The Philadelphia Phillies are my passion. Some of my earliest childhood memories are sitting in Connie Mack Stadium watching the Phillies with my father. Founded in 1883, they are the oldest continually functioning professional sports franchise in the world, and they have the distinction of losing the most games, over 10,000 of any professional team in major league baseball. Although they are the reigning World Series champions, they have only won one other in their history—in 1980 against George Brett and the Kansas City Royals.
By chance, the Phillies were in Phoenix to play the Arizona Diamondbacks during our stay here at the Sanctuary so we rambled on over to Chase Field on Wednesday night to see the game. We had great seats; the retractable roof was closed so the temperature inside was a comfortable 79° instead of the 109° outside.
I discovered burst mode (5 shots in one button press) on my camera while watching a bit of batting practice. It’s been said that the hardest job in the world, besides being President of the United States, is hitting a major league fastball. Here is a sequence in burst mode of just that. In the last photo, notice the blur of the ball near the first base line as it approaches the batter at close to 100 mph.
The Phillies are leading the National League East by seven games and had won 10 out of their last 12—this night, they lost. Jean is convinced that we are bad luck for them when we attend games.
