Matt Stairs has done it again !

[Jesse Joe]

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/10/14/alg_phillies-stairs.jpg



http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/10/14/amd_phillies-stairs.jpg





Phillies 7 Dodgers 5

At Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Phillies used their favourite staple, the long ball, to move within one win of the World Series.
Shane Victorino and much-travelled pinch-hitter Matt Stairs of Fredericton hit two-run homers off two of Los Angeles' most reliable relievers in the eighth inning Monday night, lifting the Phillies to a 7-5 victory over the Dodgers and a 3-1 lead in the NL championship series.
It was the first time the visiting team has won a game in 12 meetings between the teams this year.
Phillies ace Cole Hamels can pitch Philadelphia into its first World Series in 15 years tomorrow night in Game 5

[Jesse Joe]

Stairs pushes Phillies to cusp of Series berth


Jeremy Sandler, National Post Published: Tuesday, October 14, 2008




http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.nationalpost.com/sports/877983.bin?size=404x272REUTERS/Mike BlakePhiladelphia Phillies' Matt Stairs hits a two-run home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the eighth inning in Game 4 of Major League Baseball's NLCS playoff series in Los Angeles on Monday

LOS ANGELES -- Matt Stairs is not about to let putting his team on the brink of its first World Series since 1993 change him from being anything but a working class everyman type of ballplayer.

"Jimmy, Jimmy, I'll move over here," he said, vainly trying to keep his Phillies teammate and clubhouse neighbour Jimmy Rollins from being evicted from his locker by the massive clutch of reporters waiting to hear from Philadelphia's Game 4 hero.

The 40-year-old St. John, N.B. native earned his audience with a pinch-hit, two-run home run in the top of the eighth inning that gave his team a come-from-behind 7-5 win in Game Four and a 3-1 stranglehold in the best-of-seven series.

"As a little kid you think about getting in that situation," said Stairs, who claimed to have discussed with his wife the very topic of hitting a game-winning home run. "I got a pitch to hit and I was very fortunate to barrel it and get it out of the ballpark."

What Stairs called the biggest hit of his career never would have been possible if the Toronto Blue Jays did not decide at the end of August that he would not help their playoff aspirations this year or in the future.

"God knows I'm not getting any younger," said Stairs who joined the Phillies in a trade after being placed on waivers. "They gave me an opportunity to come here and that's something that I've enjoyed and I'm very happy that it happened."

Thanks to Stairs and a Dodgers bullpen that gave up five runs in four inning, the Phillies will head into Game 5 on Wednesday looking to wrap up the National League Championship Series behind ace Cole Hamels.

Stairs' home run provided a fitting end for a game that saw the two best regular season bullpens in the National League take turns trying to hand the game away.

Not until Phillies closer Brad Lidge entered the game with two outs in the bottom of the eighth did either relief corps manage to hold a lead.

"I don't care if we're down 10 runs," said Lidge. "We believe we're going to catch up and go ahead."

The right-hander, who went 41 for 41 in save opportunities in the regular season, once again found rough going while converting his fifth consecutive save opportunity off the playoffs.

Manny Ramirez lined an opposite field double off Lidge and Montrealer Russell Martin reached first after striking out to give the Dodgers runners on the corners.

But Lidge retired James Loney on a fly ball to left to end the inning before retiring the Dodgers in the bottom of the ninth.

Before Stairs took Broxton's 3-1 pitch over the wall in left, Philadelphia's Shane Victorino tied the game 5-5 with his own two-run home run off Dodgers reliever Cory Wade.

Philadelphia's four-run eighth erased the 5-3 lead L.A. built in the bottom of the sixth on Casey Blake's solo home run off Chad Durbin and Ryan Howard's throwing error.

Howard scored on a Chan Ho Park wild pitch to tie the game 3-3 in the top of the inning.

The Phillies had two runners on with two out when Andre Ethier's sliding catch of pinch hitter So Taguchi's dying quail held the Phillies to a lone run.

Ethier's catch loomed even larger when Blake's home run put L.A. up 4-3. Howard then threw away a sacrifice bunt attempt by Rafael Furcal to let another run score and give the home side a 5-3 lead.

Furcal running right through third base coach Larry Bowa's stop sign helped power the Dodgers to a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth.

The Dodgers hitter led off the inning with a walk and took second on Ethier's single before Ramirez rewarded a raucous Dodger Stadium crowd with a single to left.

Furcal ignoring Bowa tied the game 2-2 and let Ramirez extend to eight his record for consecutive LCS games with at least one RBI.

Ethier and Ramirez each advanced a base on Pat Burrell's throw home, with Ethier scoring on a Martin ground out to give the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.

Derek Lowe started on three days rest for Los Angeles and gave up five hits and two runs before getting pulled after just five innings and 74 pitches.

Each of Philadelphia's first three batters stroked hits off Lowe, with Chase Utley's RBI double putting the visitors ahead 1-0 with runners on second and third and no outs.

A Howard ground out gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead that L.A. trimmed to 2-1 on Loney's RBI double off Phillies starter Joe Blanton in the bottom of the first.

Blanton ended up giving up three runs on seven hits in five innings before being pulled from the game.

[charlene]

I am so glad he's getting a chance at the World Series. The man has a work ethic and drive like no other..I hope the damn Jays are watching him too!
lol
I'm also following young Jason Bay playing for Boston..what a talent that kid is!

[Jesse Joe]

I hope the damn Jays are watching him too!
lol :whistle: :biggrin:

Why in hell did they trade him... Good ole New-Brunswick boy... {Stumpy}

Im sure some of them are watching, G Zahn the catcher for sure, because when Matt was traded, he did not like it.

Matt makes me smile when he's a bat, there's just something about the way he stares at the pitcher. But man can he ever hit it out of the park !!! :headbang: :eek: :clap:

[jj]

Why in hell did they trade him... Good ole New-Brunswick boy... {Stumpy}

Im sure some of them are watching, G Zahn the catcher for sure, because when Matt was traded, he did not like it.


i dont know what Zahn would be ticked about (other than losing a good team mate)

the Jays had no room in the Snider, Wells, Rios outfield and didnt need a .250 DH and his PH value would be much more valued by a contender so the timing of placing him on waivers was a nice gesture (kind of like the Bruins allowing Borque to go to the Aves to have a chance of winning a late career Cup...well, ok, not quite the same)

anyhow, when the Phillies showed interest, the Jays agreed to take a player to be named later in the deal rather than squabble and perhaps let Matt's chance to shine on the playoff drive/post season big stage, fall thorugh....anyhow, just my take...not that i'm defending JP or a fan of his in the least, lol

congrats, Matt/Philly....this time you wont have to face Joe Carter:)

ps) most hitters say "i wasn't trying to hit a homer, i was just up there trying to make some good contact"

whereas i like how Matt is no BS, very candid,

"i AM up there trying to hit a homer every single at bat"

lol

[Jesse Joe]

YouTube - Stairs Homer Leaves Phils With 3-1 Series Lead

[Jesse Joe]

YouTube - MLB Quote of 2008 Ass Hammer

[Jesse Joe]

YouTube - Matt Stairs 3:16

[Jesse Joe]

Matt Stairs climbs from N.B. to World Series

Published Wednesday October 29th, 2008

Eddie St. Pierre

Looking back
It was a perfect afternoon for baseball that Aug. 25 day in 1984.
Sitting in the stands at Moncton's Kiwanis Park, I watched, for the first time, Fredericton's Matt Stairs play with the Moncton Tim Hortons All-Stars. Moncton defeated St. Albert, Alta. 9-0 (St. André's Rheal Cormier pitched a three-hit shutout and fanned 12) to capture the Canadian midget baseball tournament championship.
Playing shortstop (he also pitched), Stairs wasn't that impressive defensively. However, when it came to hitting, it was a different story.
The 16-year-old, who had been added to the All-Stars from Fredericton, banged out key run-producing hits; posted a .500 batting average and was named MVP. Afterwards it was junior and senior ball, the baseball institute, the Olympics, a world championship and more for the personable Stairs, who signed a minor league contract with the Montreal Expos in 1991.
The rest is history: Eleven Major League teams during 16 seasons -- batting average .266; home runs 254; runs batted in 864 and a slugging percentage of .483.
Twenty-four years later, the 40-year-old Stairs and the Philadelphia Phillies are one win away from winning the World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays, holding a 3-1 games lead entering tonight's scheduled continuation of Monday's Game 5.
The inductee in the Moncton Sports Wall of Fame (2007) with the Tim Horton All-Stars and Baseball New Brunswick Wall of Fame (last Saturday) became the third New Brunswick player to see action in the Fall Classic in 90 years as a pinch-hitter in Game 4. He struck out in the Phillies 10-2 win.
The last New Brunswicker to advance to the World Series did so almost a century ago; John 'Big Larry' McLean of Fredericton, who hit .500 for the New York Giants in a 4-1 games loss to the Philadelphia Athletics in the best-of-nine 1913 series.
According to Kevin Barrett of Canadaeast News Service, McLean was once accused of stealing money in New Brunswick and asked to leave Atlantic Canada. He is said to have fought with many managers and teammates.
His death, in some ways, represented his life as he died in March, 1921 at the age of 39 when he was shot by a bartender during a bar room brawl in Boston.
The Fredericton native grew up in the Boston area but also played senior ball with the Saint John Roses and Fredericton before his major league career took off.
The first NBer to play in the World Series was Saint John native Bill O'Neill, who appeared in one game for the World Champion Chicago White Sox in 1906. Another, Saint John's Tom Daly, was a member of the Chicago Cubs' organization that lost to the Boston Red Sox in the 1918 World Series, but Daly did not play in the series after suiting up for one game during the regular season.
Meanwhile, Dorchester's Billy Harris, who was inducted in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame this June, joining O'Neill and McLean, wasn't eligible for the 1959 series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the White Sox. Nonetheless, he pitched batting practice in L.A. for the Dodgers. who won in six games.
Stairs had been close to playing in a World Series in the past, namely in 2006, when the Detroit Tigers advanced to the championship series. He joined the Tigers that year on Sept. 16 and drilled a home run when they clinched the Central Division title about a week later.
However, because he had joined the team past the Sept. 1 playoff roster deadline, he was not eligible for the Tigers playoff run.
This year, he was acquired by the Phillies from the Toronto Blue Jays on Aug. 30 in a trade, ensuring his post-season eligibility.
Stairs is also the first N.B. athlete to reach the final in one of the big four professional sports since Mike Eagles of Sussex played in the 1998 Stanley Cup final as a member of the Washington Capitals.
One Philadelphia newspaper columnist ranked Stairs' mammoth pinch-hit homer off ace reliever Jonathan Broxton (the first since May 17) in Los Angeles during Game 4 that gave the Phillies a 7-5 victory and a 3-1 lead in the National League Championship Series, the third most important in the Phillies 123-year existence, behind Mike Schmidt's extra inning homer that clinched the 1980 East Division title at Olympic Stadium in Montreal (I was on hand for the unhappy occasion and got sprinkled by champagne by pitcher 'Tug' McGraw, Tim's father), and Dick Sisler's extra-inning blast on the final day of the 1950 season that sealed the 1950 NL pennant.
n A few personal series anecdotes. In 1967, when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Red Sox in seven games, Stan Musial, the Cards' first-year GM, gave me two box seat tickets ($12.50) for Game 1 which were located behind the Redbird dugout.
However, they were never used when I failed to locate the person (a fellow employee) they were intended for until after the contest. He had purchased a scalper's ticket ($40).
Then, after Jim Lonborg's one-hit, 5-0 Game 2 shutout, I stood in the Cards dressing room with a handful of reporters interviewing Juian Javier, whose double with two out in the eighth had broken up the no-hit bid. He was very surly with his answers.
n 1968: I'll never forget the big smile former Moncton Mayor Lorne Mitton had on his face in the Tiger Stadium press box after his hero (Al Kaline) delivered a two-run single in Game 5, erasing a 3-2 Card lead that helped the Tigers to a 5-3 win, keeping the AL champs alive in the series.
The Tigers won the next two games in St. Louis for the championship. Mitton paid $8 for lower deck seat tickets for Games 3 and 5 and $2 for a bleacher seat ticket for Game 4. The program cost was $1.
n 1969: The late Jacqueline Kennedy and her late husband Aristotle Onasis were among celebrities at Shea Stadium for the New York Mets "Miracle Series" win over the Baltimore Orioles in five games. They were seated in an executive box a stone throw away from the media area.
n After 38 years in the journalist business, Gerard McLaughlin is retiring (Nov. 7) as a full-time writer with this newspaper. The Times & Transcript invites all family, friends, current and former co-workers to a retirement party at the Moncton City Club on Queen Street on Thursday, Nov. 6 beginning at 6 p.m.
n Passings: Second World War veteran Charlie Dickson, 90, a member of the Moncton Curlers Association...Yvon Patrick J. Daigle, Retd. C.D., 87, the father of former senior and university (Mount A) hockey star Robbie Daigle. Robbie was a member of the Miramichi Gagnon Packers that won the national Challenge Cup in 1987...Paul Melanson, 69, brother of former University of St. Joseph Blue Eagles captain (1948-49) Clarence Melanson and Moncton Slow Pokes' Roger Melanson.
n Eddie St. Pierre is a former sports editor of this newspaper. His column appears each Wednesday in the Times & Transcript.

[charlene]

I love it..he deserves a world series ring!

[jj]

yeah, even his K's are exciting (and rewarded with fan applause, lol)

I'm impartial to who wins (would be happier for Philly, a long wait) but was sure ecstatic for Pena when he got that tying hit the other night...it would be quite a story if the Rays come back to win it all

I guess the Commish will continue to be create 'accomodating' new rules as we go along, lol...Cartwirght must be turning in his grave

I actually enjoyed watching the players experience a mud bowl...if they slip and twist and ankle or break a nail, they have the entire off season to recover (they can get ready for 2009 season by playing with their Wei)

[Jesse Joe]

Finally! Phillies win :clap: :clap: :clap:

Published Thursday October 30th, 2008


Victory in rain-delayed Game 5 earns Philadelphia World Series crown

PHILADELPHIA - From losingest team to longest game, the Philadelphia Phillies are World Series champions.

http://harvest.canadaeast.com/image.php?id=203651&size=265x0 (http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/gallery/464984,203651)
AP

Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins pours champagne over New Brunswick native Matt Stairs after the Phillies won Game 5 of the World Series last night in Philadelphia. The Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 to win the series.

http://harvest.canadaeast.com/image.php?id=203616&size=265x0 (http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/gallery/464984,203616)
AP

Phillies' Brad Lidge is hugged by his teammates after winning the World Series last night.

Strange as that sounds.
Strange as it was.
Brad Lidge and the Phillies finished off the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 in a three-inning sprint last night to win a suspended Game 5 nearly 50 hours after it started.
Left in limbo by a two-day rainstorm, the Phillies seesawed to their first championship since 1980. Pedro Feliz singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh and Lidge closed out his perfect season to deliver the title Philly craved for so long.
"It's over," Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins said. "It's over, man."
Bundled in parkas and blankets, fans returned in force to Citizens Bank Park and saw the city claim its first major sports championship in 25 years. No more references needed to those sad-sack Phillies teams in the past and their 10,000-plus losses.
It was among the wackiest endings in baseball history, a best-of-seven series turned into a best-of-3 1/2 showdown when play resumed in the bottom of the sixth inning tied at 2.
How bizarre? Series MVP Cole Hamels was a star in Game 5 -- and he never stepped on the mound last night.
Two Rays relievers warmed up to start, and there was a pinch-hitter before a single pitch. "God Bless America" was sung rather than the national anthem and the seventh-inning stretch came quickly.
For Philly, it was more than a World Series win. It was a bit of redemption for all the losses, the jokes, the slights.
Finally, something to celebrate.
How much did Philly fans want a champion to call its own?
Well, the sports hero they point to with the most pride isn't even a real person -- Rocky Balboa.
Yo, Adrian ... the Phillies did it!
Lidge went 48-for-48 on save chances this year, including two this week. He retired two batters with a runner on second, striking out pinch-hitter Eric Hinske to end it.
Lidge jumped in front of the mound, landing on his knees with arms outstretched. Catcher Carlos Ruiz ran out to jump on him, and teammates sprinted to mound to join them as towel-waving fans let loose.
A generation ago, it was Tug McGraw who went wild when the Phillies won their first title. A few days after country singer Tim McGraw scattered his dad's ashes on the mound, it was Lidge's turn to throw the final pitch.
Despite low TV ratings and minus the majors' most glamorous teams, fans will always remember how this one wrapped up. And for the first time in a long while, kids saw a World Series champion crowned before bedtime.
Reliever J.C. Romero got the win, his second of the Series.
While former NL MVPs Ryan Howard and Rollins drive the Phillies, it was their less-heralded teammates who helped win it on this chilly night and sent the Rays home.
Tied 3-3, Pat Burrell led off the seventh with a drive off the centre-field wall against J.P. Howell. Chad Bradford relieved and one out later Feliz singled home pinch-runner Eric Bruntlett.
Rocco Baldelli's solo home run off Ryan Madson, who relieved Hamels when the game resumed, made it 3-3 in the top of the seventh. The Rays almost got more, but all-star second baseman Chase Utley alertly bluffed a throw to first on a grounder over the bag and instead threw out Jason Bartlett at the plate.
Pinch-hitter Geoff Jenkins, the first batter last night, doubled and later scored on Jayson Werth's bloop single

[charlene]

I am SO happy for Matt and Pat Gillick-but especially Matt..40 years old, new to the team and winning the World Series! I'm glad the Jays let him go and Philly took him on..he's a grinder out there and so passionate about baseball..gotta love it!
woo-hoo!!

[Jesse Joe]

I agree Char, 100% :)

[Jesse Joe]

Stairs family ecstatic over Phillies WS win

Published Friday October 31st, 2008

Father of N.B. veteran major leaguer says son's World Series victory sent him 'through the ceiling'


By BILL HUNT
Canadaeast News Service

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/sports/article/images/empty.gif
http://harvest.canadaeast.com/image.php?id=204190&size=265x0 (http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/gallery/466346,204190)
AP

Phillies' Eric Bruntlett, centre, celebrates with Jayson Werth (28) and Matt Stairs after Bruntlett scored the winning run to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 in Game 3 of the World Series.


FREDERICTON - Jean Stairs Logan can't put into words exactly how it feels to watch her son reach the pinnacle of his profession.

But Matt Stairs can.
"You're the best team in the world," said the 40-year-old Frederictonian who helped the Philadelphia Phillies win the 2008 World Series on Wednesday night. "That pretty much says it all."
The Phillies clinched their first World Series baseball championship since 1980 and only the second in the team's 126-year history with a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in Philadelphia. They clinched the best-of-seven series in five games.
"I just can't believe it," said his mom yesterday. "My little curly-haired boy, starting to play baseball ... it's hard to take in. I'm so happy, and so proud of him."
She admitted she, "jumped up and let a scream out of me," in her living room in Tay Creek when the Phillies registered the final out.
"You didn't hear me?" she joked.
His father Wendell Stairs invited local baseball legend Bill Saunders to his house to watch the series clincher. Saunders coached Stairs in minor baseball here, long before Matt began a baseball odyssey that took him from Venezuela to Japan to Mexico, to the minors and to 11 major league cities before it finally landed him on top of the world.
"I jumped up and almost went through the ceiling," said the proud dad. "After I had about my third heart attack, I was all right. You couldn't help but be excited. Matt's worked a long time for this."
Matt Stairs's wife of 19 years, Lisa, along with daughters Nicole, Alicia and Chandler, his mother-in-law and brother Tim were at Citizen's Bank Ballpark to share his moment in the baseball sun.
"Having my wife and my daughters (here) was the most important thing," Stairs said. "Twenty years I've been playing this game and we had our 19th anniversary (three) days ago.
"Just to see the joy on their faces and the tears of happiness ... there's no better feeling."
Stairs had just one at bat in the World Series -- he pinch hit in Game 4 and struck out -- but his eighth inning, game winning home run during Game 4 of the National League championship series lifted the Phillies to a 7-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team wrapped up a berth in the World Series with a win the next night.
"I always knew that Matt had a fair amount of talent, but you're not sure something like this is ever going to happen," said Wendell Stairs. "To finally get this far, it's hard to describe how you feel."
Jason Dickson realizes how difficult the journey is. Now the executive director of Sport New Brunswick, Dickson is a former major league all-star pitcher with the Anaheim Angels whose career was cut short due to an arm injury.
"I can't even imagine what it's like," said Dickson. "I laughed because I saw an interview where he said, 'I wouldn't say you couldn't put it into words, but I would describe it as' ... and then he was at a loss for words. I'm excited for him. I can't even imagine."
He did. But he was in his backyard at the time.
"When I was a kid and I was in the backyard, it wasn't 'It's July and I'm trying to win the game.' It was "Bases loaded, full count, World Series for whatever your favourite team was. I'm sure for him it hasn't even sunk in yet."
Dickson said acquaintances he's talked to who have won said, "It really starts to hit them when they're doing the parade. They realize then how big it is."
That will happen today in Philadelphia, a city that hasn't had a championship team in any major sport since the 76ers won the National Basketball Association crown in 1983.
One million people are expected to line the parade route.
Fredericton, and the baseball community in New Brunswick, plan to hold a ceremony to salute their native son.
Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside said a group led by Councillor Mike O'Brien is in charge of co-ordinating the celebration.
"We talked about it a while ago, in anticipation of Matt being on a world championship team," Woodside said. "We'll be talking to the baseball community to make sure that what we do is timely and appropriate and good for Matt and good for the community."
O'Brien said the celebration, and the declaration of Matt Stairs Day, would be co-ordinated around his induction to the Baseball New Brunswick Hall of Fame, which was an event originally scheduled for last Saturday night. Stairs's appearance was pre-empted by Game 3 of the World Series.
O'Brien said the city "will be proud to honour Matt in some fashion. We're going to co-ordinate our efforts to have Matt Stairs Day in the city around his induction to the Baseball New Brunswick Hall of Fame. We will find a fitting tribute and there will be a lasting tribute to him somewhere."

[charlene]

http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=921526

[Jesse Joe]

Sometimes the hero is a balding, 40-year-old, built-like-a-beer-keg New Brunswicker with a hockey fetish bordering on obsessive and a jackhammer swing that can swat a baseball as far as just about anybody. lol !

STUMPY ! :)

[charlene]

that's my guy! STUMPY!
;)