2008 World Series Game 5, and all the rain that delayed the Phillies’ reign | Oral History

Bud Selig knew it didn't look good.

For days, the commissioner of baseball studied forecasts — from three weather services, no less. He looked at models and listened to predictions. His mood never brightened. It was going to rain in South Philadelphia; that much was certain. And once it started, it wasn't going to stop for a few days. It was shaping up to be a nightmare for Major League Baseball.

"Bud is a basket case," a major-league official told the Washington Post that night.

But if ever there was a good time for Game 5 of the 104th World Series to begin, it was right now, 8:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 27. A light rain was falling, making the conditions less than ideal. But it wasn't expected to intensify until after midnight. MLB officials met with the grounds crew and the umpires, Phillies general manager Pat Gillick and Rays counterpart Andrew Friedman. Ultimately, Selig decided to let the teams take the field.

And he crossed his fingers.

***

Major League Baseball has staged 113 World Series since 1903, starting with the best-of-nine battle between the Boston Americans of the American League and the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League. The arguments about which games and which teams were the best are endless. Where you are from and what team you root for no doubt influence opinions.

That said, we feel safe in challenging fans of every team in baseball to find a more peculiar Game 5 than the 2008 matchup between the Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays at Citizens Bank Park. It started in a light drizzle on a wind-chilled, 47-degree Monday night with Cole Hamels' first pitch to Tampa Bay's Akinori Iwamura and did not end until Wednesday night, Oct. 29, when Brad Lidge threw one last darting slider to strike out Eric Hinske, ending Philadelphia's 25-year championship drought.

The Phillies will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of that World Series title this weekend at Citizens Bank Park. Ahead of that celebration, a number of the key figures from that surreal Game 5 clincher shared their thoughts about Game 5A, 5B, and the day in between.

COLE HAMELS, PHILLIES STARTING PITCHER: "We could win it, and you want to win it at home. I felt like I was really dialed in. It's just very unusual to have the type of weather that we were having just for the fact that it kept getting worse and you know baseball is not played in this type of weather. You can't train; you can't prepare for any of this. I felt like it was just don't let the weather affect what I'm trying to do and trying to accomplish. But it got worse and worse."

TIM WELKE, SECOND-BASE UMPIRE AND CREW CHIEF: "I remember, especially Mr. Selig, struggling with not wanting to fight this weather. One thing that stands out to me is the groundskeeper from Philadelphia, who I had a good relationship with, he told the commissioner [before the game] that 'Hey, whatever rain we get, I have enough Turface' — which is the product that soaks up the water — 'I have more than enough. If the field really gets bad, I can repair it.' He was trying to say, don't worry, the field will not become unplayable. But my experience being a major-league umpire for a long time and crew chief is that product, Turface, works wonderful initially. But once it works and does its thing, if you get rain on top of it, it'll turn into a muddy mess. And that's truly what happened that night."

ROCCO BALDELLI, RAYS RIGHT FIELDER: "I don't think I've ever, to this day, been involved in a Major League Baseball game at any point in any place where the conditions were less satisfactory than what they were in that game — for both teams. There was a difficulty just being out there and actively playing in the game. When you're playing in a game that important and then you're also dealing with literally the worst weather conditions you've ever played in, it gives it a different feel and different experience."

SHANE VICTORINO, PHILLIES CENTER FIELDER: "It was one of the coldest times in my career. I think it was the bottom of the fifth. It was the coldest. I remember being in the outfield and I didn't have sleeves on that night, and I was like, 'Man, it's miserable.' I looked at my arms and it was starting to, like, freeze on my arms. I remember looking at the field and thinking if any ball is hit here, it's not going to go nowhere. It's going to basically stop in the infield."

CHASE UTLEY, PHILLIES SECOND BASEMAN: "As a player, you obviously recognize how bad the field is as far as the playing conditions. You would hate that the field could determine the outcome of a game, so one part of me is thinking, 'What are we doing, why are we still playing, and we should be complaining to the umpire.' The reason I didn't really complain to the umpires was because Cole was pitching so well. I knew if we stopped playing, he would stop pitching, and we still had half the game to go. I was torn between what to really do, but he was pitching so well I just didn't want to say a word."

HAMELS: "It got a little bit more difficult to be able to throw certain pitches, and I think that was the frustrating part. I couldn't grip a curveball, and the change-up was starting to slip. And I just didn't want to put myself into counts where I was 2-1, 2-0, 3-1. So you're just trying to sneak by. You're trying to throw certain pitches just to let them know you have it. But I knew I was starting to eliminate pitches that I could throw because I could not grip them. I was just hoping that the hitters weren't going to clue in on that because, if they did, then they knew exactly what was coming — fastballs. Seeing that pop-up that Jimmy [Rollins] couldn't even catch because it was raining so hard [in the fifth inning], you're waiting for a disaster to happen. I think the whole time we were all looking at each other and going, 'What is going on?' "

Hamels took the mound with a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning and recorded two quick outs. But the field conditions had deteriorated. Home plate was submerged under a puddle, a lake surrounded second base, and any ball put in play was an adventure.

Sure enough, B.J. Upton reached on an infield single, stole second base and scored on Carlos Pena's single. Hamels kept the game tied and got out of the inning having thrown only 75 pitches, but play could no longer continue.

RYAN HOWARD, PHILLIES FIRST BASEMAN: "It had to be one of the coldest games I ever played in. The wind went right through you. In that sixth inning, Cole tried to pick off B.J. Upton, and when I went to throw the ball back to him, I couldn't feel my hands. I didn't know how Cole was doing it."

HAMELS:"I was going to go into the cage and just keep warm. I thought they were going to try to let us finish it because we already went that far and it was already a mess for the last two innings. That fifth and sixth inning was a disaster. I mean, it was straight mud. I really thought they were going to let us finish it and see what happens and get through nine innings even if it was sloppy wet. I understood my pitch count. I was like, 'I could finish this game.' And then all of a sudden, they came out of nowhere very quickly and let us know."

CHARLIE MANUEL, PHILLIES MANAGER: "What I remember is how mad I was that Tampa got to hit in the top of that inning. Tampa scored and tied the game, and now we have to wait to hit. The field conditions obviously favored the hitter, so if they get to hit, why don't we get to hit? I spoke up loudly to the commissioner, and he went real silent. They should have stopped that game before they started the sixth inning."

WELKE: "When we went to the locker room at the time we stopped, we had another meeting. It was the commissioner and [MLB chief operating officer Bob DuPuy] and the FOX people. The GMs were in there, Pat Gillick and Andrew Friedman. Joe Maddon was in there. Charlie Manuel was in there. And Charlie made a good point. He said the smartest thing at the right time in his southern drawl. He goes, 'You played the top of the sixth in that crap. How come we can't play the bottom of the sixth in it?' But the field was gone. We lost the integrity of the mound and the plate. It was unplayable. It wasn't safe. Infielders couldn't make plays, and people were losing pop-ups."

HOWARD: "We dealt with the wind, the puddles forming at second base, and you're out there thinking if we can get through this inning maybe we can win the World Series by a rainout. I didn't think something that weird could happen. We'd be the first team to win by a walk-off rainout. Nobody wants to win or lose a World Series like that. But we did have to bear that inning on defense, and they didn't have to. They didn't have to go stand in that freezing rain."

UTLEY: "The field was in terrible shape. It was pouring for so long we shouldn't have been playing. They got it eventually right. We shouldn't have been playing in those conditions, especially in a game of that magnitude."

HAMELS: "It's a weird letdown. I think I would've been able to probably come back in, say, a Game 7 situation. But I wouldn't have been able to start it. And you don't want to go Game 7 anyway. But I kind of knew that was all I had and you want to go out on top — you want to go 120 pitches. You know you have the whole offseason to rest. It was a weird sort of letdown in a sense that, that's all I'm allowed? That's really it? I'm done?"

BALDELLI: "I don't think anybody knew what the rules were or what the protocol was, what was going to happen. We know who's in charge at the end of the day. I don't know if it's going through every guy's mind, but it was certainly part of the side discussion in the dugout. When we came back and tied the game, it resolved some of those questions."

HAMELS: "We didn't want to win a World Series in five or six innings."

True to the forecast, the weather only worsened on Tuesday. MLB announced early that day that play would not resume until Wednesday night. The Phillies still reported to Citizens Bank Park, pitchers doing their requisite throwing under cover and hitters making use of the indoor batting cage.

Many of the Rays showed up, too. First, though, there was the matter of where they were going to stay. With if-necessary Game 6 set to be played back at Tropicana Field, the Rays had checked out of their Center City hotel Monday afternoon. When Game 5 was suspended, Rays traveling secretary Jeff Ziegler had to find 50 rooms for players, staff and family members. They wound up at the Hotel Du Pont in Wilmington, and the Rays didn't check in until about 2 a.m. Tuesday.

BALDELLI: "It was not optimal. It's definitely a sub-optimal situation. But, truthfully, you get used to just dealing with whatever comes your way and this was another example of that. We didn't know that we were going to be stuck out of the city. We didn't realize that that was going to happen until it happened, and then all of a sudden, we're jumping on a bus and heading to Delaware. What are we going to do? Complaining about it is not going to help anything. We did what we had to do. When we got to Delaware, I think I heard some of the guys treating it like a road trip and they were bouncing around. I didn't leave my hotel room for the entire time there. I stayed in my room and watched some TV and ate room service, and that was it."

HAMELS: "Since we were home, the excitement and the buzz was there. I don't think anybody will ever get to experience that because I don't think there will ever be a delay like that ever again. The whole city was still hyped up. I remember going out to dinner and you could tell everybody was hyped up. It was probably one of the most unique, greatest sports moments that you could ever experience because you're never going to start a game in the bottom of the sixth inning."

BRAD LIDGE, PHILLIES CLOSER: "My daughter was 4 years old at the time, so we found a lot to do. We were in Haddonfield at the time. We went out to dinner somewhere there. I probably watched as many movies as I possibly could that had nothing to do with [baseball]. I had started school, going back and trying to finish up my degree that year, so I remember trying to do more of that or as much of that as I possibly could. But it's one of those deals where you read a sentence and you can't concentrate after that. The city of Philly, obviously, was buzzing. Anywhere you go, people were hanging on anything, and that was the talk everywhere you were going. I just tried to kind of insulate myself from that. You don't want to talk about it too much. You don't want to think about it too much. You just want to focus on the next hitter you're going to be facing."

HOWARD: "I just chilled that whole day at my condo. One of the best things about the three days was that after they banged the first part of the game, they knew it was going to rain all day the next day so they banged it early rather than letting us get all amped up and then sitting there all day waiting for a window. They didn't play with our emotions, and I thought that was great. I slept in and didn't worry about going to the field."

UTLEY: "I think I just hunkered down at home and there wasn't much we could do. I don't know exactly what I did, but I know my wife and I binge-watched something — I think it was 'True Blood.' We watched about four or five episodes. I don't remember going to the field, but most likely I did just to get a little bit of work in. There was no anxiety that day because we knew we weren't going to play."

MANUEL: "I don't think I said much to [girlfriend] Missy that night. I remember I didn't sleep very well. I wasn't nervous. I was more excited, and I wanted to make sure I was prepared."

GEOFF JENKINS, PHILLIES OUTFIELDER: "It was a whirlwind, that whole week. I do remember we had my son the night before we beat the Dodgers to go to the World Series. My son, Justice, was born the night before the game where [Matt] Stairs hit the ball off [Jonathan] Broxton in Huntington Hospital out there in Pasadena. He was in the right-hand corner of the USA Today – 'World Series baby' – after we beat the Dodgers. So, that was also a huge focus for me. It was like, 'My gosh, I've got a brand-new baby and he's not even with me' because they had to come back to Phoenix. I was losing sleep and I was nervous about maybe the moment, but I had some distractions that were kind of helping almost. I'm trying to hear my baby [on the phone], all that kind of stuff."

VICTORINO: "That day [Tuesday] felt like forever. It was long. You wanted the game to happen now. Seeing the weather being as bad as it was, you were just anxious. It's like you're so close but yet so far."

LIDGE: "On [Monday] night, I was assuming we were going to play the next day, as everybody was, and so I didn't really sleep at all that night. I didn't really sleep before [the beginning of] Game 5, either, knowing how close we were. And then, all of a sudden, knowing it was going to be like a shotgun start, it was impossible to sleep the night after we had the rain delay. For me, just the amount of adrenaline that was exerted over those three days was crazy. It was not something where you're going to sleep soundly at night. You're on the verge of winning the World Series, so you just want to play the dang game."

JENKINS: "All the guys were just trying to keep busy, trying to stay loose. We had so many great personalities on that team. You've got everybody from Brett Myers to Jimmy Rollins to Eric Bruntlett, so you've got the guy that doesn't say a word all the way up to the guy that says every word, the guy that plays the music to the guy that goes in the weight room. I think everybody just tried to stay on routine. I think I remember the stock market was crashing. I remember sitting in the hot tub and me and [Jayson] Werth were just looking up at the TV in there and it was just going down and down and down. I think it was down like 800 points one day. That was a big topic."

PAT GILLICK, PHILLIES GENERAL MANAGER: "I don't really remember anything at all about the day in between. I can't recall anything about it. It's funny, maybe because I was fortunate enough to have been involved in two other World Series [with Toronto], but I just kind of felt like good things were going to happen for us. I had felt it since Shane Victorino hit that home run in L.A. and then Matt Stairs hit the home run off Broxton. I was pretty positive we were going to win it. I just thought we had a much better offensive club."

The rain finally stopped by midday Wednesday. But the debate raged on about what would happen when the game resumed.

Both managers, Manuel and Maddon. had decisions to make. With Hamels due to lead off the bottom of the seventh, Manuel needed to choose a pinch-hitter. Maddon, meanwhile, had to select a pitcher. Would he stick with righthander Grant Balfour, who had come on in the bottom of the fifth inning in relief of starter Scott Kazmir? Or would he pick someone else? Perhaps the Rays would go with David Price, the rookie phenom who had been a secret weapon out of the bullpen since getting called up late in the regular season? Even the players were guessing.

JENKINS: "The talk was non-stop between me, Greg Dobbs and Stairs about who's coming into this situation because it's going to be one of us. You could imagine we had a couple of days to dissect this thing in the clubhouse and heading in the cage and just talking on the phone and having dinners together. We basically came down to it was probably going to be me or Greg, but Charlie held his cards pretty close to the vest. I don't think he wanted to tell us because if he would have told us right away, you could imagine how many swings we would have started to take. I just think he wanted to keep us relaxed, and maybe he didn't even know what he was going to do until game day."

MANUEL: "I did a lot of research on [Rays pitcher] Grant Balfour. He liked to establish his fastball low early in games, and Jenkins was a good low-fastball hitter. I had that in my mind all night, but I didn't tell anyone until I got to the ballpark the next day. I think some people were surprised I picked Jenkins."

HAMELS: "It was the craziest radio topic and news topic for 48 hours."

BALDELLI: "Joe Maddon was our manager, and we would sometimes do things that were very expected and we would sometimes do things that, trust me, no one was thinking we would do. But Joe had his own process and his own ideas, and overall, they worked and people believed in everything that he did. Basically, if he made a decision that wasn't something you were expecting or a typical decision, we rolled with it and that was it."

LIDGE: "Literally, I was just trying to work out the math and put myself where I'd normally be. So, if the sixth inning is normally two hours into the game, well, then start everything two hours before the game starts. I'd normally stretch in the first inning, go back out to the bullpen and stretch again, but I just kind of did everything as routine as possible, which means just kind of working out the math and the timing and everything else and getting myself feeling as consistent as possible with how I would've felt in the regular season and doing the things in the regular season that I would've done. It was not impossible to do, and to be totally honest, the fact that when the game started I didn't have to wait as long as normal to actually pitch was kind of nice."

VICTORINO: "The energy that the fans provided, I remember running back out for Game 5 1/2, as soon as we ran out of the dugout, the fans were on their feet. I just felt like we picked up Game 5. The momentum was right back on our side."

HAMELS: "It was probably the greatest batting practice that we've ever had because they let the fans in early. Everybody was jacked up like it's the ninth inning and we already had the win. That was the quickest couple hours of a day that I think we've all experienced in our lives."

JENKINS: "Basically, 10 minutes before the game resumed, [Manuel] came and said, 'Uh, hey, Jenk. All right, kid. You're hitting.' You can imagine your heart rate just immediately starts going nuts because you realize the situation that you're in and the platform that you have. It's kind of that situation where you're coming back from being a child and you're on your lawn and you're playing Wiffle ball with your brother and you're imagining you're in Game 7. Back then, I used to say that I was Fred McGriff or Tony Gwynn, but now, it's full circle and you're in that situation."

Maddon chose to stick with Balfour when the game resumed but was coy about whether the reliever would throw an actual pitch. "He will start," said Maddon, reserving the right to make a pitching change as soon as he saw which hitter Manuel brought to the plate. But Balfour did face Jenkins, an 11-year veteran who had never before reached the playoffs.

JENKINS: "I vividly remember being on deck and Jimmy Rollins was out there with me, and the crowd's going nuts and everybody's waving those white Phillies hankies or whatever they were. I remember being so nervous, but excited-nervous, just excited for the moment. And Jimmy could see it. He comes over and he's like, 'Hey, what are you thinking?' I'm like, 'I'm a little nervous.' And Jimmy's like, 'Hey, you've got to go back to Little League right now and just relax. Just go have fun.' There was this calming that was sort of put over me. It turned into like, 'All right, I've got this.' "

UTLEY: "There wasn't anxiety. It was more excitement. It was the excitement to finish the last few innings. Obviously, the city was into it. There was a lot of anticipation. Before the first pitch was even thrown of Part 2 of that game, the crowd was going wild. It was nuts and super loud. It usually takes a little bit of time to get that adrenaline  going when you start a game, but we had the adrenaline flowing before the first pitch was even thrown. Jenks was an unbelievable teammate, and he had an amazing career. He was ready for it and he was pumped and I think the fans had a lot to do with that energy."

LIDGE: "Probably a little bit you wondered about that chess match and that strategy. But I would say this: The one thing that was certainly true the entire season was that our offense came through and scored a lot of runs late in games. So, I just kind of figured we were going to score no matter who they put out there. That was just our offense. We were too good to be denied."

JENKINS: "The wind was kind of blowing in from right field across to left. It was probably, I don't know, 20 miles per hour? It was a pretty good breeze. So, as a lefthanded hitter, you're like, 'Man, if I pull one, I've got to really hit it,' and I tell you what, I've hit a lot of balls — I smacked that ball. When I hit it, I'm like, 'Wow, that's gone.' It ends up barely short-hopping the wall because the wind was just knocking it down. All I could think about when that ball hit the ground was I was thinking about three [bases]."

BALDELLI: "Knowing that I got fairly close to the ball, obviously I wish I could've made that play. But off the bat, I thought it was hit well, and that I was going to go after it as hard as I could, but that it was either gone or off the wall. I put a good effort on the ball, and when I finally looked up, the ball was actually closer than I expected it to be. Probably not close enough to make the catch, but closer than I expected. I'm sure the elements affected that ball."

JENKINS: "I've never had so much emotion just kind of fly out of me. Everything was just pent up. The couple days waiting to play baseball, getting in that moment, coming through, hitting that double and getting on second base, I was so excited. I just kind of started fist-pumping. I actually hit my right thigh twice as hard as I can. The next day, I could barely walk it hurt so bad because I hit it so hard. I didn't feel it the rest of the day because of the adrenaline, but the next day, I was like, 'Why would my thigh be hurting?' I was so excited, I took my fist and I just smashed my thigh twice because I was so excited."

BALDELLI: "At the end of the day, I didn't make the play and I wish I could've."

JENKINS: "To be the guy to lead off that inning in that moment and come up big for the team, it was really special for me, something I'll never forget. I've been in the most random places and you meet a Phillie fan, and they're like, 'Yep, Jenkins. I remember you. You're the one who hit the double.' It's cool. It's rewarding to hear that."

The Phillies were still nine outs from being able to truly celebrate. And when Baldelli tied the game with a solo homer off reliever Ryan Madson in the top of the seventh, the champagne remained firmly on ice. In fact, the Rays felt pretty good about things when Jason Bartlett followed with a single off Madson and advanced to second on J.P. Howell's sacrifice bunt.

What came next was the defensive play no Phillies fan will ever forget. With J.C. Romero on in relief of Madson, Iwamura hit a ground ball far to Utley's right. The second baseman backhanded the baseball, faked a throw to first, and then threw a one-hopper home to catcher Carlos Ruiz, nailing Bartlett at the plate for the final out of the inning.

UTLEY: "As an infielder, you have kind of a time clock in your head when the ball is hit to when you get to it and how long it is taking to get to it. J.C. Romero was pitching and he threw a lot of sinkers into left-handed hitters, so we would shift accordingly. I was playing in the hole at second base, which is where they typically hit his sinker. With a runner on second base, I was playing a little deeper than maybe I normally would to keep the ball in the infield. He hit it, and as soon as he hit it, I knew I was going to have a long run. As I'm running to catch it, my time clock is telling me this is going to be a tough play, and I caught it and I decided it was more important to keep that runner from scoring than it was to get that runner at first base. I thought it would have been a very close play [at first base] if I made a very good throw. So at that point, I faked it, and lucky for us, Bartlett kept going, which actually from a base-running standpoint was not a bad play. I probably would have done the same thing. The stars aligned on that play."

Pat Burrell, hitless in his previous 13 World Series at-bats, led off the bottom of the seventh with a double. It would be his final plate appearance with the Phillies. Two batters later, Pedro Feliz singled up the middle to score pinch-runner Bruntlett with the go-ahead run. In the ninth inning, the focus turned to Lidge, who hadn't blown a save all season.

UTLEY: "Pat's hit is a great memory for me because he was such a good friend."

LIDGE: "I tried not to let it feel any different, but your body knows, your brain knows, everybody knows. I took the exact same eight warm-up pitches. I did my normal sequence – two fastballs, four sliders, two fastballs – and go. I didn't want to do anything different at that moment than I had done the whole year. But your brain knows what's on the line. One way or another, I was able to kind of calm myself down enough to get back in the rhythm and the routine of focusing on each pitch rather than how big the moment was."

After getting Evan Longoria to pop out, Lidge allowed a single to Dioner Navarro. Pinch-runner Fernando Perez stole second base to get into scoring position. Ben Zobrist pinch-hit for Baldelli and hit a screaming line drive that Werth caught in right field. Lidge then faced another pinch-hitter, Eric Hinske.

LIDGE: "When I look back, I'm surprised that I was able to convince myself to be relaxed in that scenario. I remember [pitching coach Rich] Dubee came out. Hinske had just hit a home run off [Joe] Blanton not long before that. Dubee came up and he's like, 'Hey, do we know what we're going to do here?' I remember saying, 'Well, last time I faced him a couple years ago, I threw him a fastball and he crushed it off the wall against me, so I'm definitely not going to be doing that.' I'm surprised that I was able to answer it logically and calmly. Chooch was like, 'OK, we just throw sliders.' I'm like, 'OK, let's do it.' He said, 'I'm not going to put any fingers down. Just throw your slider. If we want to change it up, I'll come back out to the mound.' Right from the beginning, I could see that [Hinske] was waiting for a fastball. We just kept going slider. He was getting a little bit closer. Fouled off a slider, so there was a possible time to go with a fastball. But looking back, I don't think it was ever, like, should we do it now? It was more like, 'OK, I need to grip a perfect slider right here and let it rip, and if I throw my best one, he's going to swing and miss.' When I gripped the last pitch and was coming set, I could kind of feel the ball in my glove and where my fingers were, and it just felt right, like it felt like a really good grip, like I was going to throw a good one, and it ended up being a good one."

Hinske swung through strike three. Lidge fell to his knees, he put his arms up to the sky, and the celebration began. It was a natural reaction. Lidge said, nothing that he had thought about or choreographed.

LIDGE: "I remember in 2005, I let myself think about clinching that game and the fans roaring and everything else and how cool that would be, and the moment came but not with me on the mound. So, the last thing I was going to let myself do was think ahead of the hitter. I was just going to make sure I took it one hitter at a time, one pitch at a time. On the off-day, no matter what, I would not let myself think of anything beyond that. I just couldn't do it because I did it before and it hadn't worked."

JENKINS: "We definitely celebrated. I think there was like 150 bottles of Dom [Perignon] on ice. I tell all my buddies that are around me back in Phoenix and Sacramento, I'm like, if you could ever take your best friend and just be able to spray champagne profusely at each other and then at the fans and whoever's out there, it was one of the coolest out-of-body experiences. You're trying to just grasp the moment and just kind of be in it. Afterward, we come back in the clubhouse and it's like, 'Where's everybody going?' Well, some people were already gone. It's kind of a blur. I was with my brother and my agent, and we get up to the player parking lot and we're going to go downtown because I think we were going to go to Burrell's penthouse. It's mayhem. One, there's no way we could drive. How are we getting down there? Well, we get up to the player parking lot, there's got to be 15,000-20,000 people waiting out in the player parking lot like zombies. I asked the cop, I'm like, 'Hey, is there any way you can give us a ride downtown?' He's like, 'Yeah, get in.' He puts us in the back and puts the sirens on and literally just goes about a mile an hour. People are shaking us, and I'm high-fiving people outside his little SUV. He weaves in and out, and the coolest thing – and I'm not sure if we're driving down Broad or what street we were driving down – I vividly remember people are hugging and they're high-fiving as we're like going down. It was a really incredible experience. Finally, we get downtown. He parks right in the middle of the street. He gets us into the elevator. We get up top and the cop comes with us, and there's like 30 cops there because everybody had a cop take them. It was a really neat journey."