Phillies fans celebrate like it’s 2008 after improbable win: ‘There’s even more electricity now’

Some kissed, some hugged, some cried. Joyful screams came from the restrooms. Hoarse voices belted out “Dancing on My Own.” After a game-long rain and a season’s worth of tension, the 45,000-plus seismically loud fans at Citizens Bank Park witnessed the almost unimaginable.

Their Philadelphia Phillies were going to the World Series, thanks to an all-time clutch eighth-inning home run by Bryce Harper, and a tightrope-walking ninth inning in which the Padres brought the potential winning run to the plate, trailing 4-3.

“It was like watching the person you love most defuse a bomb,” said Gary Clemson, who came to the game from Tamaqua with his son, Bradley.

As it happened, the two stood in the concourse in right field in the same place they occupied during a late-season game in 2008, just before the Phillies won their last World Series. And then, on a shallow pop, Game 5 of the 2022 National League Championship Series was over. ”It’s the happiest day of our lives,” Clemson said. Mass euphoria rippled through the stadium.

It was beginning to feel a lot like 2008 again on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.

“Might feel even better,” said Jamie Pagliei, who showed up with his standard game face — as in, red-striped beneath a blue Mohawk — and who was at the ballpark 14 years ago when the Phillies won their last World Series.

“There’s even more electricity now,” said Pagliei, who lives in Ridley Township and has business cards that say he is “the Philly sports guy.”

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No comparative measures were available, but It was hard to argue with him on Oct. 23, 2022, when the Phillies, the lowest seed in the National League’s six-team playoff field, slogged through an afternoon-long rain and improbably won the pennant.

The celebratory electricity after the team’s high-wire act rapidly spread through the streets of Center City to the Northeast and throughout the region as horns honked and fireworks exploded and champagne corks popped.

Within minutes of the final out, crowds congregated at Broad and Locust Streets, barely yielding to traffic, and against the city’s best efforts, utility poles were in play for climbers.

Maria Anderson, 37, of Southwest Philadelphia, drove her husband to work at the Double Tree, or at least tried to. She got stuck in a party.

“It’s OK,” she said. “I already cooked dinner and there’s plenty of love down here. It’s nice.”

The party was going on just as hard outside City Hall, where people were chugging liquor bottles, doing the worm, and men in suits partied it up with fans in every Philly sports team jersey imaginable. At one point, the crowd circled around a trombone player, but drum beats soon stole their attention. A man parted the crowd and a drum line marched through. Picking up the rear was Philly Elmo: The party was officially underway.

Adele D’Angelo Masters, 59, and her sister, Judy D’Angelo Anderson, 64, came from Glennore for a black-tie wedding at the Union League. “We’re supposed to be at the wedding but we want to be here,” said Masters, who screamed along with the crowd. “This is the best I’ve ever seen it for just the penant. It’s like they already won the freaking World Series! It’s wonderful to live through this.” “What if they do win?” her sister asked. “They will,” she said.

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The crowd did get rambunctious later in the evening, and police moved in to restore order. At least one person was taken into custody.

At Frankford and Cottman Avenues, in the Northeast, city crews blocked off the intersection as thousands came out to celebrate.

An impromptu batting cage was set up in the middle of it all with kids and adults taking swings at underhand pitches. Pat Burger, 30, jumped into the hitter’s box wearing an Eagles jersey and a giant Swoop mascot headpiece.

The crowd roared as he readied his bat. To Burger, who rallied at this very intersection when the Birds won the Super Bowl in 2018, Sunday’s win was about more than the Phillies. It was about the soul of the city as doomed or destined as its teams may be.

At the ball park, the 2008 comparisons were a leitmotif.

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Even the weather felt vaguely familiar. The Phillies clinched the title in a game that started during a nor’easter with a cold rain and a biting wind.

Mike Phillips and Butch Adamo had never met before but became fast Phillies friends on Sunday. ”We’re 100% sure they’re going to World Series,” said Phillips, of Port Richmond. He had worked the stands as a beer vendor during the World Series runs of 2008 and 2009. ”The memories are so great,” he said, and, “It’s happening again.”

Adamo, who goes by “Butch from Manayunk,” said he had been to 78 home games this year and described himself as “pretty much like a legend around this park.” He fashions himself a poet and songwriter and on Sunday he sang a rendition of “Underdogs,” to the tune of “Jingle Bells.”

And the Phillies certainly did come into the series as underdogs, and that unquestionably contributed to Sunday’s exuberance.

Alicia and John Walker walked to the unlikely celebratory venue at the Lukoil service station at Broad and Wharton with their 8-month-old son. ”He woke up just in time to see Bryce Harper’s home run,” said proud father and lifelong fan.

Noting their son entered the world at a great time to be a Philadelphia sports fan, he added somewhat jokingly, ”He doesn’t know the misery yet.”

» READ MORE: NLCS MVP Bryce Harper’s homer lifts Phillies past Padres and on to the World Series

Sunday was not the day for misery for the city’s sports fans, their moods the counterpoint to the dreary weather.

“The city’s been really low lately, so this has been a big thing for us,” said Brian Kracyla, who lives in South Philadelphia and was fortunate enough to be in the stands. He stood overlooking the outfield, mouth agape, in the moments after the final out.

He gave a bear hug to Mike Hewitt, of Delaware, who was born just hours after the Phillies won the 1980 World Series. ”Out of body experience,” he said. And he offered a World Series prediction: “Phils in five!”