KEITH IS BACK FROM HIS VACATION!

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Back from my vacation and back from a day at Coca-Cola Park for the IronPigs "Pigapalooza" event.

I don't know what to judge it against, but it seemed like a pretty neat day for those who attended.

Enjoyed the chance to talk with six former Phillies who were on hand to sign autographs.

They were featured in a column I wrote for the Monday newspaper.

And I will write more for the Tuesday paper.

None of the six could figure out the current Phillies, who followed up four straight losses at home to a mediocre (at best) Houston team with a three-game sweep of the playoff-bound Padres in San Diego.

Marty Bystrom may have made the most sense of what has happened in the past week when he said it was good for the Phillies to get out of town after the four straight losses to the Astros.

"They bounced back in San Diego and it was probably good for them to get away from home and get a change of scenery," Bystrom said. "They probably loved San Diego because the weather is perfect and it's a great atmosphere. It let them relax a little bit. If they stayed here for another series, and things didn't go well, then they would have started hearing the boos."

Philly? Boos? C'mon.

Phillies fans have it pretty good these days, and actually they've had it pretty good the last four seasons. If you want frustration, be a Cardinals fan.

Speaking of boos, our Morning Call "Calling All Sports" TV show returns on Monday night on Service Electric. Not sure about RCN.

We'll have Steve Miller and sports editor Bill Kline on the first show to talk about what has happened over the summer and what is ahead in the coming high school football season.

The show can seen on TV2 at 5:30 p.m., an early airing because the IronPigs return home Monday for their final week of play.

If I find out we're also on RCN4 this week, I will pass it along.

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/