Phils Waiting For the REAL Party

'Duk of Yahoo!'s Big League Stew fame was in the clubhouse for both the Rays and Phillies clinching of their respective division series. The Phillies were much, much tamer in their spraying of champagne to the face.

Having also been privy in the Phillies clubhouse celebration in Milwaukee on Sunday, the only thing I can say is that Tampa Bay's rugrats made Philly's bash look like an absolute tea party. A Chicago media vet said the White Sox didn't even go this crazy when they won the World Series in 2005. You could see the alcohol droplets in the air.

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, of course, but to put some sort of perspective on thie contrast, each winning team (Philadelphia and Tampa Bay) was greeted with two gigantic tubs of MLB's sponsor beer after their victories. The Philadelphia players collectively took a few cans to spray around the room before quickly getting tired and turning their attention toward the Dodgers.

However, by the end of the Rays' celebration of beating the White Sox, you could see the bottom of both tubs while most of the contents had been sprayed into the air (and then the carpet) or over the Mohawk of reserve player Jonny Gomes (mostly by himself.)

You know what? This makes me happy. Not to take anything away from Tampa, because they could certainly beat the Red Sox in the ALCS, but it shows the Phillies are not content with simply getting to the NLCS.

They've grown since last year's euphoric clinching of the NL East and are poised to keep this winning thing going.

Although, kudos to the tequila slugging Rays. That's balls.

>>The surging Rays stage another clubhouse party for the ages [Yahoo!]

image via Yahoo!

Comments

[ill]

...and that's the bottom line, cause Brett Myers says so!

[tony]

does brett say that before or after he Rock Bottoms his wife?

Yes, I said it.

[alex]

go phils,

prediction: Phils Bosox series
see if im wrong

[johndewar]

The Red Sox must read the reports of Tampa's partying and laugh. Will Tampa be happy just getting to the NLCS?

[johndewar]

Um, I meant "ALCS". Off to get some coffee......

[AG]

At the time, I felt like the Philly celebration was pretty reserved. I think I mentioned to a friend "More work to be done..."

[Carl]

So perhaps I'm not the only one who thinks the champagne celebrations after the first round feel a little forced. Yay team and all, but there's still a lot of work to do. I don't recall ever seeing a football, basketball or hockey team spraying champagne or beer around the locker room after a first-round triumph.

[Stev]

It's good to hear. It even looked a little forced on TV like the team knew it they had to do the champagne party for the sake of TBS.