Worth the Wait: Tales of the Phillies 2008 Championship Season

Check out the updated version of Worth the Wait

 

>>> Download/read the first chapter right now!

 

For 25 years, Philadelphia waited for a team like the 2008 Phillies to come along.  Waited for a team that could end the longest title drought on any city in America that fields teams in all four major professional sports.  Waited for that one magical postseason run that could unleash a quarter-century of pent-up frustration.  And then these '08 Phillies hopped on that magic carpet and made it happen.  Unlike so many Phillies teams that were haunted by the past, this team was inspired by it, by the chance to place its own inimitable stamp on the franchise.  And as the 2 million people who attended their championship parade can attest, it was Worth the Wait.

ESPN.com EXCERPTS PHILLIES BOOK
The first weekend in April all Philadelphia Phillies fans will be in for a real treat. Jayson Stark, who was twice named Pennsylvania's sportswriter of the year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association for his coverage of the Phileadelphia Phillies prior to his current job with ESPN, will have his brand new book Worth the Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies Championship Season excerpted on ESPN.com. The excerpt is scheduled to begin running on Sunday, April 5 in ESPN's baseball section. Please check the official page for Worth the Wait for more information as the season gets under way.

JAYSON STARK helps Phillies fans with holiday gifts
Jayson Stark will offer his fans two chances to get a signed copy of his popular book on the world champion Philadelphia Phillies, WORTH THE WAIT. The first signing is on Friday, December 18 @ 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble (The Court at Oxford Valley 210 Commerce Boulevard) and on Saturday, December 19 at Barnes & Noble (301 Main Street). Please go to the official page for WORTH THE WAIT for more information.

Worth the Wait

For 25 years, Philadelphia waited. Waited for a team like the 2008 Phillies to come along. Waited for a team that could end the longest title drought by any city in America that fielded teams in all four professional sports. Waited for that one magical postseason run that could unleash a quarter-century of pent-up frustration. At long last, the 2008 Phillies hopped on that magic carpet and made it happen.

ESPN.com senior baseball writer Jayson Stark captured the 2008 Phillies' incredible run through the regular season, playoffs and World Series in his new book, Worth The Wait: Tales of the Phillies' 2008 Championship Season, as they finally captured that elusive title not just for the team, but for the entire City of Brotherly Love.

Throughout Worth the Wait, Stark's articles remind Phillies fans of the vindication for a unique group of men who represented the hopes of an entire city longing for a World Series title, including:

• Jimmy Rollins - The outspoken face of the franchise
• Ryan Howard - The superstar power-hitter who was feared by all opposing pitchers
• Pat Burrell - The former No. 1 overall pick who had been a Phillie longer than any of them
• Brett Myers - From opening-day starter to being sent to the minors to returning a new man
• Jamie Moyer - A 45-year-old left-handed legend who would lead the team in wins
• Brad Lidge - A closer who finished off a perfect season with one last perfect pitch

Unlike the Phillies teams of the previous 28 years that were haunted by a history that always seemed to end in futility, this team was inspired by it and decided it was time to place its own inimitable stamp on the franchise. Stark writes that the 2 million people who attended their championship parade could attest to the fact it was well worth the wait.

About the Author:
Jayson Stark has been a senior baseball writer for ESPN.com since 2000. His regular contributions include the newsy Rumblings and Grumblings column and his tilted look inside baseball's numbers and quirks, the Useless Information Department. He was twice named Pennsylvania's sportswriter of the year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. His book, The Stark Truth: The Most Overrated and Underrated Players in Baseball History, was published by Triumph Books and is available in bookstores.

###

Contact: Bill Ames, Triumph Books, 312.252.1248, b.ames@triumphbooks.com

Worth the Wait Review

Book Review: Worth the Wait

by Pat Abdalla, 4/29/09, The Southpaw

It's just a game. And Jayson Stark seems to have never forgotten that.
The ESPN.com scribe writes his columns and stories with the enthusiasm that ordinarily only comes through the eyes of a 7-year-old who's seeing his first Big League game at a Big League park. Along with that joy, Stark brings the wisdom of a 65-year-old sage who's seen so many Spring Trainings he knows the kid with the golden arm needs more seasoning and that the veteran shortstop is just a step slower. A crucial step.
Stark combines the heart of a fan with the head of a general manager.
That's why Stark will one day be in the baseball's Hall of Fame.
It's also why you should pick up his new book, "Worth the Wait: Tales of the 2008 Phillies"

Stark's book isn't without its faults.
It's basically his columns from the 2008 season, touched up with the hindsight of 20/20 vision. There are times that sentences get clunky. That tense gets murky.
But you're more than willing to forgive Jayson.
We call him Jayson because, well, he comes off as a friend in this book. Only, one who has a key to the clubhouse.
Stark has the authority to come off as a close friend because he's probably the foremost authority on the Phillies of the past 30 years.
Before moving to ESPN, Stark was a fantastic beat writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He covered the Championship team in '80 and the ragtag bunch from '93 that captured the pennant and imagination of the Delaware Valley.
Of course, he also was around teams that stunk. Stunk as in fish left out in the August heat for 14 days.
So he knows about The Pain of being a Phillies fan.
And it all comes through in the book. Whether it is in the retelling of Jimmy Rollins breaking out of a slump or the night Shane Victorino became a Liberty City legend. Well, the first night he did that.
The book's best part comes in its introduction when Stark paints the picture of Parade Day and gets the reaction from the players.
As fans, we are used to the players forgetting what it was like to be a fan. They distance themselves from us. Updike wrote when he chronicled Ted Williams' last game, "Gods do not answer letters."
Pinch hitter Greg Dobbs, on Parade Day, was most certainly a god. He'd come up big so many times the previous two seasons. He was a crucial cog in the Phillies Championship.
But Stark gets Dobbs' reaction to the parade: "It really blows your mind. You know, for the most part, we're in kind of our own little bubbles as athletes. But ... I saw grown men and women crying as we were passing by. Literally crying. You know, I'm just a baseball player. That's what I do. I don't hold myself up on any pedestal; I play baseball. And then here I am on this float ... with people looking me in the eye and thanking me, with tears flowing down their faces, for bringing them a championship. That's beyond anything I ever imagined. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. That's an experience that's going to live with me for the rest of my life."
This god might not have answered letters. He delivered them to your front door.
That's the beauty of Jayson Stark. And this book.
They make it incredibly fun to be a fan.
And, really, is there anything else we could ask for?

 

Book Review: "Worth the Wait"

by John Shiffert, 4/27/09, Scout.com

As a public service, and to avoid the needlessly expensive task of buying all of the current works on the Phillies' triumph, here's the scoop on this year's crop of World Series Books... if you can buy only one, buy "Worth the Wait" (Triumph Books; ISBN 978-1-60078-273-2) by Jayson Stark. (Of course, I won't mind if you also buy "The Breaks Even Out and Midnight Comes Quickly for Cinderella.") Without having read the rest of the entries in the field, in fact, without having to read the rest of the entries in the field, I'm here to tell you that "Worth the Wait" is not only the best of breed, but it's also... worth the wait.

Why is that? There are a couple of reasons. First, if you're a Phillies fan, or in any way shape or form interested in the Phillies, then Jayson is your man... even though he's been writing for ESPN.com (and appearing on various ESPN shows as well) for the past nine years. You see, Jayson started out at the Philadelphia Inquirer, oh, back about 1979, where he covered the Phillies and served as the Inky's national baseball writer. To this day, no one is better connected to the Phillies' organization, even to the point of using such ex-Phillie greats as Doug Glanville and Larry Andersen as virtually exclusive sources.

Second, he's a native Philadelphian, who still lives in the Philly suburbs, and who has a better feel for his fellow Brotherly Lovers and the city than anyone who's stopped by the Liberty Bell (which was cast by a relative of former Athletic great Harry Stovey) since Ben Franklin. Rumor has it that he can recite the address of every top cheesesteak place (including "Dela's" on Henry Avenue) in the metro area. So, he knows Philly and Philly sports.

Third... during his stint in his hometown he developed his signature style, his schtick, if you will. His "Notes" column, better known as Rumblings and Grumblings, and his own unique look at baseball's numbers, the Useless Information Department. Now beloved by legions of internet surfers, Rumblings and Grumblings and Useless Information have been the trademark of as entertaining a baseball writer as Philly has seen since the days of Charles Dryden.

To recap... he knows Philadelphia and the Philadelphia sports scene, he's a superb baseball writer, and he's got connections. A winning combination.

And, his book is a winner, too. The title doesn't refer to the length of time it took to produce the book -- publisher Triumph Books (www.triumphbooks.com) is famous for quick turnarounds and bringing out timely books like this. And, it doesn't refer to how long Jayson's readers had to wait since his last book. "The Stark Truth" came out to much acclaim last year. No, showing a true understanding of Philly sports fans, the title pays homage to the wait since 1983, when the Sixers won the NBA title. In another sense, of more significance to baseball fans, it's been even longer since 1980. Twenty-eight years is a long time to wait, in that it is a quantifiable time that many, many individuals can (and have) suffered through. It's not the same as the Cubs' famous 100-year drought... there are very few Cubs fans left who can expound at length on the glories of Three Finger Brown and Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance. But there are legions of Phillies fans who saw Michael Jack Schmidt rip that eighth inning double off of Dan Quisenberry in game two, saw Pete Rose grab that pop-up that bounced out of Bob Boone's glove, and saw Tug McGraw leap off the mound after throwing a Peggy Lee fastball past Willie Wilson. Jayson Stark, although he was a working sportswriter for the Inquirer at the time, was one of them.

Thus, "Worth the Wait" delves into the mind, the very being, of the Philadelphia baseball fan, a persona that Stark knows well. Perhaps his Introduction says it best, "Free at Last." Now, a lot of writers could have written something similar, focusing on the larger picture of the 2008 World Series win, focusing on what this win meant to the Phillies, their fans and the city (for that it what this book is really about), but Stark brings it home in both the truest and most effective manner, by using as his most important source, his seminal figure in this story of triumph, all 5-8, 165 pounds of shortstop Jimmy Rollins. Make no mistake about it, J-Roll is/was the heart of this team.

"The Phillies - his Phillies - were heading for the parade floats... After a quarter-century of waiting for a team like this to end their torment, that team had finally arrived. This team. Jimmy Rollins' team."

Coming back several times throughout the book to J-Roll, Stark uses him to help tell a story bigger than a single game, or even a single World Series. It's the story of Philadelphia baseball fans. Now, Stark doesn't go into the fine teams of the ‘90s (the 1890s, that is) which always seemed to have something different go wrong. And he doesn't mention the 1901 Phillies, who would have won the National League if they'd been able to keep Nap Lajoie. And he doesn't go in to Connie Mack breaking up two of the great dynasties in baseball history due to financial considerations beyond his control (the Federal League and the Great Depression.) Nor does he repeat the sad tale of the impoverished ownerships of William Baker and Gerry Nugent. First of all, that's not really Jayson's style, and secondly, it's not necessary, it's ancient history to current fans (and everyone else, except ancient historians like your humble scribe). He's telling a much more recent history, the last 25 (or 28) years.

"This, for years, had been the team these people had the least faith in. So how amazing was it that this was the team that had finally set them free... When something like this happens, this is not a sports story. This is a life story."

The life story Stark tells is largely drawn from his 2008 ESPN.com columns. However, since he wrote enough during the year to fill several books, it took some very skillful editing to produce a book that, as the subtitle says tells "Tales of the 2008 Phillies." Starting with his Nostradamus imitation written during Spring Training (on Feb. 29, 2008... a day that only comes up once every four years), wherein he quotes Rollins at length (including his now-famous 100-win prediction) and refers to him as the Phillies' MVP/psychology major, Stark takes the reader through the key moments of the 2008 season, featuring, in Part 2, the "Five Moments That Defined a Season." In case you're wondering, they are; manager Charlie Manuel benching that same Jimmy Rollins for not running out a pop up, Brett Myers taking a trip to the minor leagues, the late August sweep of the Dodgers, the four-game mid-September sweep of the Brewers that cost Ned Yost his job, and the National League East clincher, wherein Rollins and Chase Utley turned one of the great clutch double plays in history. Tinkers-to-Evers-to-Chance indeed.

Parts 3, 4 and 5 of "Worth the Wait" give an inside look of the three tiers of the postseason. Read it for yourself, it's worth the wait. But, don't forget to also stop and peruse another feature of this book that is so typically Jayson Stark. At the end of every write-up of every single game of the NLDS, the NLCS and the World Series, he gives us, that's right, an installment of Useless Information (like the famous six-day wait between games in the 1911 World Series between the A's and the Giants.)

We'll leave the final word on "Worth the Wait" to Geoff Jenkins, who Stark quotes in the final line of the book.

"When you win, it's forever. It's forever, man. And that's a great feeling."