Halladay's Historic Hitless Hullabaloo

What can I say? The man hurls history into the softened leather memories of a zillion fans and I'm supposed to put it into words? All I can tell you is that being part of a moment like that - a moment that is bigger than this team, bigger than this city, bigger than the postseason itself - it's impossible to comprehend, even more impossible to describe. But I'm gonna have to try, because I was there to see it.

By the time it got down to the last three innings, no one really cared what the Phils did on offense, everyone just wanted to see Roy pitch. In fact, when Ibanez hit into the final out in the eighth there was really no reaction until the crowd roared once again in anticipation of the top of the ninth - I've never heard a crowd cheer after their offense was retired because they wanted to see their pitcher come out.

The playoff atmosphere in that stadium is overwhelming to begin with, but when you have an accomplishment like that building up throughout the game, it only gets louder as each moment gets bigger. There's not many ways to describe the feeling in that stadium - it was intense, it was thrilling, it was mind-blowing, and after you're done losing your voice and high-fiving 46,000 of your closest friends, your hands are still shaking with the eight dollars that you so desperately want to buy that game's program with, because you know you need proof that you saw it first-hand. You know you just witnessed something great.

It takes a long time for it to fully sink in how amazing that was, and I don't think it's been completely grasped, but eventually you'll realize that you saw something that will live on in Cooperstown. I know I'm gonna remember this for the rest of my life, but regardless of whether or not you're a Phils fan (i.e. whether or not you're getting into heaven), I think you gotta appreciate the significance of the event. This might not happen again in the next 50 years; hell, it might not happen again in our lifetime. Then again, the way Halladay plays, maybe it could happen again in Game 4*


*if necessary