The Phanatic has always been Philly’s greatest mascot (sorry, Gritty)

It was just a flick of the snout.

A slight hesitation when the bat connects with the ball, then a 45-degree stiff upward tilt to the right as the Phanatic turned, like all of Philadelphia, to follow the arc of the ball coming off the bat of J.T. Realmuto in the bottom of the 7th.

In that moment, with the Phanatic framed perfectly on the dugout for live TV, at once a laugh out loud and hold your breath thrill, was the affirmation: The Phanatic is back on top in Grittydelphia, as ascendant as the ball that landed in the outfield stands in game 4 of the National League Championship Series.

Never count a big goofball out, that much Philly knows. Especially the OG goofball.

And if you think it’s easy for a 6-foot-6 furry rotund mascot with deep set eyeballs, and a second, blinking set of eyes inside below the snout, to always follow the path of the ball, think again.

“He saw that ball right off the bat,” confirmed Tom Burgoyne, the literal beating heart inside the Phanatic for the last 33 seasons, who likes to speak about the Phanatic in the third person. (He is, of course, not literally the Phanatic).

“Sometimes he doesn’t,” Burgoyne said. “There are times he loses it and then he hears everybody cheer and he looks and sees it going over the fence.”

Not this time.

This time, like the Phillies headed back to the World Series, the Phanatic was ready for that “red light moment,” as Burgoyne put it, all the cameras trained on the big furry green import from the Galápagos Islands in the bottom of the 7th, which has been the Phanatic’s time on the dugout for 45 years.

From some secret place near the Phanatic’s heart, the mascot text message chain was blowing up Burgoyne’s phone. Swoop, Franklin, Phang, and even Gritty were pumped.

“You always kind of hope he kind of does the right thing, hits the right chord, comes through in the clutch,” Burgoyne said. “The Phanatic wants to come through in the clutch.”

» READ MORE: Tell us who you wish could be beside you on the couch when the Phillies take on the Astros.

After a star turn in the last week that included the instantly iconic four-sneaker off-the-ground hug with Jason Kelce, a dance with Fox announcer and former Boston Red Sox David “Big Papi” Ortiz that succeeded in annoying Boston fans, the instantly indelible Realmuto home run dugout shot, dancing with people dressed up as Friars who stripped down to be Phillies fans, a high-energy routine with Top Gun’s Miles Teller, and one dubiously savage pranking of Fox reporter Ken Rosenthal, the Phanatic is again on top.

All hail. The rest are pretenders.

Overshadowed in recent years by the dystopian Gritty-mania, temporarily forced in 2020 and 2021 (like all of us maybe) into an awkward rebrand, a since-settled lawsuit resulting in a sort of faux-Phanatic costume with the wrong green and weird pink-framed eyes, the Phillie Phanatic reminded us in the last week why it is the greatest of the mascots.

While nothing will perhaps ever top that moment long ago in the Palestra when the Temple Owl got into a brawl with the St. Joe’s Hawk (feathers flew), here are the moments that cemented the Phanatic’s place again as the Philly mascot GOAT.

With the help of marketing genius Cindy Webster, who orchestrated the moment at Burgoyne’s request, Eagles great Jason Kelce was served up to the crowd and to the Phanatic in Game 3.

“Kelce as a Mummer,” as he was dressed for his Super Bowl victory parade speech, has become its own mascot, with at least four costumed Kelceses counted in the stands during the same game, said Webster, who consults for Sports Radio WIP.

She said the bouncing hug, captured by The Inquirer’s Yong Kim, will go down in immortality.

Kelce, she said, thought he might actually have done in the Phanatic.

“Jason picks the Phanatic up and three times bounces him in the air,” Webster said. “When he came back into the tunnel, he goes, ‘Oh my God, I think I broke the Phanatic.’ He said he heard something snap.”

(Burgoyne says the Phanatic survived the Kelce squeeze.)

A longtime Phanatic watcher, Webster also said Bryce Harper’s repping of the Phanatic paved the way for the Phanatic’s triumph.

“Gritty, he obviously took the world by storm, he was the shiny new toy,” she said. “I think two things happened for the Phanatic. A: Obviously this team. But I gotta say, Bryce Harper really put him back on the map. Bryce, everything he wears are usually Phanatic things, inside of his jacket. The fact that Bryce thinks the Phanatic is so freaking cool.”

The Phanatic’s reaction was so instantly iconic that announcers in English and Spanish both mentioned it in their call of Realmuto’s home run. “Como me encanta el Phillie Phanatic,” tweeted Andrea Gil, speaking for all of us.

“Put it in a museum,” tweeted out NBC Philadelphia.

“To me, in that moment, he was everyone of us,” said Webster. “He was a person, not a mascot. He’s watching just like we all are. He wasn’t doing any antics. He just turned his head ... I’ve got to see this too.”

Like all of Philly, the Phanatic can be ridiculous, but in the moment, lives a serious fan.

Burgoyne said in the playoffs, he tends to keep the antics in the stand to a minimum, because everyone is so focused on the game. But the bottom of the 7th is Phanatic time. And with all the cameras set up for the playoffs, the angle ended up perfectly.

The Phanatic is, by design, much more expressive than, say Mr. Met, he said.

Orbit, the Houston Astros alien mascot, seems to be built like a mini-Phanatic, just a kid in diapers to the Phanatic’s elder statesman. (The San Diego Chicken didn’t stand a chance after the unfortunate mural incident attempting to depict its dominance over the Phanatic, but just bringing on bad karma.)

Top Gun: Maverick actor Miles Teller, a Downington native, was all in for the chance to dance with the Phanatic, in another viral moment for the big green guy. Teller came on before Sunday’s game wearing vintage maroon Darren Daulton gear, and recreated the Great Balls of Fire moment from Top Gun with a piano right there on the field.

For all the Phillies fans who had tears in their eyes during Top Gun: Maverick (you know who you are), this moment was truly joyous. As opposed to the Kelce credo of No One Likes Us, this proves that the coolest of celebrities are, naturally, Philly fans who love us.

To further the point, Teller was filmed jumping up and down in the stands, and, later, doing shots inside Angelo’s on Ninth Street in South Philly.

The Phanatic did a bit with Fox commentator David “Big Papi” Ortiz, the former Boston Red Sox star. He sneezed on a Red Sox Jersey, wiped it under his arm pits, then danced the Phanatic twerk on the dugout.

Ortiz, wearing at various times a Reggie White Eagles jersey and an Allen Iverson Sixers jersey, really annoyed Boston fans, which is, ultimately, a huge win for the Phanatic.

The Phanatic’s most savage move this series was pre-game Saturday, dropping to his knees to be eye-to-eye with Fox sports reporter Ken Rosenthal, imitating him as he was live on air. Rosenthal makes a step forward to seem to try get in front of the Phanatic, but then the cameras switch to shots of the managers. “The Phillie Phanatic did Ken Rosenthal dirty,” said one tweeter.

Burgoyne said his banter with Rosenthal goes back years. “The Phanatic can get away with a few things,” he said.

Rosenthal’s seen it before with the Phanatic.

In 2021, the Phanatic tried the same routine, looking a bit ridiculous in the lawsuit-era pink eyes, and Rosenthal tweeted: “No respect from the Phanatic! (But I love it).”