You remember that nice setup they had for the ring ceremony with the table where the rings sat and the ‘Phillies’ banner draped alongside the front?  Yeah, well it almost all came crashing down thanks to the clumsiness of some lady who was “helping” with the preparation.

Check her out in the bottom right corner as she gets her left foot caught in the carpet and somehow avoids the almost-certain disaster of collapsing the table.  She actually handled it quite well and quickly regained her composure while the other two girls pretended they didn’t see it. For comedy’s sake, it would’ve been so much better if the rings were already on the table and she fell through while the entire stadium laughed at her. Maybe next time!

Watch out for that first step, its a doozy: (View in HQ!)

Mere seconds before the 2008 World Series banner was raised high atop Citizens Bank Park, an elderly gentleman and a younger fellow took it upon themselves to settle their dispute the old-fashioned way…

BARE KNUCKLE FIGHTING!

I can’t even imagine what would cause these two to resort to fisticuffs as the World Series ceremony is taking place right behind them.

Oh yeah — alcohol. It was probably the alcohol.

(Dug up from the YouTube depths by Matt P of The 700 Level)

I’ve never been one to get to the ballpark a few hours early just to watch the players warm-up while hundreds of over-anxious fans compete for a chance to catch a BP home run ball. I’d much rather spend that time in the parking lot getting enough of a load on that I don’t give a shit about paying $6.00 per beer once I finally make it inside.

That being said, if I was into BP, the following video would be the ideal ball-catchin’ scenario. Prior to Game 4 of the NLCS last year, a Dodgers fan seated in the outfield was shooting Jayson Werth taking some hacks in the cage when all of a sudden he smashed one in the general vicinity of the director. Instead of tossing the camera in order to concentrate on the catch, he kept the video camera in his right hand while making the snag with his left.

Take THAT, Zack Hample.

The YouTuber who uploaded this wrote in the description, “Before Game 4 of the 2008 National League Championship Series. Worst game of the year, ugh.”

I beg to differ, sir.

As if you needed another reason to buy tickets this year, the Phillies treated a large portion of this afternoon’s broadcast against the Twins like an infomercial for all the little trinkets they’re giving out in 2009. One of the most popular of the bunch will most certainly be the April 28th game against the Nationals where every fan in the house will receive their very own Charlie Manuel bobble figurine. Of course, I’m of the opinion that something this great will sell out on it’s own and doesn’t need any extra promoting, but the Phils got Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins to record a segment with it anyway.

The results were pretty funny:

Kudos to Chris Wheeler for that dead-on Charlie Manuel impression at the end there.

I thought it was him for a second!

No questions asked.

I know you have probably seen this commercial dozens of times already. In fact, The 700 Level posted it almost a month ago. But that didn’t stop this from being — by far — the most requested clip from commenters and tipsters in the history of The Fightins dot com. Now that I’m absolutely positive that we are the only Phillies site on the internet who haven’t showed it yet — here it is.

The Jimmy Rollins Dick’s Sporting Goods commercial (watch in HQ!):

Personally, I enjoy the mini-strut he does right after he frickin’ smashes the ball.

Shane Victorino was recently cornered by Scott Palmer of Phillies.com (I remember when he was on Action News!) and asked about his feelings concerning players declining an invitation to the WBC.  After Jimmy Rollins gives his take on it, Shane steps in to finish it off and in what has to be a first for Victorino, drops an UNPROMPTED “no questions asked.”   Normally, the NQA is the first thing out of his mouth directly following an obvious question.  Here, he just casually tosses it in the middle of his interview.

For the impatient, fast forward to the 1:05 mark:

In between fielding grounders, taking cuts in the batting cage, and stealing Leslie Gudel’s camera to snap pictures, Jimmy Rollins found some time to hook up with a golf instructor down at Spring Training in hopes of improving his golf swing.  Luckily for us, the CSN Philly cameras followed him there to document it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the next Rick Rhoden:

Now I don’t know much about golf, but I don’t think it helps Jimmy when the instructor tries to relate every cot damn thing he does to baseball. Did you hear this guy?

“Golf’s the same as baseball.”

“You hit a baseball, the ball and the bat are together for a period of time… same thing as golf!”

“Everyday is Spring Training. Batting Practice, everyday.”

“If I ask you to hit an outside pitch, blah blah something golf.”

“We’re getting base hits, we still don’t have a double yet.”

“You fouled off that pitch! Still alive”

Jimmy: “Who’s pitching?”

Instructor guy: [thinking of a baseball player... I KNOW! John Smoltz plays golf!]

“John Smoltz.”

“You know what it is? It’s the World Series!”

“I actually think you got hit by a pitch!”

Alright. We fucking get it.

• BigMiles on Which One is More Likely?
• Matt on Which One is More Likely?
• Lynniemac on Which One is More Likely?
• Lynniemac on Playoff Diary: Nearly Bartmanesque
• RJ on Playoff Diary: Nearly Bartmanesque