Finally, a winner in Philly

For those of you from Philadelphia, near Philadelphia or otherwise still scarred by Philadelphia’s epic collapse of 1964, you know the meaning of this photo taken 44 years ago tonight.

For the rest of you, this simply is the reaction from an exhausted Tug McGraw after the Phillies closer strikes out Willie Wilson to end the sixth and final game of the 1980 World Series and give Philadelphia its first baseball championship since, well, forever.

Only took ’em since 1883 – their first season in existence – for the Phillies to win that championship, too.

This one finally comes on a 4-1 victory before a delirious Tuesday night crowd of 65.838 at Veterans Stadium, where McGraw is working in his fourth game of the World Series and for the ninth time in the Phillies’ 11 postseason games.

Mike Schmidt, right, runs toward Tug McGraw after the final out of the 1980 World Series.

“They say that was the slowest fastball ever thrown in Philadelphia,” McGraw says of striking out Wilson. “It took 97 years to get there.”

In perhaps an even rarer moment, that is normally stoic third baseman Mike Schmidt in the background behind McGraw showing genuine emotion on the field.

“Tug and I drove to the ballpark together before that final game,” Schmidt later says, “and I made him promise that if he was on the mound for that final out to wait for me.

“Both of us knew whoever was or near that mound for the final out would probably be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Sure enough, it worked. Tug struck out Wilson and then turned to look at me at third base. Of course, I came running in and jumped on him.”