To Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist
When the San Diego Padres defeated the New York Mets in the wild card round, Manny Machado toured the locker room with a bottle of champagne and foamed his teammates, staff and, finally, himself.
After the Los Angeles Dodgers were eliminated in the NL Division Series, Will Myers went out to celebrate and hardly had to convince him to buy 100 shots of tequila for patrons at a nearby store.
How do you top it? Oh, and only by turning the entire National League Championship Series into a party can you play against like-minded opponents.
That’s right, the NLCS has become the party bus this postseason. It’s a fiesta of noise and smiles, color and fun locked one-on-one after the Padres’ victory in Game 2 against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.
How the Padres leveled the series
Ben Verlander and Alex Curry look back on a wild NLCS Game 2 between the Padres and Phillies.
San Diego and Philadelphia – teams, fans, and cities – are enjoying the best kind of fun baseball can offer. Each franchise has waited long enough, and supporters are careful not to miss the chance to celebrate.
Games 1 and 2 caused a stir in San Diego, but why? The 16-year gap has been both long and painful.
Now it’s Philadelphia’s turn to host. The NFL’s Eagles ran rampant with his 6-0 record, and the Phillies secured his second winning season and playoff berth for the first time in 11 years.
It’s not really an underdog story, but it’s a comforting one for neutrals on either side.
The Padres threw money into this and generously gave Machado a shockingly large contract. Juan Soto. Hitting cash on the Big Butt can cause other deals to fall under your radar. This is what happened to some extent with the acquisition of the missile-throwing closer Josh Hader, who has proven to be a devastating game-ending weapon.
The Phillies have also used, in the words of owner John Middleton, “ridiculous” money to make all the game-changers, first Bryce Harper, then Zach Wheeler, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos and more. followed by a lockdown.
“I’m seeing a fan base desperate to win,” said Schwalber, who hit 46 home runs in the regular season, a record second only to Aaron Judge. “I just wanted to go to a place where I had a good chance of winning and tried a deep run.”
And enjoy it. The Phillies also went with the flow, taking a relaxed approach that saw Harper and two of his colleagues sharing a photo of his breakfast with two fans he happened to meet at a cafe in San Diego.
The level of relaxation can be attributed to Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson, himself a jokingly good-natured, easy-going 59-year-old who never rises above the position of assistant coach. Then he rushed into work when Joe Girardi was canned, determined to keep things cool and let the players be themselves.
A turnaround as a result? That’s why the Phillies are still playing baseball well into his late October.
Like any good party, this series doesn’t let the action stop. With the season caught in a tighter window due to fear of work disruption, the schedule tightened and as things progressed, everyone was hoping there were still 162 games left.
Assuming one team can’t win all three games on the East Coast, that would mean action again in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon and at the Mexican border on Monday night.
ALCS is equally valuable, just different. The Houston Astros aren’t sick of winning, but they may be sick of being hated so much. brings serious air to
They throw nasty parties in the Bronx (I’ve been there by the Grand Concourse and it was magical), but when it comes to baseball, New York is tough and Yankee Stadium is more of a carnival. It’s like a cathedral.
The real party is on this side of the bracket.
Game 3 between the Phillies and the Padres takes place on Friday (7:37 PM ET on FS1 and the FOX Sports app), and will likely become more realistic at some point as the series progresses. A perch a step away from baseball’s most prized prize.
Some will get nervous, and they will certainly continue to party, but there will be tension running through it all.
These fans are the lucky ones and have the chance to taste one of the sweetest things in all of sport. Success is a rare hard-earned commodity, the ultimate reward for all your dedication.
The rest of us neutrals enjoy the ride stress-free and, if necessary, a reminder that playoff baseball should be loud, wild, colorful, and frenetic.
Occasions like that are special enough to be worth partying like there’s no tomorrow.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX When Subscribe to our daily newsletterr.
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