Ian Laperriere is a player on the Philadelphia Flyer’s fourth line.  He’s a “mucker and grinder” in nhlspeak (a team player that gives up his body/health on every shift.).  He’s 36, (old for hockey), he’s a French Canadian (see the goalie character from Slapshot), and he’s a hell of a good sport!  He was selected to be spokesperson in a promo for the  Flyers Soles for Souls campaign sponsored by Kiwi shoe polish.  That they considered him in the first place to be the spokesperson for ANYTHING is just brilliant marketing, (again French Canadian, THICK accent).  This campaign would be a mouthful for anyone.

Say “Flyers Soles for Souls sponsored by Kiwi Shoe Polish” out loud.

Now do it with a French Canadian accent. Tough huh!?!?  But wait… it gets harder.

The day before Ian Laperriere had to shoot this commercial?  He had SEVEN TEETH knocked out!  (Occupational hazard when you are a “mucker and grinder!”)  Of course he still showed for the shoot because he is as tough as nails.  That they still shot it, that he allowed the footage to be used, and that it is currently the promo running on TV and Flyers.com is half the brilliance.  The other half is that they did the same with the bloopers! (below.)

Big Ups to the Flyers, Kiwi, Comcast, Laperriere, and to the millions of web folks that made the web video viral.  This is no-fear web marketing. When things go wrong, or get bungled, that is your best chance at web gold sometimes.  The idea of “endorsement” in this day and age is a joke.  Every celebrity that HAS a cause…plugs on their own Facebook, Twitter and Blog.  So, to think Ian is really a big fan of KIWI is a notion that died in the 1950’s.  The client is paying to have product “A” next to Celebrity Endorser “B” and get it in front of many consumer eyeballs as possible.  As this video gets sent and resent around the internet, they are getting a lot more eyeballs then they would have if this promo starred Mike Richards and all went smoothly…

“The only reason I took steroids was for health purposes.”– Mark McGwire.

Really?

Wow Mark,  because all these years that I looked at your ginormous head and biceps, I thought you told us you DIDN’T do steroids?  Okay, you feared persecution and “didn’t want to talk about the past.”  But now that you finally come clean, you tell us you only took them for your health.

I guess I should let you in on a “secret.”  I didn’t want to say anything, but i KNEW you took them all these years.  But I THOUGHT you were taking them so you could shrink your testes,  develop “backne,”  liver failure, baldness and extreme violent irritability.  Turns out you were taking them for your “health.”

McGwire is another in a line of celebrities to ask for forgiveness for breaking rules.  He’s also another in a line  of celebrities to do it really, really poorly.  The Native American’s did not approve of having their image captured on film.  They feared the act would steal their soul.  I think there’s something to that, because the greater the celebrity,(more film) the more vapid and less contrite these apologies seem to get.

So Mark McGwire wants us to forgive and re-accept him because he needed steroids for his “health.”  Mark McGwire dererves to wind out his days in celebrity anoynimty like Shoeless Joe Jackson.  If he wants to coach?  Let him coach in some Venezuelan league or overseas, without spotlight.  McGwire doesn’t care about baseball, he cares about celebrity.  He deserves one, but not the other.

So I guess we didn’t get the Series we expected.   That sentiment works two-fold for me.   On the one hand, I really did not expect the Phils to have this much trouble with a Yankee team I thought they matched up really well against.  And on a personal level?  Two years ago, never would I have dreamed I’d have experienced a World Series/Post Season in Philadelphia the way I did this year.  To be that close to team I grew up with, on the field, in the media room, in the locker room, and even with my friends for a few innings?!  It was a dream series in more ways then one.

On a professional level, I had the privilege and the proximity to get photographs that will get huge page views throughout my parent company and on a personal level,  I will cherish those photos  for a lifetime.   (I don’t even mind that I broke the bank on some lenses just for this occasion!).  I also got to be shoulder to shoulder with  some of the best photogs in the business and got to be a fly on the wall to how they go about their craft.  I learned more then I could ever put in a blog, before I even got my camera out of my bag.  These guys and girls, their equipment, and their expertise are something to behold.

And speaking of being a  fly on the wall?  The sights and sounds of this series will give me stories for a lifetime.  (Like I need more stories for this life!).   Working in Philadelphia and being older then the average player,  I am immune to the star-power of the current players (for the most part anyway!).   But when I saw a Jay-Z, or a immortal players from my youth like Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt, Phillies alum like Darren Daulton and Micky Moriandini,  national broadcasters I looked up to like Peter Gammons and Joe Buck,  the cast of Glee running amok in the interview room, Biff Henderson shooting a spot for Letterman, the great Philadelphia sportswriters and brodcasters I grew up enjoying  like Jason Stark,  Big Daddy Graham, Chris Wheeler and Les Bowen.  And of course, the palpable absence of one Harry Kalas.  His name came up often by the locals and the nationals alike with a great fondness and sense of loss.  When I got my press pass this year, the first pass I ever had for the Phillies, Harry the K was who I most looked forward to meeting.  Harry died April 13 of this year, before I even used my pass for the first time.

So to positively paraphrase something Cole Hamels said, “BRING ON NEXT YEAR!”  I think the Phillies learned an awful lot from this Post-Season and should be awfully proud of what they accomplished.  Like the team I followed I also learned a ton.  Here’s hoping we both get to apply those lessons to the Post-Season next year!

Tony Romeo

Here is a Link to all the World Series content I produced:

Tony Romeo on the field at World Series 2009

Here are all my blogs from the Series:
World Series Game 3 Blog

World Series Game 4 Blog

World Series Game 5 Blog

World Series Recap Blog

My "Entourage" after Game 5 of the World Series.

As I was for the other games in the post-season, I began Game 5 on the field for batting practice.  My routine has been to take a few player shots there, where I have then best access to the players, then I retire to the media room in the basement of CBP.  There I  process the shots, edit the shots, and post the shots.  Since it was the last game, I decided to put that processing off a little bit.  I headed to the 3rd deck and met some of my friends that had standing room only seats. There I watched the game as the fan I have not been able to be the rest of the post season!  I cheered, I got into it with Yankees fans, I enjoyed an adult beverage, and I even bought a stadium hot dog!   It was so awesome to experience that with my friends.  It was the most fun I had at a Series game since 1980.  Me and my entourage! HA!

Soon after it was back to work in the basement, editing and uploading the stuff from earlier in the day, then watching the game on a TV.  The media room was packed.  As the Phillies entered the top of the 9th inning, I packed my stuff to head back to the field for post game.  Being a “cagey veteran” of several post season games now, I knew an out of the way TV closer to the field I could watch the last three outs.  Just like the other games, when I got to the TV no one was there.  So,   I watched quietly rooting the Phillies home.  I was all alone.

Jay-Z texting his friends to say he can't believe he saw me at a Phillies World Series game.

Until Jay-Z and HIS ENTOURAGE showed up out of nowhere !  He and his over-the-top Yankee posse took over my private TV experience in a flash.  To his credit,  Jay-Z was quiet, respectful and smelled awesome!  His hangers-on?  Not so much.  They were all trailed by two MLB Security Guards to protect him and his friends from the crowd, or possibly vice versa.  His posse screamed and yelled so much in pro-Yankee fashion that OTHER Yankee fans that were in earshot headed towards that TV and it became Yankee corner.  One Yankee-Come-Lately faneven asked me to take a picture of him and Jay-Z with his cell phone.  Only a Yankee fan would ask a guy with thousands of dollars of camera gear strapped to his back to take a photo with a cell phone!  I told him he’d have to clear it with Jay-Z, who happily obliged.  So, I took the picture with the guys cell phone.  “By mistake” (translation — on purpose) I took the photo upside down and handed it back to him.  The Phils retired the side, the entourage cursed, the security people cringed  and we all exited in different directions.  As I walked away, I turned to the one Phillies employee that saw the whole thing and whispered, 

“I have been a Phillies die-hard since I was 5, I can’t believe I just watched the last three outs of a World Series game in Philly with Jay-Z!?!?”

Speaking of entourages, if the Phillies and Pedro can somehow win game 6 in New York, an “Entourage of Pitchers” is what we will need to win game 7.  All pitching hands on deck to get us that final game.  But, one game at a time…

Related Items

World Series Game 3 Blog

World Series Game 4 Blog

Game 5 Photo Gallery

As I stood on the field for the trophy presentation at the NLCS game clincher in Philadelphia, I had just one thought. That thought was; “PLEASE, please, please Gods of Baseball, let me see this again next week, only next week, let it be a World Series Trophy I see presented!”  That’s all I wished.  Tonight at Citizens Bank Park there is a 50/50 chance that I see that trophy presented.

Seeing the trophy presented to the Phillies, however, has a ZERO percent chance of occurring.  The Baseball Gods have the same sense of humor as the Monkey’s Paw from the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror!  I guess next time I should be more specific with my requests of the Baseball Gods.

In any event, Games 3 and 4 have been a home field disappointment for the Phillies and for the fans. I do think that three consecutive home games, all that start after 8pm, take something away from the Philadelphia crowd.  (As does a home Eagles game at 1:00 pm).   The crowds were there in force Saturday to start, but then lessened, and followed suit on Sunday.  Sure when the Phillies gave them something to cheer about, the fans were there, but overall, this was not the Phillies crowd we’ve come to expect.  Maybe the Yankee Mystique makes fans more nervous then boisterous? Or maybe the proximity of the game to New York puts too many New York fans in the seats.   I know a few Phillies fans that had their mortgages paid this month with Yankee dollars they got from selling their Phillies tickets!  All were factors.

Which brings us to Game 5.

I am making a new wish.  I’d like to see a trophy NOT presented tonight. Sure it would be interesting on a professional level as I may never be this close to baseball history, but on a personal level… NO.   While I have given up realistic hope that the Phillies can win three straight, I just don’t want to see the Yankees clinch here.  I don’t want to see them clinch on a night that the Series MVP had it gone the Phillies way, Cliff Lee, is on the hill and not on a night that even MORE of the Phillies faithful will line their pockets with “disappointment dollars” by selling their seats to the highest New York bidders.  Not on a night that this Phillies 2009 takes the field at home for the last time.  The Phils have given us an amazing two-year ride.  Tonight I hope to send the Fightins back to New York with a victory and to salute our Phils one last time at home as the Champions they still are.

Wish I had a monkey’s paw.  Go Phils.

Painting the World Series Logo at Citizens Bank Park

Today I was on hand as they began the process of painting the new WORLD SERIES LOGO!  It gets painted over the NLCS LOGO, which got painted over the NLDS logo.  The grounds crew  lays down the plastic guide first, and then sprays paint to make the guide.  (Second Photo.)  It was surreal to be in that stadium, virturally alone.  It was whisper quiet. 

When the outlines are done, the crew will paint the logo with the paint in the forefront.  We left early, because LITERALLY, it was like watching paint dry!   Go Phils…

If I said it once, I have said it a million times.  The Phillies are a loose bunch, that legitimately like playing with and for each other.  I don’t think there is a player on the team that would not take a bullet for manager Charlie Manuel.    You can see their fondness for one another and confidence in the NLCS Game 5 pre-game warm up photos I shot.   I will be interested to see if they look as loose against the Yankees.  My hunch?  Absolutely…

Prediction?  Phils in 5 and I am on the field seeing another Trophy being presented!

I was also on the field at Citizens Bank Park and able to take in the Phillies Pre-Game warm up and get some really good shots. The Phillies are a very loose bunch right now. They are like a High School team, and I mean that in a good way. They genuinely seem to enjoy each others company and they do not seem the least bit intimidated by the enormous magnitude of these games. I had no doubt in my mind they’d win Game 4 and I have less doubt that they will win Game 5. Bring on the Yankees! Here is that gallery…

In the mix, I bumped into TJ which was a very cool thing. Until you go to a major sporting event in your home town/ home team alone, you forget how much of “sports” is about the other people you enjoy it with. TJ and I have logged a lot of games! Sorry I could not be sharing this one with more of my friends and family.

So as I wrote in a previous blog,  a huge hole in the Phillies post season run for me this year is experiencing it alone sans the ability to root, root, root for the home team. I have been reminded just how much of sports is that communal aspect of being with your peeps as the say. Luckily, with modern technology my peeps were with me in a constant stream of text messages letting me know what they think. What they think in general, and specifically what they think of me being at the best Phillies games of the year. Here is a sampling…(names are initialed to protect the intolerant!).

From: CEE
I f-ing hate you and have fun!

From: BEA
Please don’t send me text pics.  i hate u enuff already.

From: CEE
Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk and everyone will
remember ya! If you gotta work, make it worth it,
I am so envious.

From: CEE
Wait, Peter Gammons the Analyst?  You are too cool for me now.

From: BUT
Ask him if he will stop praising the Yankees and throw some love our way!

From: GON
What does he smell like? Ask him about interviewing Ty Cobb.

From: CEE
You Catctin this Press Conference?!  It’s the most coherent I’ve heard Charlie.

From: ILLI
Awesome!  I am so jealous.

From: KER
Awesome, GO PHILS! I hate you.

From: BUT
I am both hateful and envious of you.  Go Phils. F-Romeo!

From: BEA
I hate you so much.

Text me tonight! You never know…