This Valentine card was sent to me by my co-blogger and her husband, but I dedicate it today to Brad Lidge, who is just about perfect in his role as narrator of The Perfect Season, the 2008 Phillies Video Yearbook by "Video" Dan Stephenson. It's a great video, from spring training to the final exciting out of the World Series and the unbelievable celebration that followed two days later.
One of the surprise threads running through the video is 94-year-old Jesse Branson, a baseball lover, Phillies fan, and historian of the Negro Leagues, who becomes the team's 'talisman' for the season. A thoroughly charming and upbeat old dude, Branson embodies the best of fandom and sometimes threatens to steal the show. Impossible, of course, given the year that the Phillies had. All the highlights are there, including the breathlessly great double play (Rollins to Utley to Howard) that ended the game that clinched the NL East and Utley's heady fake-to-first-throw-to-home in Game 5 of the World Series.
The main video runs for 75 minutes; another two hours of bonus cuts are included. Highly recommended, but there is one huge disappointment and caveat. Chase Utley's comments at the celebration at Citizens Bank Park on October 31 have been edited out. Not bleeped but edited out, which means that the reactions of all in the park were also cut. Come on, it was a defining and iconic moment. It deserved to be included.
