Victory Belle: Inside the Phillies’ Post-Win Celebration

Sheree McMullen has a crucial job for the NL champions, beyond her official duties as the team’s massage therapist. She holds the liberty bell for the players.

PHILADELPHIA — Her name is not included in the public team directory. She cannot be found on the field or in the dugout or in coverage of the front office. But Sheree McMullen has a monumentally important job for these Phillies: She is the one who holds the bell the players ring after they win.

This is not one of her official employment duties. (McMullen is actually a massage therapist for the team.) But it’s quickly become her favorite one. The bell started this year as a simple celebration: It was purchased by Phillies designated hitter Bryce Harper, inspired by the light-up Liberty Bell that glows for a home run at Citizens Bank Park, so the players could ring a bell of their own in the dugout after a homer. PH—ING DADDY, the engraving on it reads, EST. 2022. But one day after a victory, “I just grabbed it, and had a bell line when they won,” McMullen says. They all came through and gave it a ring. Then catcher J.T. Realmuto decided, We should do this after every win. It was the perfect celebration—not too big, not too showy, just something they could all do briefly for a moment of joy. And since McMullen was the one who held the bell for that first victory celebration, Realmuto figured, she should keep the gig.

Harper rings the liberty bell he purchased for the team as McMullen holds it after the Phillies clinched the NL pennant :: Logan Riely/Getty Images

The 63-year-old massage therapist works on the entire team and plays something of a maternal role. Some players call her “Mama,” and she returns the sentiment. “I love them like they’re my own children,” she says. This exercise became part of that: McMullen holding the bell, letting every player have a chance to give it a ring, reminding them to take a second to celebrate each win.

There were wins this season where the team’s future looked uncertain. (There were, naturally, even more losses where this was the case.) There were wins that seemed as if they might ultimately be for naught, wins that had seemed impossible in the first place, wins that made little sense. But when the Phillies had to, they kept finding ways to win, and they rang the bell when they did. When they clinched the National League’s sixth and final playoff berth during the last week of the season in Houston, when they made it out of the wild-card round against St. Louis, when they took down defending champion Atlanta: They rang the bell. And McMullen was always the one to hold it for them.

The bell line was a little different when they beat the Padres, 4–3, in Game 5 of the NLCS. After clinching a trip to the World Series, there is first raw, unfiltered jubilance, too fresh and loose to fit any kind of structured celebration, and then there are the requirements of a televised ceremony. A stage must be assembled in the outfield. Interviews must be done. The series MVP must be named, family members must be hugged, t-shirts must be handed out.

But after that? The Phillies rang the bell. While gathered on the infield for a team photograph, players and coaches and staff alike, they kept reaching over to give it a ring. And as they ran over to the dugout to come down for their celebration in the clubhouse, McMullen was right in front, and the players each took a second as they made their way through.

They all came and rang the bell.

That included Harper, whose eighth-inning, two-run home run delivered a comeback victory, making good on a promise he made years ago when he signed the largest deal in team history. “Let’s give them something to remember,” he told hitting coach Kevin Long before he walked up to the plate in the eighth. He did. And then he rang the bell he bought.

It included Zack Wheeler, one of the leaders of the rotation, who struck out eight in six beautifully pitched innings on Sunday.

Rhys Hoskins, who gave the team an early lead with a home run of his own, who has been here longer than any position player. He was part of one disappointing team after another. Now, finally, he is part of one that has not just met expectations but shattered them. “I've done a lot of losing here,” he reflected. “There's been a lot of heartbreak late in the season.” At last, on his way to a champagne shower, he could ring the bell.

Garrett Stubbs, the backup catcher who maintains the celebration playlist.

Seranthony Domínguez, who has been one of the strongest relievers on the team all year, who was given the near-impossible task of pitching through a driving rain in Game 5. He tied his season total for wild pitches (three) in one inning and lost the lead. In the end, it didn’t matter. His teammates picked him up, and then he rang the bell.

Ranger Suárez, the starting pitcher who was tasked with closing this game. He gave the bell a ring, and then he pulled in McMullen for an enormous hug, bringing her almost to tears.

She teared up again a few minutes later while trying to describe that moment: “Happy tears,” she clarified. And then a group of players ran up to shower her in beer—putting an end to that in a hurry.

McMullen gets drenched with beer during the Phillies’ NL pennant-clinching celebration :: Emma Baccellieri/Sports Illustrated

McMullen previously worked for the Eagles, including when they won the Super Bowl in 2018, and she says this team reminds her of that one. “It’s a similar group of boys, good people,” she says, “Taking care of one another.” That’s what they do in the bell line: guaranteeing that everyone has a chance to give it a ring, recognizing that all of them have a role to play, taking a moment to lift each other up.

The Phillies hope to keep ringing the bell through the rest of October. McMullen will be holding it as long as they do.