TBOH’s Appropriately Brief Holiday Message

Last night, I was sharing some of my favorite quotes from It’s a Wonderful Life.

Philadelphia’s had another rough year.  This fiscal cliff business is going to take an undue toll on the city’s schools and nonprofits.  Nobody is in any position to make any playoffs.  I live here again.

But once a year, we can put aside our obsessions with Andrew Bynum’s knees or Andy Reid’s tenure or Ruben Amaro’s thieving crockery to concentrate on what’s important: fleeing from the police while in the grips of a dangerous hallucination brought on by an attempted suicide.

Here we are, 49 days from baseball, and maybe on this one day, we can concentrate on something else.  Baseball is a dizzying, cyclical phenomenon, and we are offered rare escapes from its effects.  Let this be one.

We’ve earned it.

Happy holidays.

Now here’s John Stolnis.

YOU TOO CAN OWN A PIECE OF PHILLIES HISTORY, AND IT’S ALL JUST ONE CLICK AWAY! I mean, who doesn’t want to have as many reminders and mementos from that thrill ride of a 2012 season, where the team rushed to an 81-81 finish with a last-second push for mediocrity?

And for only $50, you can put this poster of the stars of the 2012 Philadelphia Phillies on your wall, as a reminder of the exciting thrill ride that was last season. Hey, I certainly don’t want to forget about Hunter Pence so easily, do you?

Well, for starters, that early May series against the Marlins should be AWESOME. But I think I have a few other games I’d rather see next year. The Phils always seem to play thrilling home games against the Red Sox, so the two home games on 5/29 and 5/30 would be near the top of the list. Plus, I can say hi to Shane Victorino.

HI SHANE!

Games against the defending champs are always fun, so I’d want one of those three July contests against the Giants, and then one of those games against the Braves that following weekend. So, that’s four. Two more to pick. How about one of those early May games against Cincinnati, who just may have one of the best offenses in baseball, but no center fielder? And finally, a game somewhere against the Mets. Because, I’d like to see at least one win live in person.

The best thing the Phillies could get me for Christmas is new flooring for the downstairs of my house. We have four different types of flooring on the first floor right now, it’s not pretty. So yeah, that would be sweet.

Of course, this is probably supposed to be baseball-related, so I’ll say, a three-month commitment to Domonic Brown in one of the corner outfield spots. I’m not one of those guys who thinks Brown hasn’t gotten enough of a shot to prove he has something, ANYTHING, there for us to believe in. But I really believe Brown needs to be given every opportunity to be an everyday player. And I think giving him until the end of June is plenty of time.