ran onto the field and got Tasered?  Between you and Vomiting Phillies Fan from a few weeks ago, you're making us ALL look like jackasses.  (We're not all jackasses.  But the nice/cool Phillies fans don't seem to make many headlines.)

And, finally, the hot: We saw the return of Brad Lidge, and damn, have I missed watching him!  He didn't implode, which is also hot (not that he really had a chance to, though).  And the hottest thing of all?  In 20 days, I'm gonna be meeting COLE HAMELS.  I got my Photo Booth ticket in the mail yesterday...I'm already so excited/hyperactive/etc!  *squeal*  Yes, I know, I've met Hamels before.  But he's still hot, and so I want to meet him again.  I cannot believe I have almost 3 weeks to wait!  At least between now and then I'll be going to a Twins game, which will temporarily distract me from Hamels-related hyperness (although hopefully I get my voice back in time to meet Hamels...screaming at all the gorgeous Twins can really take its toll on one's throat, you know!)

Right now both of my teams (Phillies and Twins) are in first place.  Not by much, but by enough.  And hopefully they both keep kickin' butt...  :)


WANT WANT WANT.

Vsccubsshirt

No, I don't want the Cubs' shirts, despite the fact that Theriot and Hoffpaiur are total BILFs.  I'm gonna want the Phillies and Twins gear, which I'm hearing is coming out soonsoonsoon (but not soon enough, dammit!).

I've been reading up on the new Victoria's Secret/MLB clothing, and I swear I'm the only girl I know (with the possible exception of my friend Lisa, and she might only be excited about it when she can find Orioles gear in her local Vicky's) who's seriously stoked about this.  A lot of people I know or whose blogs I read aren't down with this clothing, for various reasons--they're not into the overly girly/sparkly/hearts thing, they're not sure the clothes will fit them nicely, they're not sure the clothes appropriately reflect the spirit of baseball, etc.  And those are all totally valid reasons to not be down with these clothes.

But for a girl like me?  A girl who lives for glitter?  Who goes to the ballpark in 5" red stilettos?  A girl who is sick of having to buy youth Medium shirts (not women's, which are often too big, but YOUTH) so that they are form-fitting and don't hang off her?  A girl who would totally not be embarrassed to wear a shirt that says "love love love Phillies" because, well, she DOES love, love, love her Phillies?  For a girl like me, this is gonna freakin' rock.  Finally!  GIRLY CLOTHING!  Stuff that will make me look cute(r)!  Stuff that might actually make my boobs look good instead of flattening them out (yeah, the youth M shirts fit me, but they're really not built for people with boobs--they're built for, like, 13-year-old boys).

I'm not gonna be embarrassed to wear this stuff.  Sure, some of it has a little bit of an airheady vibe, but you know what?  Just as much as I know who's hot on which teams, I know the stats of the players who matter.  I know I'm gonna kick ass and take names in fantasy baseball this year (um, hopefully...hehe!).  And I know that whether or not I'm wearing a shirt that says "I only kiss Phillies fans" (a great rule to live by, actually) that admittedly looks slightly airheady, I can talk baseball with the best of 'em.  And soon I'm gonna look even cuter while doing so.

In other BILF-related news:

* My parents are in Clearwater right now watching Hamels pitch.  Totally jealous?  You bet your ass I am!

* Looks like the hottest Texas Rangers need a nurse.  Hamilton and Kinsler are injured...poor babies!  I'd gladly take care of them...

* My favorite non-Phillies, non-Twins BILF, Cliff Lee, seems to have gotten a little aggressive against the Diamondbacks yesterdayBehave, gorgeous!



*droooooool*

This is a seriously awesome photo gallery.  I think if I'd been at Penn Station when the Phillies showed up, I would have died of happiness. 

Cole Hamels (picture 5) looks like a freakin' GQ model.  I swear I got weak in the knees when I saw that picture, and I was sitting down.  The picture of the Madsons (picture 9) is so cute.  Cliff Lee (picture 10) is total studliness when he's dressed up.  But I've gotta say, as much as I love Jayson Werth's home runs lately, he looks like a total tool in picture 2.

Also, it's nice to see that Newsday isn't trash-talking the Phillies like the Post is.  Now that's good journalism there.

Welcome, welcome...

Cole_and_heidi_hamels_wedding

Cole and Heidi Hamels' first son was born on Friday morning.  I'm happy to see that the child is named something normal (none of those baby names inspired by fruit, cities, or days of the week, thank goodness): Caleb Michael.  Cute!

Now that that's out of the way, hopefully Cole can get his head back in the game (literally) and focus on pitching well in the playoffs for the Phillies!  :)

On wins and Stepford husbands...

So the Phillies have been winning lately.  Phinally.  These wins haven't necessarily been pretty, but hey, they're wins...and wins are good.  I'm glad that Charlie has finally come to his senses and has decided to mix up the closers, not using Lidge each time.  Hopefully he didn't wait too long to do this--we lost some ground while Lidge was busy screwing up games.  Hopefully Charlie will keep allowing Madson to pick up some closing duties--Myers, too, when he's fully ready.

I'm kind of astounded that everybody's all excited that tonight we have the opportunity to sweep the Nationals.  Like, how did the W-P-Champions get so bad that sweeping the Nationals is a significant and important achievement?  Theoretically we should be good enough that sweeping a team as sub-par as the Nationals should be easy and routine and, therefore, nothing to get too excited over.  Not so much lately, though.

Also, gorgeous Cole Hamels has started really freaking people out with these advertisements.  On the one hand, I do think he looks gorgeous in the pictures.  On the other hand...I fear he's turning into a Stepford Husband.  The weird expression on his face in the top picture where he's hugging the baby bump...the lounging on the bed with a smiling Heidi and two totally random kids in the second picture...  Cole, what's going on?  If you're going to lay around on beds with random people, consider choosing me next time...

Dear Phillies:

Perplexed_cliff

Your number one fan (that'd be me) is going to move to Minnesota if you don't get your asses in gear.

And I mean "asses in gear" only in the sense of how you're performing; many of you have very nice asses that are otherwise in gear, and by that I mean I enjoy watching them...

BUT ONLY WHEN THEY'RE ATTACHED TO PLAYERS WHO WIN GAMES.

In case you haven't noticed, you're not winning many games lately.  To a large degree, I blame the pitching.  Pedro did a great job in his last start, and Hamels seems to have gotten his act together, but Mr. BILFalicious Lee has apparently decided that maybe the team needs a new Adam Eaton and that he should do the honors.  (OK, it's not that drastic...yet.  But it could be.  If he wasn't so hot, I might actually be hating him after Friday night's disaster.)  Don't even get me started talking about Brad Lidge.  Also don't get me started talking about a few of the injuries that this team has been afflicted with lately (any Mets fans who are reading this are probably laughing hysterically at that last line.  SHUT UP, METS FANS).  I wish Happ could have pitched today's game--but really, the problem wasn't with the starting pitching.  Moyer did a decent job, and then Park went and screwed it all up.

And as for the Phillies who don't pitch, do we need Ryan Howard to re-teach you all how to hit home runs?  (Except for you, Rauuuuul; we can't complain about your efforts on the field today.)

I'm hoping Happ gets better soon, that Utley's foot gets better, that the bats wake up again, and that our pitching quits sucking (Brett Myers for closer, pretty pretty please?).  I know that's a tall order, but that's what needs to happen.  It's September now; you guys are usually good in September.  Let's not be choke artists like our division rivals have been the past couple years, OK?  That would be really, really embarrassing.

Regardless, if you guys don't quit sucking, I swear I'm gonna move to Minnesota and root for the most attractive team in the American League.  Yeah, the Twins might be 7 games out of first place in the AL Central, but they're just as hot as you guys (especially Mauer and Morneau!), and they've actually won a few games lately.  And if you guys continue to play the way you've played all weekend long, the Twins may end up having a better record than you guys do, and that's kind of a scary thought...

But it's a potentially accurate one.

So shape up, fly right (not fly out), and pleeeeeeease...

Quit sucking. 

And don't let the "Lights Out" one anywhere near the mound.  At least not 'til November.


Lots of love,
That BILF Girl

Just one more reason Cole Hamels is awesome...

Hamels

You may be surprised that I, the Future Mrs. Cole Hamels, would post a nice picture of Cole with the Current Mrs. Cole Hamels.  I actually like Heidi; from the interviews I've seen her do on TV, she seems like a cool, smart chick.  She's the kind of girl I'd probably want to hang out with, but she'd probably not like me a whole lot because I ramble on too much about how her husband looks like a sexy panther when he pitches.

Anyway, one really great thing that Cole and Heidi do is they've created The Hamels Foundation, a charitable organization that enhances educational opportunities to children in low-income areas of Philadelphia.  Now their efforts are being recognized--Cole is up for the 2009 Roberto Clemente Award!

Click here to vote for Cole Hamels to win the 2009 Roberto Clemente award!  (I've gotta admit, I'll be voting for Hamels most of the time, but I'm going to have to slip another favorite BILF, Joe Mauer, a couple of votes too!)


He's baaa-aaaack!

Hot_cole

...Hot Cole Hamels, that is.  Not that he ever wasn't hot, but for a while his pitching wasn't all that hot.  Tonight, though?  Allowing just 2 hits?  Striking out 8 batters?  Stealing a base?  TOTALLY EFFIN' HOT.  He was amazing tonight.  (More details here.)

I hope this outing makes His Hotness regain some of his 2008 confidence.  This is the Cole Hamels we need to see if the Phillies make it to the playoffs this year.  We need this confident, controlled, and totally BILFalicious Phillie to pitch us into another World Series championship.  If Hamels can stay this hot and Lee can do as well as he's been doing for the Phillies (except for that last start of his), we will have the hottest and most talented set of ace pitchers in the league.  I'm trying not to jinx it, but I'm already looking forward to October...


Friday night's Phillies/Mets game...

Well, I went to Friday night's Phillies/Mets game just to see Cole Hamels pitch.  Unfortunately, he didn't pitch very well, and the Phillies lost the game, 4-2.  Luckily, Hamels at least looked gorgeous...although he also looked rattled/stressed/not so great on the mound.  Sigh.  We need Hamels to get back on track soon...if we're headed for the playoffs again this year, we're gonna need him in top form if we want to do well in the postseason.

Luckily for me, I was sitting basically right above the Phillies dugout for this game, and even from the upper deck, I had a nice view of certain BILFalicious ballplayers...yeah, I'll admit that I kept my eye on a certain Cliff Lee for much of the game.  (In the photos, he's in the dugout, wearing a red warmup jacket.)  It was sometimes more fun (and much less depressing) to watch Lee in the dugout than to watch Hamels on the mound....

 

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