Coming Out Fightin'

Books about our World Champion Philadelphia Phillies

by Andrew Milner

sports/books

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In the sports section of Barnes & Noble, you can tell when you've reached the Phillies-related books: Occasional Glory, September Swoon, Almost a Dynasty. Even some of the subtitles — The Story of Baseball's Memorable Collapse, How a Baseball Team's Collapse Sank a City's Spirit — betray 125 years of shame-based rooting. But the latest bunch of Phillies books with titles like Phantastic! and Champions!, with their liberal use of the exclamation point, take a little getting used to.

Over the past month, a series of instant books cashing in on the 2008 world champions have hit local shelves.

(Triumph, 128 pp., $14.95) is top-heavy with color photos, but also laden with clunky accompanying prose. "There is little doubt that Shane Victorino, the Flyin' Hawaiian, is the real deal," we're told, and assured in another profile that manager Charlie Manuel is "a baseball lifer who has an uncanny ability to get players to give their all for him." Presumably, writer Fran Zimniuch was being paid by the cliché.

(Triumph, 214 pp., $19.95) takes a different approach, summarizing the 2008 season with running commentary from Phillies broadcaster (and star of the 1983 NL pennant winners) Gary "Sarge" Matthews and Wilmington sportswriter Scott Lauber. Their recollections play well off each other, and Sarge is sometimes prescient; on Aug. 31 he wrote that newly acquired Matt Stairs "could help because he could still hit a fastball. That's evident when he gets hold of one."

Not surprisingly, the Philadelphia newspapers provide the best combination of text and pictures in

(Camino, 128 pp., $24.95). An array of Inquirer and Daily News sportswriters and photographers offer well-produced images of the remarkable season. Pictorial highlights include Yong Kim's shot of Jimmy Rollins nonchalantly tossing aside his bat after his opening day home run, and Ron Cortes' picture of Shane Victorino's reaction after hitting his National League Division Series grand slam. The writing matches the caliber of the visuals: "Seven times since 1983 one of our four teams has played for the championship, and seven times calamity has visited them," writes Bill Lyon. "But here come the new Fightins, a likable, blithe-spirited bunch with names that sound like the roll call for the cast of a soap opera: Chase and Cole. Ryan and Shane. Brad and Brett. Jimmy and Jayson."

(a_milner@citypaper.net)

The Sports Complex: E. James Beale blogs about the Phillies year-round at citypaper.net/sports.