Happy Halloween! As you all know from my previous blogs, I am a huge Philadelphia Phillies fan. On Wednesday night at around 10 p.m., the Phillies became the 2008 World Series Champions! What you don’t know is that I was in attendance as the Phils broke the Curse of Billy Penn. It was truly an unbelievable sensation and experience and one I will certainly never ever forget. Picture this – Monday night, working late. Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO, gets the chance to snag two tickets to that night’s game – what could be the final game in the series if the Phillies win. In a rush and flurry of red, we hop on 95, park, pick up our tickets and are nestled into our seventh row seats by 7:45 p.m. All the while, I am still in shock that I am even there. And then, Mother Nature intervened and in a World Series first, play is suspended in the middle of the sixth due to rain. Some may argue the game should have been called sooner, but this is Philadelphia, and things don’t come easily here. On Tuesday, we were pounded with rain and snow and the remainder of the game was pushed back once again. Wednesday night arrives. The game is on, the anticipation is high. After a delicious dinner at The Palm in Center City, we hop on the subway and head over to Citizen’s Bank Park. The crowded train erupts with shouts and cheers as soon as we pull up to our stop. In the bottom of the sixth, a lead-off double by the Phillies pinch hitter Geoff Jenkins helps us break the tie and regain a 3-2 lead. Top of the seventh, the Rays tie it up. In the bottom of the seventh, we push ahead once again. A scoreless eighth followed by Brad “Lights Out” Lidge. In an incredibly exciting three innings of baseball, the Phillies became champions. It was a moment beyond any words I could find to describe the night. I can remember only two times in my life feeling a similar level of excitement as I did on Wednesday night. The first was when, during my freshman year at Syracuse University, our basketball team, led by Carmelo Anthony, became NCAA champs. The second moment was when I graduated from SU. In a reverse situation, we were on the playing field of the Carrier Dome surrounded by thousands upons thousands of friends and family cheering on the Class of 2006. These are moments of excitement, anticipation, hope, good cheer and so much more. Once-in-a-lifetime kinds of things. The stuff movies are made of! After the game was over, the celebration was only just beginning. We hopped back on the subway to Broad Street, where wall-to-wall people were out in the streets, hanging from traffic lights. This city was on fire, and the celebration is continuing downtown today. For the first time in 25 years, a championship parade will fill the streets. Over two million are expected to turn out. You can watch it live on MLB’s Web site. So, here’s to the Phillies, the city of Philadelphia and the fans. Oh, what a feeling! -Kimberly Krol, circulation and PR executive, eFlyer editor