Bombs away

Ryan Howard hit the longest homer in Zen history today, a towering 498-foot blast that landed in Ashburn Alley. The ball cleared the high brick walls beyond the CF fence, another first. I saw Julio Franco hit one of the walls in batting practice once, and thought that was a bomb. It was nothing compared to Howard's.

It was good to see the normally reserved Chase Utley show some fire, too, and get ejected for slamming his helmet after being wrongly called out on a close play at first base. For all the guys on this team who play the game hard, like Utley and Rowand and Howard, they show very little emotion or passion. As Jim Leyland described the Tigers in the spring, the Phillies, too, are a team without personality. Maybe this signals a change? Probably not, but it was still nice to see, especially as the end result was a win.