Is this absolutely ridiculous and silly?  You're damn right it is, but I'm a sucker for The Terminator.  And in case you forgot, I always said Roy Halladay was made up of endoskeleton and rhinoceros bits.  Totally called that shit MONTHS ago.

h/t Zoo With Roy

If there’s something Roy Halladay loves more than baseball, it’s bass fishing. The photo above was taken during a recent fishing trip Halladay enjoyed with former Bassmaster Classic Champion, Skeet Reese. Like a six-year-old whose excitement won’t allow him to sleep on Christmas Eve, you just know our favorite little man got up extra early to get a jump on those fish. And because he is Roy Halladay, extra early probably meant getting there three days in advance while robotically working on his casting.

The trip was actually set up by the Phillies as a gift to Doc to commemorate his perfect game back in May. It’s a pretty cool thing to see a team taking care of its' players, going above and beyond to recognize their achievements, and seemingly doing it without a ton of fanfare.

Here’s a polite, gentlemanly golf clap to the Phils organization.

You can read the full escapade over at ESPN.

In the biggest game of the season so far, the Phillies are going to start Joe Blanton. Take a second and read that sentence again. Yep, Heavy B is going to take the mound tomorrow, whether we like it or not.

Faced with a 2-1 hole, Charlie will stick with his original plan instead of moving Halladay up a day to start on short rest. It's obvious that Charlie just feels more comfortable with his guys going on normal rest, and you can't really fault him for that. Although he may change his mind in the morning, it appears the earliest we'll be seeing Doc is Thursday night.

I honestly have to admit I'm a little surprised. A lot was made last year of the Phillies not wanting to pitch Cliff Lee on short rest (which the Rangers refused to do this year as well). When the Phillies basically "swapped" Lee for Halladay in the offseason many people looked at Halladay's ability to pitch on short rest as one reason the upgrade made sense. In six career starts on short rest, Halladay has gone 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA. While that's a small sample size, it certainly looks like Halladay can handle it. Plus, you have to think Halladay would be pumped up by the idea, since he's so close to the World Series title he craves so badly. It doesn't appear he'll get that chance.

However, Halladay's ability to pitch on short rest isn't really the thing I'm concentrating on the most. It's the fact that Joe Blanton hasn't pitched in a meaningful game since October 3rd. That was a one inning appearance against the Braves on the last day of the season. His last start was even longer ago, back on September 29th. That's a long layoff, especially for someone now tasked with saving the Phillies season (although the bats could score some runs and help that out too). Heavy B is certainly going to have to be at his best.

Ultimately this decision will be judged by what happens in the game tomorrow. If the Phillies win, suddenly they have taken back home field and have Halladay ready for Game 5. If they lose, they are going to need H20 to win three straight games (which, while incredibly difficult, is something those three could certainly pull off). Charlie Manuel has pretty much pulled all the right strings the past few years, I just hope this move pays off as well. If not...well let's just not think about that right now.

Go Phils.

So here we are, about to watch the Phillies partake in their THIRD STRAIGHT NLCS. After 10,000 losses, Joe Carter, the 1964 collapse and Celine Dion (she has nothing to do with the Phillies, but she’s awful), who would have a thought our local baseball team would ever see this much success? The best record in baseball? Three aces? Puke monster? It’s still hard to believe this is all real. But guess what folks, it’s real. Very real. And the Phillies have a chance to do something over the next week no NL team has done since 1944, go to three straight World Series.

Standing in their way of history, yet again, is a team from California. This time around though, it’s not those Manny-led Dodgers, but the Pat the Bat-led San Francisco Giants. The Phillies are overwhelming favorites to be sure, but the Giants are a very good (although flawed) team and shouldn’t (and won’t) be taken lightly by our Fightins’.

(Quick side note, the word “Giant” comes from greek “Gigas” which is root for the word Gigantism. Gigantism, also known as giantism, is caused by an overproduction of human growth hormone, otherwise known as HGH. HGH, of course, was used quite frequently by everyone’s favorite Giant, Barry Bonds. Just thought that whole Giant, HGH, cheater, Giants suck thing was interesting.)

Anyway, to defeat our next opponent we must first understand them, so here is a quick rundown of who the San Francisco Giants are:

Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Madison Bumgarner. Sergio Romo, Santiago Casilla, Javier Lopez, Brian Wilson. Buster Posey.

See what I did there? Yea, it’s pretty obvious what the Giants are all about, and that is why they are so dangerous in this series. The Giants boast an amazing pitching staff, full of both dominating starters and shut-down relievers. They led the majors is ERA, strikeouts and opponent’s batting average. Tim Lincecum has rebounded from a shaking July/August and the bullpen gave up something like 1 run in September. It’s safe to say, when combined with the Phillies awesome pitching (which we all know about), that runs will be at premium. Not surprisingly, I expect the Phillies offense to struggle in this series, so I think you can’t expect much more than two to four runs from our bats in any game. So, to that end, I figure we should focus on what will likely be the deciding factor in this series…can the Giants score enough to beat the Phillies?

If you look strictly at statistics, the Giants offense is pretty underwhelming. The finished 17th in MLB in runs scored and 17th in OPS. They also were awful on the basepaths, with only a 63% steal success rate, worst in the league (both leagues, like 30 out of 30 bad).

However, they thrived on timely home runs, and actually only hit 4 less than our “powerful” Phillies did (166 to 162). Now that doesn’t take into consideration the vast amount of time that Rollins, Utley, Victorino and Howard missed, but the Giants didn’t have Burrell, Posey and Cody Ross all year either (not that they are equals to our guys, just saying). After calling up Posey and adding Burrell, the Giants lineup became a whole lot more imposing. The late season addition of Ross was brilliant to, he's a good hitter who has seven career homers at CBP, the most of any visiting ballpark. Throw in a resurgent Aubrey Huff and a career-year-having Andres Torres and the Giants offense doesn't quite have as much suck in it as it did in April and May.

My ultimate point is, the Giants have enough power on the roster to be scary, and with their pitching a 3 run homer might be enough to win any game. It will be important that the Phillies keep base runners to a minimum (which they do better than any team in baseball, by the way, just look it up) so that those homers (if they happen) are only solo shots. Of course if the Phils pitch like they did in round 1, the Giants might score four runs all series.

The matchups:

Game 1: Roy Halladay (21-10, 2.44 ERA, 219 SO) vs. Tim Lincecum (16-10, 3.43 ERA, 231 SO)

I don't need to tell you that this is an awesome matchup, but...well...it's an awesome matchup. Lincecum was the best pitcher in the NL the past two years, Halladay was the best pitcher in the NL this year. Since changing his grip on his slider in September, Lincecum has been lights out and absolutely dominated the Braves in the first round. The Phillies will offer him a little tougher competition, but if this game is anything else than a 2-1 or 3-2 ballgame, I'll be surprised. Oh, and Halladay threw a no-hitter in the NLDS. Just remembered.

Game 2: Roy Oswalt (13-13, 2.76 ERA, 193 SO) vs. Jonathan Sanchez (13-9, 3.07 ERA, 205 SO)

Giants manager Bruce Bochy shuffled his rotation so that Sanchez will start Game 2. Pretty smart idea, cause Sanchez owns the Phillies. He has a career 2.86 ERA against our Phils and has struck out 40 in 34.2 innings. That's pretty dominate stuff and I suspect more of the same. I have a really strong feeling this series is going back to San Francisco 1-1. Unless Oswalt throws a shutout, since...ya know...it's his turn now.

Game 3: Cole Hamels (12-11, 3.06 ERA, 211 SO) vs. Matt Cain (13-11, 3.14 ERA, 177 SO)

These pitching matchup are ridiculous, aren't they? I mean, the highest starter ERA is Lincecum's at 3.43 and we all know how good he is. The more I think about it, the more I'm positive that the winning team in this series might not score more than 15 runs the whole series.

Game 4 and on is up for debate, obviously depending on where the series stands. Just know this, if Roy Halladay is starting, it means the Phillies are behind in the series. In the end though, I truly expect the good guys to win. The Phillies offense is due for a breakout and I'm hoping facing great pitching forces them to step up to the challenge and bring it. I expect H2O to do their thing too. Plus, we have Carlos. It is Choochtober afterall.

Oh, and I expect to meet the Yankees in the World Series after they dispatch the Rangers in 6. And you can take my predictions to the bank, just see for yourself.

Go Phils.

Thank you Twitter Phils Phans (and one Blue Jays fan) for doing just what the eff you're supposed to do after your ace says the nay-no to the entire city of Cincinnati.

Philadelphia, enjoy the day. Watch the clips on repeat. Check out the Doc's report card. Tag a motherlovin' wall. Whatever celebration you choose, do it up.

(Yester)day was a good day.

Roy Halladay was right. Funner indeed.

h/t to @zoowithroy, @BlueJayHunter, @itsStephGrace, @SusiKenna

Yea, so that was rather impressive. 9 innings, zero hits. In case you haven't heard, Roy Halladay is incredibly good at baseball. Go celebrate Philadelphia...you just witnessed the greatest start in NL postseason history. More to come...

<3 Roy Halladay <3

Hey! The Phillies hit tonight! 12 hits and 6 runs en-route to a shut-out victory over the Rockies. It probably had nothing to do with new hitting coach Greg Gross, but this was a perfect way to start off a home stand - especially after dropping 6 of 8 on the road coming out of the All Star break.

Every starter (except Valdez) got a hit tonight. Even Roy Halladay got in on the fun with a single. Besides the win itself, all you really need to know is the mere fact that the Phils put the bat on the ball and Halladay dominated. Plus, Carlos Ruiz came up to bat with Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight", so that was pretty awesome.  All around it was an encouraging performance and hopefully a preview of what’s to come over the next couple months.

On a side note, how many of you despise the ballpark wedding proposal?  It seriously seems like EVERY game I've been to this year has had one of these.  They're awful and tonight's was no exception.  It's just so lame.  Your girl can't possibly want that.  I'm quite sure those two will end up arguing over who keeps the Roy Halladay Fathead in divorce court.

Phils try and do it again tomorrow - this time against Ubaldo.  Game time is 4pm.  It's supposed to be stupid hot tomorrow, so if you have tickets, try not to die.

TheWizWit looks after the community.

This ain't no fuckin game! Arf! Arf!

The time is right. It's been over six months since I last did a Blingee, and this one is well-earned. Perfect game. Eleven strikeouts. No dudes on base.

Zero dudes on base.

Hustle. Loyalty. Respect.

Sadly, Philly sports fans were denied multiple orgasms this evening. The Flyers weren't able to pull out a win in the opening game of the Stanley Cup Finals. (Don't worry... that's why they make them 7 game series.) But as promised, history was indeed made tonight - Roy Halladay became only the 20th pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball to throw a Perfect Game. Words really can't express just how friggin ridiculously awesome this is. If you need me to explain this feeling to you, you're not a real sports fan and should leave our site immediately.

While I cannot say enough about the tremendous accomplishment Halladay achieved today, I'd be remiss to not mention the ultimate 'You called it' moment of all-time.

It was brought to my attention that an ESPN message board thread was started at 7:16pm with the title "Roy Halladay Perfect Game Alert". The first message read '27 batters to go'. Every few batters, another post was added reminding you how many batters were to go. Others joined in, first being sarcastic and laughing the whole thing off, but as the game went on, people were counting it down.

It's quite possibly the most epic message board thread ever - and it is 100% legit. See the complete thread HERE. dtboy1234 - whoever you are - I give you a standing ovation. Well done sir. Now go play the lottery, bet your bank account on RED, and predict the Flyers as Stanley Cup Champions for us.


*many thanks from TWW friend and reader Troy for giving us the heads up

Slumps happen all the time. It's a part of baseball, any self-respecting player, manager, reporter or fan will tell you that. But this is just ridiculous. The Phillies haven't scored in 27 straight innings, three full friggin' games, AND were swept by the absolutely hated Mets. No matter how you look at it, this team isn't very good right now.

Obviously it isn't time to hit full panic mode yet. Remember, this team was 39-37 last year in late June before they finally turned it on and ran away with the division. The same could happen this year, especially when you consider we now have Roy Halladay, a better Cole Hamels and J.A. Happ set to return in a few weeks. But the fact remains this team has been shutout in four of the their last five, all against non-ace type pitchers (although, admittingly, Pelfrey is pitching that way this year). If it wasn't for a three run ninth inning on Sunday, we'd be staring at five consecutive shutouts. Yuck.

Listen, this team will hit. They'll probably lead the NL in runs scored again too. But the NL East is stronger this year, with every team at .500 or better. The Nationals, who are in last place, are only three games back of the Phillies. Even the staunchest of Phillies fans have to realize this year won't be as easy as 2009 was. It would certainly be in the Phillies best interest to have a strong showing this weekend in Miami. This losing streak has to stop now. With that said, onto the matchups:

Friday: Kendrick (2-2, 5.66 ERA) vs. Volstad (3-5, 4.31 ERA)

Saturday: Halladay (6-3, 2.22 ERA) vs. Johnson (5-1, 2.43 ERA)

Sunday: Moyer (5-4, 4.55 ERA) vs. Sanchez (4-2, 3.23 ERA)

It isn't going to get any easier for the Phillies to score this weekend. Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez have both pitched excellent recently, Johnson especially. To understand how dominate Josh Johnson has been, consider this: in his past 57 starts he's allow more than three ER only eight times. Eight. That's really good. Thankfully, the Phils will send out Halladay to match him. Coming off his worst start of the year (by far) Halladay is looking to rebound. Knowing the type of pitcher he is, I'm sure he will. The Phillies just need to score. Especially with Kendrick and Moyer taking the hill in this series too.

Looking at how this series could play out, the Phillies really need to rock Volstad on Friday night and send a message that their offense is fine. If they don't, they face two pitchers on Saturday and Sunday that are hot and it could get ugly fast. Taking two of three this weekend is imperative, they have to stop the bleeding.

Go Phils!