2011 Phillies - The Morning After

Yes, there is the desire and passion for immediate pleasure, but one of the more overlooked important things about sports is that they exist for the purpose of making memories. Memories. Times, good and bad, to look back upon as we get older and further removed from the days when the games were played. I have always felt this way, which is why I have never understood the “we have nothing to lose” and “all the pressure was on them” mentalities—you have the chance to make a happy memory right in front of you, and you say you have nothing to lose? I wouldn’t want to look thirty years into the past and say, “You know what, we were closed, but nobody expected us to get that far anyway.” Don’t get me wrong; I can appreciate how close I came to accomplishing a goal while acknowledging that the odds against me were strong. But I do not want to enter the situation expecting to be happy with a so-called moral victory. Looking back…that’s what it’s about. Validating your era.

When I look back at the Phillies, the first sports team I ever loved in life, I will smile whenever I think of this current era. In the year my mother died, the Phillies rallied in the midst of a historic collapse by the New York Mets and won the National League East Division title on the last day of the season, which happened to be on my mother’s birthday. Yes, the Rockies swept them out of the playoffs, but nobody outside of Colorado really remembers that anymore. The next season, they again trailed the Mets. They also trailed the Brewers in the wild card standings. They entered a four-game September series at Citizens Bank Park against Milwaukee trailing them by four games. They swept them. And then the Phillies kept winning, this time clinching the division on the day prior to the last day of the season. How could I ever look back on these years and not think about Brett Myers fouling off four CC Sabathia pitches in a row before drawing a walk that set up Shane Victorino’s grand slam (or, for that matter, Jamie Moyer doing the same thing to set up a Victorino grand slam off Johan Santana on Sunday Night Baseball in 2010)? I’ll remember dramatic two-run homeruns off Corey Wade and Jonathan Broxton in Dodger Stadium (“Stairs hits one deep into the night!”). Joe Blanton’s homerun off Edwin Jackson…the Game 5 rain...Pedro Feliz’s RBI single…Utley’s heads up throw to home…Brad Lidge vs. Eric Hinske…Ryan Howard’s game winners in Games 3 and 4 at Coors Field…Rollins’ double off Broxton…Lee’s Game 1 in Yankee Stadium…the perfect game…the no-hitter against Cincinnati…Chase Utley hitting the first World Series homerun in the history of 2 different stadiums.

On a personal level, I got to watch my team play as the first defending World Series champion to play in the new Yankee Stadium, and I did it on my honeymoon. I went up to Citi Field and saw our ace throw 8 shutout innings against the hated Mets. I was able to be there in person as Doc Halladay threw a complete game 2-hit shutout in Nationals Park to clinch the division in 2010. This season, I went to Opening Day for the first time in my life. Later, I sat in the stands as Clifton Phifer dealt a 12-strikeout, 3-hit shutout on only 99 pitches. And I was able to take my sister to a game on her birthday and watch her favorite pitcher, Cole Hamels, toss a gem. This was a great era for me.

Of course there were some bad times. Brad Lidge vs. Johnny Damon. Pedro vs. Matsui. But overall, this has been a great time. And I’m OK with it

In the Wild Card era, there have been 12 seasons (20 total teams) from the National League to win 97 games. Only three times has one of those teams made the World Series. On two of those occasions, all three division winners were 97-win teams. The playoffs are a crapshoot. The Phillies’ loss last night means that 2011 is the 13th season out of the last 15 in which the top seed in the National League playoffs did not win the pennant. Neither of them won the World Series. Meanwhile, the National League Wild Card team has gone on to the World Series 6 times in the last 14 years (the Cardinals can make it 7 out of 15) and won it all twice. These statistics are not offered as excuses. No, they show how much harder it is to achieve postseason success in the modern era. They show how difficult it is to validate your era in modern Major League Baseball.

We saw the Phillies win a World Series and then go back to the Fall Classic the following year. I know it hurts for us Phillies fans right now, but we all know it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as 2009 or 2010, especially 2009. With everyone getting older and Ryan Howard’s injury, I’m pretty sure this is the end. It was a great run. And we did more with it than most teams would have. The Cardinals were a bad matchup, and they out-hit and out-pitched the Phillies. It happens.

I’m proud of my team and what they have accomplished over the past five years. And what they did for me the summer my mother died and my wife was in chemotherapy cannot be overstated. This group will always be my boys.

I Hate Pseudo-Fans

I miss the days when you could go to Phillies games and the people in stands actually knew the game. I went to Saturday night's game and heard some crazy things coming from the row behind me. If these fans are the trade-off for having a good team, I'll take it.

1. What I heard
   Do you think Werth left because he was upset? Was he sad?
   
   The real story
   Werth left the Phillies by way of a 7-year $126million free agent contract with the Washington Nationals.
   
   
2. What I heard
   Woman: Why were they booing Ibanez?
   Man: Because he grounds into a lot of double plays.
   
   The real story
   The crowd was chanting “RRRRAAAUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLL”; there were no boos.
   
   
3. What I heard
   Did you see the homeruns?
   
   The real story
   The person had missed the A’s scoring two runs. There was one homerun; the other run was scored via a walk and a pair of singles.
   
   
4. What I heard
   Man: I saw Victorino’s bonehead play.
   Woman: Yeah, what happened with that? Was it an error?
   Man: They don’t call that an error, but they probably should. He was trying to be a hot dog.
   
   The real story
   Coco Crisp was on second base. Connor Jackson flied out to Victorino in centerfield. Crisp faked as if he was going to tag up and run to third, so Victorino prepared to fire the ball there. Crisp stopped running and Victorino relaxed his arm. Crisp broke for third and made it easily as Victorino’s soft throw got there very late. This is not being a hot dog. This was one veteran player deking another. Victorino had a brain fart and got faked out. Nothing hot dog about it.
   
   
5. What I heard (Ibanez grounded out to third)
   At least he tried to go the other way.
   
   The real story
   First of all, Ibanez’s power is mostly to right, but he is not generally a pull hitter. He hits it to all fields. More importantly, what does trying to go the other way have to do with anything? He wasn’t a right handed batter with a man on second. Trevor Cahill wasn’t feeding him sinkers or breaking balls away. Ibanez was seeing a steady diet of fastballs that he couldn’t catch up to. When you can’t catch up to a pitch, it goes the other way. That’s what happened here.
   
   
6. What I heard
   What have these guys done for us lately?
   
   The real story
   The Phillies have the best record in the Major Leagues.
   
   
7. What I heard
   They need to shake this team up, get rid of some pieces. Trade Victorino.
   
   The real story
   The Phillies have the best record in the Major Leagues and, at the time, had won 11 of their last 14 games. They also lead the National League with a +63 run differential. The Braves, who are second in this category, are +39.

Need Some Get Back

When you wake up near the end of August two and a half games out of first place in your division and tied for the wild card, you feel pretty good about your chances to reach the postseason. But the playoffs are furthest thing from a shoo in. The Phillies were behind in the standings during August and September of 2007 and 2008. Each time, they battled back to win the National League East. Although they were in first place last year every day from May 29 through the end of the season, the Phillies’ current situation is very familiar to them.

The team cannot rely on the comebacks of two and three seasons ago. If the 2010 Phillies reach the playoffs, it will be because they found the wherewithal and perseverance to win games down the stretch. The 2007, 2008, and 2009 division champions could not be put away. Thus far, the current Phillies have shown the same thing. They have yet to display, however, the ability to take advantage of the openings their competitors are providing them.

The Phillies of recent past had a knack for getting the most out of every opportunity down the home stretch of the season. This season’s version will have to get that back. Yesterday showed that they don’t have it yet. In an afternoon game, Braves, the team the Phillies are chasing in the East, blew a 10-1 lead in Colorado. The Rockies won 12-10. At the same time, the Central Division-leading Reds built a 10-1 lead in San Francisco. The Giants began the day tied with the Phillies in the Wild Card standings. After a six-run eighth, the San Francisco took an 11-10 lead into the ninth inning. The Reds pulled off a comeback of their own and won 12-11 in extra inning. The events of the crazy afternoon gave the Phillies an opportunity to pick up a game on each of the teams fighting them for a postseason spot. With ace Roy Halladay headed to the mound to face a horrible team like the Astros, it seemed like a perfect scenario for the Phillies. Nope. The Astros won in Philly for the third consecutive day.

So far, it seems like the 2010 Phillies just don’t have it. But the rest of the National League is letting them hang around. This is the time for them to slay the two time defending league champions. If the Phillies are still in it on September 10, they just might get it back.