Incredible, incredible, incredible.

I am so ecstatic right now. The Phillies have ended their 28-year drought, and Philadelphia's 25-year slump, by winning the World Series Wednesday night. Neither rain, snow showers or wind would prevent them from beating the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-3, in Game 5, a contest that took three days to complete.

There are so many emotions going through me right now. Of course, I'm going crazy. When closer Brad "El Perfecto" Lidge struck out Eric Hinske to end the game, I screamed, "YES!" My 8-year-old son Steven, who was watching in his bedroom, came running down all happy. I hugged him tight. Then he told my wife that I was crying. She couldn't understand why I would be crying.

I called my mom in Philly right away. She picked up the phone and was saying over, "Oh my God!" As we talked, fireworks were going off in my old neighborhood.

My thoughts right now are with my grandfather, who took me to many Phillies games at Veterans Stadium when I was growing up there in the 1970s. I can remember riding the Septa Route 15 trolley car to the Broad Street subway to the Vet, and then taking the Broad Street subway to the Market-Frankford el/subway to the route 60 trolley to Belgrade Street, and then walked the couple of blocks to Pop and Mom's house.

As the ninth inning started, I said a prayer to him, along with my grandmother and father (even though my dad was never a baseball fan), and asked to guide Lidge through the ninth.

Thanks for answering my prayer. And thank you to the Phillies. You deserve it. And save some championship merchandise for me!

By the way, I did say Phillies in 5!