HOUSTON – On September 26, Rhys Hoskins walked into an Urban Outfitters in Chicago and bought three disposable cameras.
At that time, Phillies is a free fall team. They have lost three of their last seven games, and third place in Wild Card is slipping. Even as they hold their ground and sneak onto the pitch after the open season, the Phillies don’t exactly smell like a club likely to run deep in October.
But Hoskins felt something in the air. So, on a day off in Chicago, when he and his father were waiting in line to buy some clothes, he automatically grabbed those three cameras from a bin next to the check-in counter.
“I guess I just had a feeling something special was about to happen,” Hoskins said. “I want to shoot as much as possible.”
Shooting he did. Over the next few weeks, when the Phillies win their post-season landing in Houston, taking the Wild Card series in St. Louis and upset Brave in the NLDS, Hoskins carries his trio of cameras with him every step of the way. From the club to the plane, the bus to the pitch, the club’s longtime first player blinked and flashed whenever he felt the urge.
That is until the image runs out.
Hours after the 4th game of the NLDS, Hoskins – his clothes were still soggy from the team’s champagne celebration – trudged back to the indoor dugout and looked out over the field. The sun has just set, but the night is not yet cold. The sky, during the brief interval between dusk and night, radiates a soft bluish gray. Soft pop music reverberated throughout the empty stadium. Players chat with their families or ride around with their children. Bryce Harper was chasing his son, Krew, around the bases.
Considering where the Phillies were at the start of the season, 22-29 when Joe Girardi was fired on June 3, it was a pretty realistic scene. Inconceivable. Worth celebrating. So the first keeper points his camera toward jubilation and presses down, freezing the moment forever, before putting the disposable machine back in his pocket.
“Only one?” someone asked from across the dugout.
“That’s my last painting here,” Hoskins replied.
The longest-serving Phillies hitter, a guy who spent six seasons of unhappiness, dissatisfaction in the City of Brotherly Love before post-production, has experienced more unforgettable memories than he ever could. we intend.
“I guess I need to buy some more.”
Phillies celebrates attending World Series for the first time since 2009
The Philadelphia Phillies celebrated their advance to the World Series by popping champagne and singing “Dancing on my Own” by Calum Scott.
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You can hear a lost World Series locker room before you can see it. The sound of applause and warm hugs, the shattering of beer cans, a soft echo of bittersweet goodbyes. The mood is solemn, but grateful.
This scene takes place in the away team’s dressing room at Minute Maid Park on Saturday night because at the most inopportune moment, the hottest team on the planet has frozen. Sparks off, tank dry, just a lot of pixie dust in the air. A lineup full of freestyle hitters showed up.
In the final 27 innings of the season, the Phillies collected just 10 hits and scored three runs. All the vibes in the world mean nothing if you don’t hit baseball. What sank the Phillies in Games 4 and 5 engulfed them again in Game 6. HoustonTalented pitchers shoved, Philly’s talented pitchers had little reaction. And so confetti is orange and blue.
The 2022 Phillies are a weird bunch, the good kind of weird. They are the most expensive lower division team in baseball history. But somehow, a strange mix of world-famous superstars and recent Lehigh Valley IronPigs come together and make history. The history isn’t as much as they expected, but it’s history anyway.
However, there was a distinct sense of frustration in the losing dressing room. No matter how magical the journey, the end of a season still hurts if you don’t make it to the finish line. Nick Castellanos sitting in her locker, staring into space. Hoskins wiped away tears as he spoke to the media. Harper wears an all-black Phillies hat, as if mourning.
But overall, the energy is very… appreciative. Appreciate each other, appreciate what they’ve accomplished as a group, appreciate how damn fun the ride was. Many players have commented that it is easily the most fun they have ever had while playing the game they have known all their lives.
“It’s like the baseball you’ve been playing all your life but on steroids.” Phillies’ catcher JT Realmuto explain. “Everything is more interesting. Winning is more fun, losing is more painful. All the ups and downs and extreme emotions. But it was the most fun I’ve ever had.”
Even when it fails, the Phillies enjoy themselves, albeit in a more reserved way. Kyle Schwarber did a 10-minute interview with a Coors Light tucked into the waistband of his pants. And as the media began to filter out, a group of players gathered in a circle in the back corner of the room to drink beer, tell stories about that year, and keep that feeling for as long as possible. Rebel against the eventual end of an inevitable season.
“Yo Vierling,” quipped one player. “Remember when the Pujols signed that bat for you.”
Matt Vierlinga child of St. Louis and a childhood Pujols fan, nodded in return.
“Dude, he signed you and you rewarded him by ending his career. That was tough.”
The whole group burst into laughter.
Garrett Stubbs, the team backup officer / vibe geyser / head bench cheerleader, his voice hoarse after a month of encouragement, stood up and asked if anyone needed a drink. One player commented that he would lose 30 years old.
It can’t be more than 2022 Phillies. The only thing missing is a sad acoustic version of “Dancing on My Own.”
Instead, they filled the silence with small talk. More stories. More tendons. More jokes. Add statements about how excited they are for the coming year. How will they come back.
One of the members of the circle was Hoskins, the area around his eyes still red with frustration. His brusque defensive performances and his brutal 3-v-21 formation have been the cause of many Philly fans’ preoccupation with existence lately. But many years from now, the image of Hoskins bringing his bat into the earth after running home in Game 3 will live on above all. One day, he’ll throw a first pitch in a Phillies post-season game. The bad tends to fade away.
To his left, on the top shelf of his locker is a black and green disposable camera. On it are some photos of the Fall Classic team’s two phenomenal wins, and a few photos that have yet to be taken. Somewhere in Hoskins’ belongings was another camera, untouched and unused. This place is full of images that never get: Victory ceremony, title ceremony, a grand parade.
Hoskins has yet to print or process any of Philly’s magic month photos. He said that will happen at some point this season, once all of this fades a bit. But whenever Hoskins got close to it, he knew he and his teammates would look at those pictures with pride, and reminisce together until the beer ran out.
Because sometimes, it takes a while for memories to develop.
Few understand that better than Hoskins and the Phillies.
Jake Mintz, the bigger half of @CespedesBBQ is a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and as such, he leads a lonely existence most of October. If he doesn’t watch baseball, he’s almost certain. cycling. Follow him on Twitter at @Jake_Mintz.
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