Phinally pheel a connection

I am living in suburban Philadelphia (for the time being) (eight more weeks, but who's counting?) and I'm a lifelong Phillies fan... oddly enough, though, I have felt virtually no connection to this current Phillies team. It's not their place in the standings (I am also an Orioles fan, and they suck more than the Phillies, yet I feel a connection to that team); I don't know what it is. Odd, because the Phillies are stocked with likeable, young, quality players: Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels, Aaron Rowand...

But till today, nothing.

Today, though, this Phillies team finally made a connection. As I wrote in an email to a friend, "they're playing in Colorado, and there has been thunder and lightning around the field all afternoon... and a few minutes ago, the skies over Coors Field finally broke open... a biblical deluge, with heavy whipping winds. The umps called play and the grounds crew came out onto the field as the teams ran for the dugout... and as the crew started to spread the tarp over the infield, the edge of it flipped in the wind and two or three of the crew members went under it.

"As soon as the tarp flipped, the Phillies bench CLEARED (while the Colorado -home team- players stayed on the bench) and the Phillies players and coaches ran out onto the field and lined the edge of the tarp, helping the grounds crew, tugging and pulling at the tarp, working the edge out from underneath so that it could be spread out... then standing on the edges to weigh it down, and then, when it was finally laid out, helping the grounds crew toss sandbags onto the edges.

"Game is official, by the way, with the Phillies leading. They didn't HAVE to do that.

"That's the kind of team I can feel proud rooting for. Sounds stupid, but they finally got me."