I know some of the people out there have commented previously that they don’t care about the Phillies going to the White House, but I do. I’ve been waitng for a Philly team to be invited to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave for 23 years. It’s finally happened.
The Fightins’ finally met with the big guy today at the White House, prior to their game against the “Natinals” tonight in Washington.
The Phillies presented President Obama with a gold trimmed Phillies jersey with number 44, since he is the 44th POTUS. Obama made many comments about baseball and the White Sox in general, but he has always been a White Sox fan and never hides that fact. He alos made sure to put in a joke about the Cubbies. He said that the Phillies’ title gives the Cubs a chance to end their century long run of not winning the World Series.
President Obama seemed to get along nicely with all of the players. He knew the stories of a few of them and mentioned some of them by name. He even got to chat a bit with his good friend Gary Matthews.
All in all, it was good to finally see the Phillies get the recognition that they deserve by getting the tradtional champions invite to the White House. I would have preferred it to have happened during W’s time in office, considering how big of a fan of baseball in general he is. I know he watched as many games as he could. Circumstances prevetnted that though, and everything kept getting pushed back for different reasons.
Maybe this will finally get last season out of their heads and they can move forward with 2009. They seem to just be plodding along so far and need to get their heads out of their asses and start playing winning baseball again.
-KK
