Top Moment #16: Let’s Go Eat

Several years ago at Veterans Stadium, a fan shouted “Everybody hits! Wahoo!”  That saying stuck.  Perhaps because the phrase was shouted every time the Phillies scored a run, but it stuck regardless.  Over time, new mottoes were created including those developed by players.

Before the “Everybody hits!” era, Tug McGraw’s “Ya gotta believe” optimism was dubbed the team’s slogan.  More recently — 2007 to be exact — Jimmy Rollins proclaimed the Phillies the “Team to beat,” and the Phillies were referred to that throughout the entire year.  In 2010, Roy Halladay claimed “It’s only going to get funner” and that stayed with the team throughout the postseason.  The 2011 Phillies had their own catchphrase.  One post-game interview defined Phillies baseball for the remainder of the season.

The Phillies won the game in walk-off fashion enabling Hunter Pence to proclaim five words: “Good game. Let’s go eat!” Surprisingly, Pence was not the star of the game.  Pence scored the winning run, but Raul Ibanez was the hero.

On July 30, the Phillies played the Pittsburgh Pirates, which doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the Bucs were actually above .500 during this point in time.

Lyle Overbay put the Pirates ahead in the sixth inning with a solo shot, and the Phillies found themselves trailing 5-3 entering the bottom of the eighth.  All of a sudden, “RAAUUUUL” chants filled Citizens Bank Park as Ibanez smacked his second home run of the day, tying the game at five.

Ibanez wouldn’t finish there.  The game was sent to extra innings, and Ibanez came through in the tenth lining a double off the right field wall.  Not only did the Phillies beat the Pirates 6-5, but also swept the series.

Good game, indeed.