Even though the Phillies are languishing 15 games or so out of first place at the time of this writing, it’s been a pretty epic summer of baseball for me on a personal level with my family.  Me, my nephew, my dad, my brother-in-law and his dad all made a pilgrimage to Cooperstown last month.  And this month I covered three really special events around Phillies Alumni Weekend.

First was the Phillies Alumni Luncheon. In the past I have taken my parents to this as it’s just that cool of an event. This year I once again covered for PHL17 and the day featured Jim Fregosi, Larry Anderson, Lee Thomas and Mitch Williams from the 1993 Phillies.  In addition to the photos I took for PHL17, here’s a video snippet of Mitch on Curt Schilling.  (Like Mitch, I respect Schilling, think Schilling was awesome, but never cared for the “towel over the head” routine from 1993.  Mitch was pitching his ass off, on half a tank– don’t show him up like that.)  It’s raw video as I was there to shoot stills, but it was too good to not save.  Sorry for the quality.

Next up was a curveball.  I got very short notice, but learned that Darren Daulton would speak to the Philadelphia media.  Earlier in the week he spoke on the radio and sounded great.  Like the rest of Philadelphia I was eager to not only hear Dutch, but to see how he looked.  And he looked great.  Still, it was sad. Lots of tears in the room as he spoke and as he exited.  Some reporters and colleagues knew, given his aggressive brain cancer, this may be the last time we see Dutch in such great condition.  Here is a video from 6abc, and the stills I shot for PHL17 are here.

Lastly was Alumni Night at Citizens Bank Park.  Dutch played a big role in that pre-game ceremony as did a lot of your Phillies favorites from yesteryear.  It’s always a great time. To bring this post full circle, it was really cool for me as my family was also at this one.  My niece and nephew got great seats in the Diamond Club and were able to see me in action for the first time at a Phillies game.  Here’s some photos my sister took from the stands of me, and below are some I took of the Phillies Alumni.

My sisters shots:

And some of my shots:

The rest are here on PHL17.