The Philadelphia Phillies players celebrated winning the National League East with some of their biggest fans: their children.
On Monday, September 23, the Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs 6-2, clinching their first NL East title in 13 years. After the team’s big win, the players took to the clubhouse, spraying champagne and beer while Calum Scott’s “Dancing On My Own” played in the background, their traditional postgame celebration.
“That was our main goal in spring training, to win the division and get that first-round bye,” slugger Bryce Harper told ESPN following the game. “Do all the things we can to kind of set us up for the postseason. The division was the first thing.”
Harper, 31, noted that getting to come home and win the division in front of the “best fans in baseball” was “just a lot of fun.”
The party didn’t stop after the players left the park. According to a clip shared via X, the players went to XFinity Live! in South Philly and were seen holding their children up to the crowd of fans Lion King-style.
Celebrations aside, the Phillies are focused on advancing through the National League playoffs next — and eventually winning the World Series. (The Phillies are the No. 2 seed in the league just behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and would earn a first-round bye if the standings hold.)
“We’ve got experience, we’ve got expectations for ourselves,” left fielder Kyle Schwarber told MLB reporters after the game. “If we can keep going out there and playing our brand of baseball, and have that edge about us, have that attitude about us — every time we walk out the door we expect to win the game.”
Schwarber, 31, explained that the team has seen “a lot of different things” throughout the regular season, so they won’t be “surprised by anything.”
“We’ve just got to be able to play our game and respond to anything that happens,” he shared with reporters.
The Phillies, who won the World Series in 1980 and 2008, reached the championship again in 2022 but lost to the Houston Astros in six games.
“It hurts. … I think the chemistry and camaraderie took us all the way to the end,” pitcher Aaron Nola told reporters at the time. “I think that’s overlooked nowadays. Everybody in this clubhouse pulls for each other. There’s not one selfish guy on this team, and I think it says a lot about this club. Everybody got their feet wet. Everybody knows what the postseason is about now. It’s addicting. It’s a different type of atmosphere. It’s a different type of winning. Because when you win, it’s the most pure.”