Phils Pick Themselves Up

There's a moment in the first Rocky that the Phils reminded me of last night. It's during the 14th round of the fight. Heavywieght champ Apollo Creed had just knocked down challenger Rocky Balboa for the umpteenth time. Balboa's manager, Mickey, is urging Rocky to stay down so as to avoid anymore of a beating. Balboa, showing that undeniable Philadelphia spirit, manages to make it to his feet yet again before the referee's 10-count. After the referee checks Balboa and tells the fights to continue, Rocky motions with his hands and says, "C'mon." Creed, visibly sighing, looks at Rocky with a look of incredulousness, stops, and shakes his head. He can't believe Balboa won't go away -- won't go down and stay down. After going into Houston -- the Phils' version of Death Valley -- and sweeping the Astros over the weekend, the Phillies had moved to within one game of the wildcard lead. Then they dropped a stinker Monday night, losing 11-6 to the worst team in the National League, while the Dodgers performed one of the single greatest comebacks in major league history. Throw in that the Phils were playing at home where they have a sub-.500 record and you have a team that has been beaten again and again, and was finally down on the mat. How would they respond? Thanks to a tremendous pitching performance by Jamie Moyer and some fine clutch hitting (and defense) by Abraham Nunez, the Phils picked themselves up and told the Dodgers -- and Padres -- "C'mon." There It Is take: Of course, the end of the story is that Rocky doens't win the title, but since that wasn't his real goal -- ". . . [I]f I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood." -- who's paying attention? I'm calling it right now, with 11 games to go and the Phillies trailing Los Angeles by one game -- they're winning the wildcard. They're slumping, they're hurt, they're tired. None of that matters. It's September. That's what matters.