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A change of seasons | Scene Through the Lens

A weekly visual exploration of the Philadelphia region

The Phanatic arriving in the parking lot at P.J. Whelihan’s in Westmont, N.J. atop the Rally for Red October Tour Bus, the first stop before heading to Center City ahead of the weekend’s NLCS games.
The Phanatic arriving in the parking lot at P.J. Whelihan’s in Westmont, N.J. atop the Rally for Red October Tour Bus, the first stop before heading to Center City ahead of the weekend’s NLCS games.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

I took a road trip this past week, a one-day journey north in search of fall foliage. The results, from the day’s first light to its last is scheduled to publish this coming week.

Along the way I met a long-haul truck driver from Kingsland, Georgia after he parked his 18-wheeler at a New Jersey truck stop. He said he enjoys driving “up this way in the fall. We just don’t get the change of seasons the way you all do.” He’s right, the colors this year are looking awesome.

That change of seasons is both refreshing and reassuring. The variety keeps the picture taking interesting and the return every year of the familiar gives us opportunities to change or improve on photos we have taken before.

It’s the end of October, World Series time. Who knew when baseball started in the spring that the Phillies would be headed there? Certainly not the oddsmakers. The early odds by Parx Sportsbook in Bensalem had the Phillies at +3300 to win, making them 16th in MLB (just below average).

The Inquirer’s photos from the Game Five win are here. I covered the post game fan celebrations, with my colleagues, out on the streets. More of those photos are here.

The Fall Classic begins on Oct. 28, which matches its latest start, in 2009. It will also be the first Friday start since 1915, when the Phillies beat the Red Sox 3-1 at the Baker Bowl, their home at Broad & Lehigh from 1887 until 1938. The Phillies went on to lose the next four games, and the series. Babe Ruth was the Red Sox “up and coming” pitcher that year, breaking into the starting rotation in mid-season and going 18-8 with a 2.44 ERA. Boston had a pretty good stable of pitchers, so he never made it to the mound at all during the series (but he did bat once as a pinch hitter, grounding out to first base.)

It’s been a while since Philadelphia has had the opportunity to celebrate a championship team. Figure we’ll be seeing a lot of the Phanatic in the coming days.

Since 1998, a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:

» SEE MORE: Archived columns and Twenty years of a photo column