The conventional wisdom is that this will not be a widely viewed World Series. However, sometimes the most unlikely matchups produce the best contests. Last night was a well paced (for a world series game), competitive game. A very nice job by Cole Hamels, who is hitting his stride quite nicely. Did he always have that good a changeup? Kazmir was a little off last night, but he still pitched well. Hey, Chase Utley is a darn good hitter.

All of this reminds me of when my sister in law got married in 2005. Her husband is a big Phillies fan, and after the reception we were in the bar discussing the Phillies. At the time, the Phillies had just fired Ed Wade and brought in Pat Gillick. My new brother in law and his friends were all “gloom and doom” about their team. I told them: “You have reason to hold your heads up, Pat Gillick knows what he’s doing, he’s a very credible baseball man who will get your team to seriously compete.” They all said I was crazy, that I didn’t understand Philly baseball or their ownership. I said: “It doesn’t matter who the owners are, Gillick will find a way.” No —— the owners won’t spend the money. I said, Gillick is good enough that he doesn’t need to spend a ton of money.

Well…. here they are 3 victories away from a World Championship three seasons later.