Atlantic City Weekly

The record has been expunged completely. Finally, after 33 years, a colossal baseball collapse by the Philadelphia Phillies, when they blew a 6½-game lead with 12 to play in 1964, has been eradicated by the New York Mets, who blew a seven-game lead with 17 to play.

And to make it even more delicious, it was the Phillies who did it to the Mets.

Not since The Exorcist have we had such a cleansing of our Phillies conscience. Never before in baseball history has a team blown a seven-game lead with 17 to play.

I cried when the Phillies blew that lead in 1964 from the inner sanctums of my bedroom. There were tears of joy last Sunday when I watched the Mets fans scurry away from a great sports bar in Gainesville, Fla. (Gators Dockside), which had the good sense to actually take off the NFL and put the Mets and Phillies games on simultaneously.

Look, we could all feel for these Mets fans if they weren't so arrogant. Now they all must suffer a fate much worse than the '64 Phillies fans because of the saturation media age in which we live. Let's join ESPN for the five-part series on the collapse of the Mets. Let's marvel at the New York tabloids as they try and outdo each other with choke headlines. "You Gotta Begrieve'' was our favorite.

There was no e-mail, cell phones or ESPN in 1964 and those of the Phillies persuasion are thankful for that.

We felt it all season. There was something special about this Phillies team, something that made the Delaware Valley fall head over heels for them. There was that game in late August when the Phillies won behind a swinging bunt by Aaron Rowand and a walk-off homer by Ryan Howard, when Tom Glavine had carried a 2-0 lead late into the night. I was convinced that night that the Phillies had more heart than these talented Mets. Carlos Beltran gets hit by a pitch and makes melodrama out of it. Chase Utley gets hit by a pitch and runs to first. And there was Jose "Hollywood'' Reyes, who hit a whopping .205 in September in this New York collapse -- which was a lot like that stock market crash in 1927.

Ryan Howard's 47 homers helped the Phillies earn their first playoff birth since 1993.

The Phillies had heart; the Mets had talent. Maybe the Mets need a new stadium because, by the last out Sunday, the fans had become a howling rabble who heckled Glavine and suggested that he never step foot in Shea Stadium again. Maybe that explains why the Mets have only a .508 winning percentage at home.

Meet the Mets ... beat the Mets ... greet the Mets with their legacy now as the greatest choke artists in baseball history.

Which brings us to the Phillies and the Rockies. Which team has the most momentum? Before you answer, Phillies faithful, remember that Colorado has won 14 of 15 including a 13-inning thriller over San Diego. The Rockies have committed only 68 errors -- the lowest total in baseball -- and have turned 180 double plays. But the Phillies counter with Jimmy Rollins, who is the first shortstop in 34 years to have started every game, and a player who has shattered the modern record for runs scored (139) and extra base hits (88). Then there is a Phillies bullpen that has a 9-2 record with an ERA of 3.17 since Sept. 7. The Phillies lead the league in runs scored, and Ryan Howard (47 HRs, 136 RBI) had RBIs in nine of his last 10 games.

And let's not forget J.C. Romero, who has an ERA of just over 1.00 in his last 52 games out of the Phillies bullpen.

The 3.1 million who turned out for the Fightins' this season will be happy. The Phils will win in five and then drive to the National League Championship Series where they will play the Cubbies, the real lovable losers even though they haven't lost 10,000 games.

Chuck Betson can be heard on WIBG 1020AM every Friday at 8:30am on the Hurley in the Morning show and during his program every Saturday from 10am-1pm.