As American as Apple Pie, Baseball and...Babies?

It seems that sex-and-baseball go together like, “love-and-marriage, just like a horse-and-carriage, this I tell you brother, you can’t have one without the other!” (Just imagine the musical accompaniment.)

Apparently, the National Pastime has met the OTHER National Pastime in Pennsylvania. It wasn’t just baseball players hitting home runs last October, just ask folks who support the Philadelphia Phillies.

A recent news account reported an apparent link between an increase in births at a hospital near Philadelphia nine months after their team made it to the playoffs, then went on to win the World Series last year.

The Bucks County Courier Times has reported that members of the St. Mary Medical Center maternity unit are convinced that they have a baseball baby boom on their hands.

St. Mary Medical Center, in Middletown, Pa., made 172 deliveries in July – the bottom of the ninth (month) after Phillies fever gripped the region. That's more babies than any of the previous 12 months, when the average was 148 deliveries, according to the newspaper.

Supporting the theory, some of the newborns were given the first names of the most popular Phillies’ players, many of whom have names that are either unusual, or are spelled unusually: there were five Chases, three Jimmys, two Bens, two Ryans, one Jayson, one Shane and one Cole in July alone, according to the newspaper.

The maternity unit staff noticed the Phillies players pattern among the babies – especially when it continued into August when three more Chases, two Coles, and one Ryan, one Shane and one more Jayson were added to the hospital’s newborn roster.

Phillies players coinciding with those names are: Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Ben Francisco, Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard, Shane Victorino, and Jayson Werth.

In comparison, the hospital had only two baby boys named Chase, and a single Cole the previous July, the newspaper said.

St. Mary nurse manager Patricia Crocker couldn't help noticing that July was an unusually busy month in the maternity unit. Last Thursday alone, she had 10 babies discharged and nine more admitted. The next day, 11 babies were born and 10 went home, according to the newspaper.

She told the newspaper that she recalled standing in the diamond-shaped maternity unit (obviously ironic, since baseball is played on a ‘diamond’) wondering aloud, what had been going on nine months ago. A new mom – (who the newspaper said stopped where first-base would be) – provided the answer.

"It was the World Series," she reportedly told Crocker, according to the newspaper.

At that moment, the light went on for Crocker. She checked the birth certificate log book for July 2008 and 2009, which confirmed her hunch.

"Holy cow," Crocker said, describing her reaction to the newspaper.

She said she even found a newborn girl named Chayse. She was born June 23, a little too early to be a playoffs-series baby, but the mom did find out she was pregnant at a Phillies game, Crocker told the newspaper.

Crocker recalled one new dad exclaiming, his baby, "Wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the World Series," she said.

The newspaper also interviewed Phillies fans and parents whose first child – Chase – was born July 24. They confirmed their little slugger was indeed named after Chase Utley, adding that he was conceived during either Game 2 or 3 of the World Series.

Interestingly, the 172 deliveries in one month wasn't a St. Mary record. That happened in July 2008, when there were 182 babies born, breaking the previous 20-year record, according to the newspaper.

Guess what? The Phillies played in the 2007 National League Division Series, which was the team’s first trip to the postseason since 1993. And while the hometown team didn't go all the way that year, apparently many local couples did, the newspaper quipped.

But will another Red October (the Phillies’ team color) this year lead to a pink and blue July sequel?

Crocker's holding her breath. The Phillies are poised to repeat, since they just clinched a slot to play again in this year’s World Series.

This time, they face the New York Yankees, in a series that's been dubbed, "The Turnpike Tussle." If last year is any indication, it's the fans who will end up performing the horizontal tussle.

Crocker told the newspaper that she is also rooting for another Philadelphia team – football.

I'm hoping the Eagles make it to the Super Bowl. It will give me a busy October," she told the newspaper.

(Note: A friend from the UK posted a comment that he is gracing our world because his folks had a one-off following a football (as in soccer here) championship derby. No doubt, we would find it equally true throughout the 'sporting' (sexual) world --- The Curator)