1. World Champions of Baseball
What else could possibly be the number one moment in Carlos Ruiz’ 11 seasons wearing Phillies pinstripes? Helping lead Brad Lidge to a perfect season as the Phillies closer, Ruiz blocked every slider thrown his way from the veteran righty.
After rain forced game five of the World Series to be suspended midway through the contest, fans returned to Citizens Bank Park in droves.
In the first at-bat after the nearly two-day rain delay, Geoff Jenkins leads off the bottom of the fifth inning with a double to the right field wall. Jenkins scores on a Jayson Werth single, and the Phils took the lead. After Pat Burrell nearly capped off his Phillies career with a home run in his final at-bat with the team, Pedro Feliz drove in Eric Bruntlett to make it a 4-3 game.
After Ryan Madson, aka the Bridge to Lidge, and J.C. Romero mow through Rays hitters, Lights Out Lidge took to the big stage.
The rest, as they say, is history.
You can look at the great catchers in Phillies history and pull a few out of the red cap. Mike Lieberthal, Darren Daulton, Bob Boone are all deserving of that title.
Each are on the Wall of Fame, while Lieberthal holds the franchise records for hits and home runs. But the most important stat in baseball is ultimately wins. Carlos Ruiz gave us more than our fair share of wins, 551 to be exact. Those are how many games the Phillies won when Carlos Ruiz made an appearance.
Next: Carlos Ruiz Place in Phillies History
So while he may have been a Dodger, and is now a Mariner, Carlos Ruiz will always be our quiet, little Panamanian catcher who won us a World Series.