
No, that's not me and Matthew! It's the Phanatic and his mom, Phoebe. The idea of the Phanatic's mom cracks me up. I like her nice Chanel suit, though...
Yesterday was Photo Day at the Phillies. I won't bore you with a million pictures, just a couple!! Here's who were the nicest guys this year:
Rick White,
Cory Lidle, Ryan Madson (2nd year!), Aaron Rowand, Chris Coste, and Jimmy Rollins.
Gus wanted to take pictures of Rick White and Cory Lidle and they each obliged by stopping and smiling and talking to him and making little jokes with him. Who got all weepy? Yes, I did!! They were awesome.
Ryan Madson was gentle and friendly with everyone, including Gus. I
lurve him.
And now to Aaron Rowand. All you Phillies fans reading this will know that the Phillies traded my absolute all-time favorite player, Gentleman Jim Thome, to the White Sox last winter in exchange for Aaron Rowand. In the midst of my sorrow, my dear friend Lisa, who lives in Chicago, told me that we would love Rowand. She was so right. Here's a picture of Gus re-enacting Rowand's famous run-into-the-wall-and-break-his-nose catch earlier this season:

We never asked any player if we could have a picture taken with him last year or this; I feel like it's a little bit creepy, like asking for an autograph, which I'm highly resistant to, but at one point yesterday Gus turned to me and said, "Will you ask Aaron Rowand if we could take his picture with me?"
So when Rowand came around we asked him if we could take his picture with Gus. He said, "Sure!" and he crouched down to Gus-level and wrapped his arms around him, Stooges-style, then kind of tousled his head and gave him a professional-level noogie after the picture. Needless to say, I
super-love Aaron Rowand. (His alarmingly intense expression is hilarious; believe me, he was smiling every other moment except the one I caught)
This is for you, Lisa:

The other player that Gus wanted his picture taken with was catcher
Chris Coste [pronounced "coast"]. Coste is a 33-year-old rookie who's been kicking around the minor leagues for 10 years. He ended up with the Phillies this year and hit .427 in spring training. There was a chance that he would make the Phillies up to the last day of spring training, when, heartbreakingly, he was sent down to Scranton. Oh, how we all ached for him!! Oh, how we all rooted for him to make the team someday!! He told his wife he wanted to quit. But then, through a great confluence of disabled-list-happenings, he was called up! He finally made it to the big leagues! He hit well! He threw baserunners out from his knees! They played "Love Rollercoaster" (get it?) when he came up to bat! Yesterday, the Phillies cut their other back-up catcher so that they could keep Coste. How perfect a story is that?? Now look at this picture! Look at those two great faces! Good stuff.

So the Photo part of Photo Day went off beautifully. This was the sky 5 minutes before the game was supposed to start; note the thoughtfully and ominously pre-unfurled tarp:

UH OH.
Yes, 15 seconds after the longest and slowest rendition of the National Anthem in history (I think it took the woman approximately 35 minutes to complete it), during which every single person in the stadium, including the groundskeepers, was thinking, "
HURRY UP LADY!!!", the skies opened up, and it
poured. After 15 minutes of dodging the rain under the stands, we decided to bail. We donned our slickers and ran through the rain to the car. By the time we were halfway there of course we were soaked. So we stomped through all the puddles and jumped in the really big ones. The game was eventually postponed two hours later, by which time we were safe and dry and cozy at home.
When I put Gus to bed last night, I said, "Hey, what was your favorite thing about Photo Day today?" And after some thought, he said, "Running through the rain!"
Yeah, some things never get old.