There's no PH in...RSS Feed

Parade Pics

J Stump

I'm a little short on time today, so Here is the link to the Championship Parade pics. I haven't gone through and removed all the bad pics, so you'll have to excuse those.

The View From 206-10-24

J Stump

These are a little late, but I doubt they'll ever get old! I've uploaded all my pics from Game 5 of the World Series. You can see them Here.

Here's a few to wet your appetite. (The album has 159 total images, so this is a really, really small sample)

I'll have pics from the parade up later today when I get a chance to upload them.

Champions

J Stump

The name of this website was come up with in part to poke fun at Philadelphians nature of making anything they can include a "ph" (such as "Phillies in Phive"), but it was largely created to write the exact opposite of this post. See, I was going to write a post called "Championship" at the end of some season and say "There's no PH in Championship...or more truthfully there's just no Championship in the PH." Who knew that the Phillies would absolutely destroy that post before any other major Philly team could lose a championship? As the blog was created, I had faith in the Fightins', and that faith carried on, but to predict them as World Champs was something I wouldn't do....and certainly wouldn't dare write down in public! Oh well, I have no regrets that I get to write a post saying that the Phillies are the 2008 World Champions of Baseball. If it makes the name of this site silly or stupid, then oh well...if that's all it takes, I'll come up with 100 more silly and stupid names to see 100 more Champions crowned in Philadelphia!

I'll be posting pictures from the game as soon as I can, though it'll probably wait until Friday night or Saturday at this point, since the real world resumes today and the Parade is scheduled for tomorrow. I took in the first Philadelphia Championship in 25 years while standing at Section 206, Row 10, Seat 24 (my wife was ~~sitting~~ standing next to me in front of seat 25), and I can't think of a better place to have watched it unfold. I also want to say that for all the criticism (most of which was well deserved) that Bud Selig took for Monday night...suspending the game and giving the fans 3 innings to cheer was probably the greatest thing that could've happened to that ballpark. It was easily the loudest it's ever been, and the energy was able to be sustained from opening pitch to the last sweet strike because we knew we were only there for 18 outs. When Jenkins, honestly an unlikely hero, got a lead off double, it was on! The place went nuts and right then you had to know that this thing was ours...we'd waited long enough, and we weren't going to wait anymore. So Bud Selig, while you still suck at your job, thank you for helping give even more energy to the most passionate fans in the world.

The heroes this team was made up of is simply amazing. You've got the young talented stars like Hamels, Lidge, Utley, Howard and Rollins. Then you have the role players who are emerging as forces themselves like Victorino and Werth and Madson. Then there's the grizzled veterans who were all able to play huge roles in the playoff run, guys like Moyer and Jenkins and Stairs and Feliz. I think the most endearing part of this championship will be to remember each and every one of the Phillies on this 2008 squad, and know that not one guy carried the team to a championship, but that all of them had to pitch in and do their part. This truly was a championship won by an entire team, and I think that's very fitting of a Philadelphia team. When Brad Lidge got to speak to the fans at CBP after the victory, he said that he knew Philadelphia was a hard working city and that it promotes them to be a hard working team. All of the Phillies were very gracious in how the support of their fans helped them achieve their goal, and I thought that was pretty cool, and it sounded more than just lip service. After all, the Good Guys were undefeated at home, going 7-0 during this postseason run (I'd also like to point out they're now 94-0 when leading after the 8th...that's simply astounding). Jayson Werth also made the comment that they had won the previous two series on the road, and they wanted to win this won in front of the home fans to make it more special and to celebrate with the city.

I don't think that city will forget their 2008 Philadelphia Phillies anytime soon, nor do I think people will forget where they were on October 29th, 2008 when the curse of Billy Penn was broke, but I think that the first team to bring a major title and parade to Philly in 25 years deserves to have their names listed so that they can be recognized and remembered forever.

Here it is, your 2008 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies Playoff Roster:

Coaches
41 Charlie Manuel - Manager
22 Jimmy Williams - Bench Coach
25 Milt Thompson - Hitting Coach
30 Rich Dubee - Pitching Coach
31 Ramon Henderson - Bullpen Coach

17 Mick Billmeyer - Catching Instructor
15 Davey Lopes - First Base Coach
2 Steve Smith - Third Base Coach

Pitchers
35 Cole Hamels (2008 NLCS & WS MVP)
39 Brett Myers
50 Jamie Moyer
56 Joe Blanton
43 J.A. Happ
55 Clay Condrey
47 Scott Eyre
37 Chad Durbin
16 J.C. Romero
63 Ryan Madson
54 Brad Lidge

Infielders
51 Carlos Ruiz - Catcher
6 Ryan Howard - 1st Base
26 Chase Utley - 2nd Base
11 Jimmy Rollins - Shortstop
7 Pedro Feliz - 3rd Base
19 Greg Dobbs - 3rd Base
27 Chris Coste - Catcher
4 Eric Bruntlett - Super Utility (SS, 3B, LF)

Outfielders
5 Pat Burrell - Left Field
8 Shane Victorino - Center Field
28 Jayson Werth - Right Field
10 Geoff Jenkins - Right Field
12 Matt Stairs - Right Field
99 So Taguchi - Left Field

Whatever happens from here on out...whereever these guys may wind up one day or however many times they may fail in the future, right now they're all heroes to this city, and that will always override whatever else may come. Congratulations 2008 Philadelphia Phillies, your city is proud of you!

I'll close this with an excerpt from the incomparable Jayson Stark (read the full version Here).

It makes no sense, logically, that what happens on a baseball field -- any baseball field -- could change other people's lives in any meaningful way. But throughout this exhilarating October, Jamie Moyer has made a point of stopping every night to look around and take in every unforgettable moment. So he knew exactly how profoundly this had changed people's lives.

"And I think that's great," he said. "That's what baseball does. There are going to be people today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year saying, 'I was blank-blank-blank when the Phillies won the World Series.' And that's pretty cool, to have a story of wherever they were when the Phillies won the World Series: 'I was in the parking lot. I was in the stands. I was at a bar. I was having dinner. I was coming back from a trip and I couldn't see it so I listened to it in the car.' And to me, that's kind of cool, because that's what baseball does for people. I just think that's why it's so special."

What made it special was that he and these men he plays with had just blown away the biggest cloud in America. And the best part of it all was, that cloud is never coming back. And they sensed it -- all of them.

Tainted? Worst Ever?

J Stump

I'm about to leave for the conclusion of Game 5, so this will have to be a quick post. Peter Gammons has a report on ESPN.com calling this the worst World Series ever. He's not the only one who feels this way...a lot of people point out the mistakes by the officials, the poor hitting in clutch situations by both teams, the fielding mistakes, the weather, the Bug Selig and of course the poor TV ratings. All these things combined they say make a bad World Series. People in Philadelphia and on Philly blogs call this a poor World Series.

I have to say I disagree completely with any notion of this being the "worst world series ever". I don't even know what that means, but the implication that the winner of this world series (which I of course still believe will be our hometown Fightins) is somewhat diminished is ridiculous. Look, have there been mistakes made? Yes, but you're talking about a microcosm of a sampling. In a 7 game series, anything can happen. There's no way that you can say that these teams aren't deserving of the title "Champion" because of how they play in a 7 game series when it took them surviving at least 169 games (and since neither team swept all their playoffs, the game total was more than that). These teams survived that, they beat everything anyone else had to offer them. At some points, especially with the Phils, the season looked ugly...looked lost even. Hell, I have a post I've never made public called "Blow It Up" in which I seriously promote the management of the Phils to start selling off their core (and boy, am I glad I never made that public seeing where we are now!). But in the end, they're the last 2 teams standing. Even if they haven't played their "A" ball in the last 4 2/3 games, so what? No other team played any meaningful ball in the last week.

As for the non-player related stuff...you're saying that because Bud Selig is a twit, or because ESPN and FOX and Sports Illustrated lost interest when Boston and Manny were eliminated that the World Series lost some luster? It didn't lose any luster for me, that's for sure. Back in 1905 when the Phils were in the world series...how many people do you think saw it? Remember that TV's weren't publicly available back in 1905 even if they were invented then (I have no idea if the were or weren't, but no one had one regardless). So if no one could "tune in" to watch the World Series, did that make it bad? How does someone watching or not watching affect the actual Series? It can't, it doesn't, and it shouldn't be thought too. Another complaint is that FOX is showing 7 minutes of commercials...they probably are, they're a business, and baseball (like all other pro sports) is also primarily now a business. But when the games are being played by human beings with wonderful gifts, that's not a business. Pat Burrell isn't out there thinking about his contract, even if you think he is. He's out there to play the game he's played since he was a child, and that's what the World Series is. It's not about the commercial breaks...if you dislike them, and you think that baseball sold it's soul to a TV network, that's fine...then hate MLB, but don't hate the teams that are on the field, and don't you dare attach an asterisk to this championship.

I've waited my entire 27+ years of life (technically probably only 19 that really matter...I doubt I cared much as a five year old) for this city to have a championship parade. We're one game...possibly 3 innings away from that day...and I for one will never ever put an asterisk anywhere near the 2008 Phillies, win or lose this series. They did their "job" and they played their hearts out and they may be the last team standing...and in the end they should be remembered for that and nothing else.

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

J Stump

I'm actually not going to talk much about the Ugly part of last night's suspended game, because quite frankly I'm too exhausted too, and there's already been so much said by other people that it's well a well diluted topic. What I think as a fan who was there, and who will be there whenever the game resumes, is that it's pretty unfair of baseball to keep the people who pay very good money to watch their business completely in the dark at all times. The fans at the stadium are never told anything during rain delays, which I know because I've been to at least 5 this year. Usually they put another game on the fanavision so that you can at least watch something, but obviously there was no other game going on last night, so the stadium pretty much sat in silence. You would think FOX could've at least let them put a rerun of House on the big screen to keep the fans occupied as they shivered through the wet and cold. I also think it's mis-treatment by MLB that they don't try to set an exact time for the next game...this rotating "We'll try to start at 8 at the earliest" isn't going to work, because you're going to have the fans who paid for their seats driving back and forth constantly, buying gallons of gas to do so (which honestly isn't that bad), but also paying for parking to view a game they already paid for parking. If Bud Selig had half a mind (which we've all learned is not the case), he would make the decision that MLB will pay the parking lots for any car that comes in with a ticket holding customer in it for the rest of Game 5...however long that may be. I also hope he realizes that if the weather looks bad, which at 12:50 on Tuesday, it still looks bad, that he needs to call the game before the fans start leaving for the stadium. People always want to talk about Philly fans being angry, and fearful of rioting and safety...let me tell you, making us go back and forth a lot will lead to a riot a lot quicker than a Phillies Championship will. Finally, the last comment I have on the game last night is that I think Selig would've been right to make it a suspended game, even if the Phils had the lead, and while Tom Verducci (I'll link to his article in a bit) is right that you can't blame the weather completely for the Rays tying the game when the Rays had to play in the same conditions as the Phils, what you can be upset about is that the Rays had to play defense for 1 half inning in the slop, while the Fightin's had to battle through 2 innings of it. With the conditions that were at the stadium, the game should never have been called in mid-inning. You either stop it before either team has to make defensive plays or after they've both had their chance, but not in the middle.

I guess I was going to talk about the Ugly after all, huh?

Well, here's the Good piece of this post, and it of course comes from Jayson Stark...it's a well written national media piece that shows that not only did the Phillies think the game should've been stopped earlier, but the Rays players did too:
ESPN.com Article

And of course, if you have the Ugly and the Good, you need the Bad, and we can credit SI.com's Tom Verducci for providing that for us today:
SI.com article Tom seems to be the only person in the world who actually thinks Bud Selig made the absolute right choice in suspending the game when and how he did. And while he's right about the Rays being able to field in the same rain that the Phillies couldn't, he's wrong about the timing, as I've already mentioned.

Oh well Phillies fans, guess we'll just wait 28 years + a day or two or three between championships. I still have complete faith in this team to win 1 out of the next 2 1/3 games...even if they may not win it at home. Plus, let's look on the bright side...if Game 5 isn't resumed tonight, it'll have to push back Games 6 and 7. Cole Hamels only threw 75 or so pitches last night, and if Game 7 is on Friday instead of Thursday, it's possible that Hamels could go in 3 days rest. As wonderful as Moyer has been for this season, I feel a lot better about a 7 game series knowing we could have Cole starting than Grand Pappy.

Update:

I have received an e-mail from the Phillies saying my parking pass from Monday will be valid tomorrow night (assuming the game gets restarted tomorrow night), so that's a promising thing.

Also, I'd like to point out this link from SI.com in which Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus basically restates my argument from above about the Rays having an extra half inning of offense in the slop. I'm sure he does it more effectively though, since he's a little more impartial than I am, and he actually makes money off of writing about baseball.

Could It Really Happen?

J Stump

The following statement is as unbelievable to write as it is amazing to read. I certainly never imagined being able to write it during the season There's no PH in came about, but here it is. The Philadelphia Phillies are just one win away from being World Champions!

Not only are they only 1 win away, but the next game is at home, where the Fightins are undefeated this postseason, and will feature ace Cole Hamels as the starter...he's also undefeated. Oh, and I have tickets to be there! I have to pinch myself every five minutes to make sure this is really happening. I was telling Jason this evening that if they go on to win the whole thing tomorrow night while I'm in the stands, I'm not going to know how to act. I was 2 years old in 1983 when the Sixers won their championship, so it will be a completely new experience for me. It's a problem that I'm certainly willing to face, that's for sure!

The story of this World Series, other than the horrendous umpiring (which continued in Game 4, though this time the Phillies caught the breaks), has been the Good Guys lack of clutch hitting or hitting of any sort with runners in scoring position. Coming into the night, the Phils were hitting .067 with RISP, and they didn't do much to improve upon that tonight (thought they did get their first hit that drove in a run while a runner was already in scoring position). Everyone wanted to talk about how poor the offense was doing and that JRoll and Howard and Burrell weren't producing at all. Many people said the Phillies were lucky to have the 2-1 series lead coming into Game 4. The offense didn't necessarily break out of the manufacturing runs funk, but they certainly did break out the big sticks tonight. An amazing Joe Blanton home run (first HR by a pitcher in the WS since 1974) highlighted power shots by Werthless and two by Howard, who went deep for the second night in a row.

Still, I hope people in the national media start to realize that the lack of Phillies offense overall is not the biggest story line. Not when they're winning, it can't be. The poor umpiring? I wrote earlier it should be more of a story, but it shouldn't be "THE" story. No, the story of this World Series should be the Phillies pitching, especially by the starting rotation which has been spectacular. Seen as the weakness of this club, and constantly referred to as being inferior to the starters the Rays were using, the Phillies staff has been simply amazing. They have gotten us this far and we can only hope with Cole on the mound tomorrow they will continue to get us to that parade down Broad Street. I think they deserve a lot more credit than anyone has given them, both nationally and locally. In this series, they have held the Rays 3 and 4 hitters, Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria, to 0-29, and both of those guys were key players in Tampa Bay making it through the American League. Always a question mark, the pitching staff has delivered not only this series, but throughout the entire postseason and even in the regular season. It's always said that pitching and defense are how championships are won in baseball and, while it may be surprising to us, it's our pitching that is winning this series more than anything else. So, here's a tip of the hat to you, Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, Jamie Moyer, Joe Blanton, Clay Condrey, Chad Durbin, Scott Eyre, JC Romero, Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge...you are all deserving.

One more game Philadelphia...let's get ready to party!

2 Down, 2 To Go

J Stump

Wow, what a game...what a day! Coming off of depressing Game 2, Game 3 was a roller coaster of a ride with a wonderful finish for the home team. The only regret I have about the night is that Jamie Moyer didn't get credit for the World Series win that he absolutely deserved.

Jayson Stark of ESPN, a guy who used to be a local Philly sports guy is perhaps one of the best baseball writers out there right now, especially when the Phillies are in the national spotlight. Instead of having me recite things about the game, Read This, it's done better than I could do it anyway.

Before I get into a little rant towards the MLB though, let's recap Saturday, October 25th. The day started off with the Flyers hosting the Devils on the second game of a home and home series, and pulling out an overtime victory...their second straight victory, which is big for a team that now has a total of two victories. Hopefully that train is finally leaving the station in the right direction. Then Penn State went to Ohio State and pulled out a tough win in a defensive game. I'm personally not a big PSU fan, but a lot of Philly people are, and so it was a good time. Of course the night ended in dramatic fashion with the Phillies winning the first ever World Series game held at Citizens Bank Park...and speaking of the hopeful, let's hope that's the first of many, many Fall Classic games to be held there.

OK, onto my promised rant. Back in something like week 2 of the NFL season, referee Ed Hochuli made a poor call in a San Diego - Denver game that pretty much cost San Diego the win, by allowing Denver to score late points. His gaffe extended a drive for the Bronco's on which they scored the winning points. The story was huge...every national media outlet talked about it, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made statements about it, the head of the NFL referees had to make statements about it, and it was just a very big deal. Again, I remind you that this occurred in week 2, amidst about 15 other NFL games going on.

Fast forward to Game 2 and Game 3 of the WS, (and maybe even Game 1 if you think Hamels balked), where the umpiring has not just been atrocious, but almost every single poor call has resulted in extra runs being scored. (And of course, all but maybe one of them went against the Phillies, but if you're a fan, you don't even need to be told that.) Umpires and referees have tough jobs...we all get that. Every fan knows that things get missed and that's a part of the game, and your team has to be good enough to overcome the mistakes, and if they can't, then the story should be that they weren't good enough to make up a run or two and not that the game was handed to the other team. But here's what I don't understand. I don't understand the umpires of the World Series, who should pretty much be the best crew MLB has to offer, repeatedly missing rather obvious and easy calls and MLB clamming up afterwards. When Hochuli made his mistake, there was talk of him being fined and suspended...he wasn't suspended, and I honestly don't remember if they fined him, but they did "downgrade" him in their scale of refs, which could result in say...him not being able to be an official at the Super Bowl. Where's Bud Selig in talking to these umpires who have blown call after call? How come the national media isn't making a big story out of it? Again, it's a tough job and they're going to get things wrong...but when there's 1 baseball game going on that day, and it's the biggest game of the year that's being broadcast by the national media, and there ends up being more blown calls that day than games played on that day, there has to be a response. Someone needs to be reprimanded in some way...after all, while it's tough, it's still their job to be right...they get paid to make the tough calls correctly, and they're not doing it. It's unfair to the teams involved, the fans watching and the rest of the umpires sitting at home because they weren't selected to work for MLB to push this under the rug.

(Imagine if the Phillies didn't pull out Game 3 how long that previous paragraph would've been?)

Like the title says, only 2 more wins to a championship...and my prediction of Phillies in 5 is still alive...come on Joe Blanton, don't rain on my parade tonight, I want to be at CBP when you're crowned a champion!

Maddening

J Stump

Going 1 and 1 on a road trip to start a best of seven series in a format of 2 - 3 - 2 is a good thing. Repeat.

There's a million words that come to mind when thinking of Game 2 of the 2008 World Series...frustrating, annoying, depressing, maddening, etc. What else would we ever expect from a Philadelphia team playing for a championship though? Often times in work I find myself saying "Nothing can be easy", and that feeling goes hand in hand with watching the home teams play.

Over the past 2 games, the Phillies have gotten the lead off man on in 10 of 18 innings and scored that man a total of two times. Note that at no time was said lead off hitter who got on named Rollins (he's led off innings 3 times in the 2 games). Tonight they got that lead off man to 3rd with less than 2 outs three innings in a row and couldn't put the ball in play with less than 2 outs to bring him home. At one point they were something like 1 for 21 with runners in scoring position in the World Series and that single hit was an infield single that did not score the runner. They left 11 men on base for the second night in a row. It's going to be tough to win a championship if those numbers continue...heck, it would be hard to beat a middle school team with those kinds of numbers.

To compound their non-existent offense, the Phillies once again decided to play mediocre defense and make complete mental mistakes. Ruiz was charged an error trying to pick Carlos Pena off first base, and Jayson Werth let a ball get by him early in the game, which led to at least an additional run being scored. Werth and Ruiz sort of made up for their errors on a play in which Werth gunned down Rocco Baldelli at the plate and Carlos caught the ball and blocked the plate masterfully. But let's not give Werth too much praise as he made a complete mistake on the base paths getting doubled up at first base on a Chase Utley fly ball. Werth's out ended an inning that should've continued with him on first and Jimmy on second. (The only time Jimmy didn't wear a path from the batters box to the dugout in the whole series...don't get excited, he got on by a fielders choice. And I'm still more confident in red hot Carlos Ruiz than Willie Mays Hayes...). Also Victorino came up with 2 men on base and no outs in the second inning while trailing 2-0...Burrell had just walked on four consecutive pitches after being down 0-2 in the count and Shane impatiently popped the first pitch up to third base. This was followed by Greg Dobbs deciding to leave his bat on his shoulder for 4 pitches, 3 of which were called strikes. The Phillies starting DH's went a combined 1 - 7 in the first two games...thank goodness we get to see Jamie Moyer and Joe Blanton with bats in their hands next! (Technically Bruntlett's pinch hit home run in the 8th was while he was pinch hitting for Dobbs...so maybe you can say the DH's went 2-8 with a home run, but I think the rules state you can't pinch hit for a DH and keep that pinch hitter in the game without putting him into a position, so I'm saying they were a woeful 1-7.)

Brett Myers pitched an OK game...certainly not a Rock Star performance, but he went 7 innings (longer than Big Game James at least) and didn't give up any long balls and technically kept the offense in the game, which to be honest is all we should have to ask of the Phillies rotation with the guys they have in the line up.

The only bright spots in game 2 seemed to be that Ryan Howard finally hit something, going 2 - 5, and Eric Bruntlett kept us from being shut out with a first pitch pinch-hit off of the way too heralded David Price. (Look, David Price is probably going to be a wonderfully good pitcher...I'd love to have him...but the guy came up in September, before we name him heir apparent to Nolan Ryan, let's see the kid survive a year in the Bigs.)

The umpires didn't help out the Good Guys any either, with home plate umpire Kerwin Danley calling Rocco Baldelli out on a strike 3 call and then deciding instead to appeal to first base if he had swung or not and having first base ump Fieldin Culbreth decide that Rocco didn't in fact swing and should be awarded first base with a walk instead. If that sentence made your head hurt, good, then it reproduces the moment the umps gave us perfectly. It was a big moment because it extended the inning, and the Rays ended up scoring after they would've made the 3rd out of the inning. (And I have a right to be upset about the call, because even Philly haters Joe Buck and Tim McCarver thought it was a bad call.) They got another call at first later in the game on an infield single that led to a run too. Honestly, that was probably the right call, but it came after the check swing debacle, so it would've been nice for the guy to even it out some. And then in the 9th inning JRoll should've gotten on first base when his uniform was hit, but of course the aforementioned Danley missed that too...and it of course cost us the chance at runs as Werth came up with 1 out, 1 on and hit an ~~single~~ error that plated Ruiz and would've moved Rollins to at least second if not third with no outs. It's unfortunate that I can write that the umpires really affected the outcome of this game...it easily could've been tied 2-2 at the end of 9 instead of a 4-2 Rays victory.

As much as I hate having to listen to Tim McCarver, he had a good point that really sums up more than just this Phillies team. He said they're great between the 20's but they can't get it done in the Red Zone. Unfortunately for us Philadelphia sports fans, this seems to describe all of our major sports teams and may be the reason we're on our 25th season without a title in any of those four major sports.

(Another Frustrating Side note: "BJ" Upton's "BJ" stands for "Bossman Junior"...his real name is Melvin Emanual...that's stupendous. So the Rays have self proclaimed Big Game James and Bossman Junior. I hope Evan Longoria comes up with a super neato cool nickname for himself too...something like "Revin' Evan Longoria the Master of Your Universe")

Oh, and my pick for MVP so far is looking pretty much terrible as MorM is 0-6 with 2 walks. Oh well, at least now I know my tickets for Game 5 of the Fall Classic will get used...

Going 1 and 1 on a road trip to start a best of seven series in a format of 2 - 3 - 2 is a good thing. Repeat...

100 With or Without You

J Stump

Mostly without.

By now we all know about the supposed leader and face of the Fightins' big mouth. Last year the "team to beat" won the NL East before being swept in the divisional series by the wild card winning Rockies. This year he turned one of the most passionate fanbases into frontrunners. And in between? He said his team would win 100 games.

Well, with their Game 1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, our hometown team just won it's 100th game of 2008. They won nearly all 100 without the guy who said they would too. Willie Mays Hayes has had a mediocre season at best, and it's continued right through the playoffs. I know that this will never happen because they've turned Jimmy into the face of the franchise, but I would like to beg the new GM to at least consider moving JRoll to another team for a young pitcher. Jimmy still has enough upside that other teams will jump at him, especially in the bad shortstop market that's coming this off-season. That said, he no longer fits this team well. This team is starting to be patient, work pitching counts and try to do the little things in addition to the long fly balls. But not Jimmy...no, he's still a terrible free swinger from the lead off position who isn't providing a high enough AVG, OBP or HR's to justify his spot in the lineup. What has he done well? He's still one of, if not the smoothest fielding shortstops, and that's the only reason I say they got to 100 wins "mostly" without WMH. Still, I can't help but think this team would be better with JRoll batting 6th and Shane or Werthless batting 1st...at least then maybe Jimmy could knock a run in...though last nights 0-5 performance with plenty of men on base would probably not support that thought.

Another one of our faces who's suddenly lost? JRoll's buddy Big Brown. (Side note: Big Brown has to be the worst nickname of all time...seriously, the only thing you can think of when you hear that is what you flushed down the toilet this morning.) Perhaps Ryan Howard is just trying to keep the city from completely turning on Rollins by under-performing him, or perhaps he really has no clue. It's sad when I have more faith in Pedro Feliz and Carlos Ruiz to get on base or knock a run in than I do of Howard and Rollins though. Ruiz proved himself to not be a complete failure at the plate in the NLCS, and he knocked in the game winning run last night (albeit with a groundout...still, Howard had his chances to do the same thing twice and couldn't make contact with the ball.) I don't understand why Milt Thompson doesn't tell Howard to focus on the lower middle-in part of the plate, and ignore anything else. It sure seems that they throw him 95% low and outside balls, and he can't ever get to them...so let them go! Most of them are probably balls, and I'd rather you strike out looking on three close strikes you couldn't hit anyway rather than waving at balls that are nowhere near the strike zone...or hit the dirt 3 feet in front of the plate, like you did last night. The one ball he got that he could hit, he watched go right down the middle because they had already shifted his eyesight to the outside. Howard...don't adjust! Make them come to you and then hammer it. I don't understand how one guy could be so locked in during the month of September and then be completely lost in October. The announcers throughout the playoffs keep saying that all Howard is seeing is breaking balls...and they seemed surprised by this a lot of the time, which is ridiculous on it's own, but then my question is this: Did the pitchers during the month of September forget how to throw a breaking ball and only came after him with fastballs, or could the September Ryan Howard hit a breaking ball while the October Ryan Howard can't?

Regardless of their top two national media darlings performance, the 100 win Phillies now only need to go .500 over the next 6 to be World Champions. And as much as I disdain WMH and Big Brown, if they get a parade, all will (temporarily) be forgiven. So let's get a win tonight, Brett Myers. The FOX announcers kept making the point that there's a significant drop off between Hamels and the rest of the Phillies starters (including Myers) where the Rays have a more even line-up. Here's the thing though, Cole Hamels is making a claim to be in the top 2-3 starters in the entire league right now...so of course there's a drop off. But second, I don't think they give enough credit to what Myers has the ability to do. True, he was horrendous at the beginning of the year and got sent down to the minors, but if Brett has his stuff, he's a shut down pitcher just like Cole. You never know going into the game which Brett you'll get, but we do know this...Brett wants to be a "rock star" and wants the eyes on him. Well tonight in Game 2, Brett will be on the biggest stage of his life, and it's time for the Rock Star to put on a show...and I think he'll do just that. I'll take my Rock Star against their starter, "I've never played in a 'Big Game James' Shields".

Go Phillies!

World Series

J Stump

Well, it's finally here. The World Series with the Phillies as a participant is less than 4 hours away, a World Series that's been 15 years in the making.

I'll get to my prediction in a bit, but first the end of another prediction. Before every season, a group of my buddies and I pick teams to get to the World Series and Super Bowl, etc. Every once in a while, we get lucky (like John picking the NY Giants to win last year's Superbowl), but mostly we realize that we're not quite as smart as we think we are. This year I technically "won" that round, as I have the only team left. That's right, before the season began, I picked our hometown Philadelphia Phillies to make it to the World Series. Interestingly enough, had the Manny-Powered Dodgers made it, I would've lost as G. Bowen had the Dodgers making it to the final set of games. Thankfully though, we've been spared such misery. Now for the sake of the record I will admit that, again at the beginning of the year, I picked the Phillies to lose said Fall Classic to the Cleveland Indians. (Remember, at that time, it was the Cleveland team led by CC Sofattia who were an off-season removed from coming up one win shy of the World Series.) Even as I made the pick, I figured it was a long shot, but the reason I did make the pick is that Philadelphia and Cleveland are pretty much the two cities most starved for a major sports championship, and with the Indians supposed to be good, and the Phillies looking like they still had a decent shot, I figured it would be the last chance that the two could both make it to the end at the same time in a while. Especially because CC wasn't going to stay in Cleveland past this year (I did think he'd make it the full year at least.)

Anyway, since Cleveland didn't make it, but the Phils did, I guess I can consider myself a winner. And since I won, I take as my prize the right to re-pick the winner between the actual World Series combatants.

I think it's going to be a tough and entertaining Series, and I hope people tune in. Obviously it doesn't have a NY team or a Boston or LA team, and the Rays are very small market, and the Phillies will never be a bandwagon team outside of PA and South Jersey, but the last few Fall Classics have quite frankly sucked in terms of competitiveness. 3 of the last 4 have been sweeps, and that's just not really exciting for the fans. But I think in this series, both teams have some advantages, but only slight enough that there shouldn't be too clear cut a favorite.

All that said, my official prediction will be a Phillies victory in five games. Why five and not six or seven? Well, because I'd like the Phillies to be able to win at home for the city, a city that severely needs something to be cheerful about. I'd also like the Phillies to win it while I'm in the stadium and I have tickets to game 5...so that's pretty much gotta be the game they do it in if both of those events are to come to pass. I'm picking Pat the Bat, Man or Machine as my WS MVP. I think it's time Pat cements his place as a Philly Legend, and I think he's going to do what he can to make sure the Fightin's have no choice but to bring him back, even if they end up overpaying for him again. This series will be his stamp, and based upon it, I think he'll be back for more next year, and will also see his number retired in CBP one day. (Alright Pat, it's in writing now...no more 0-5 with 5 K games in 2008 OK?)

Whatever the outcome though, let's all sit back and enjoy this, because we never know when we'll get back here again.

Twofer!

J Stump

Whoo-Hoo!!!

OK, first, the not so-great...our Flyers have started the season 0-2. While it's no 162 game baseball season, the hockey season is plenty long enough that this has me zero concerned right now.

Next, to the good news, the previously undefeated New York Giants just got beat by the Cleveland Browns.

But most importantly, and most wonderfully, Shane Victorino and Matt Stairs both just hit 2 run bombs in the 8th inning to give the Phillies a 7-5 lead in NLCS game 4! It was Victorino's 6th RBI of the NLCS, 11th of the 2008 playoffs, which makes him a bonafied hero at this point. It was 40 year old Matt Stairs first ever playoff home run...and he too can now be a Phillies hero. We've had to suffer through agonizing So Taguchi and Geoff Jenkins incompetent pinch hits all year, and since Mr. Dobbs started the game, the pinch hit extraordinare wasn't available in the 8th. But a key Chooch Ruiz single with 2 outs turned our line up over, and allowed Stairs to get his giant swing on. Thankfully, he did not disappoint.

Lidge is now coming into the game to face Manny with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th...I'm smelling World Series! Before we get to that though, and while we're talking about heroes, let's not forget Chase Utley's superb defensive double play to get out of a bases loaded jam, plus he's only hitting a little north of 400 this series as well. It's a shame Manny has to be on the other team and overshadow everything else. Also, the importance of Carlos finding his bat this series has also been huge...he was a major clog in the offense all year, hitting into double play after double play and forcing the Fightins to start the next inning with the pitchers spot, but this series he's been great at punching the ball through the infield. That's the production you need out of your eight hole hitter in the National League...just get on base and turn the lineup over.

Let's Go Phillies!!!

One last note while I'm thinking about it...I'm not sure if it was painful or hilarious that Tim McCarver went silent for about 2 minutes after Stairs home run...what in the world is he going to do if the Phillies actually make it to or win the WS? FOX better line up clips of him talking in the past, or get a stand in, because he's not going to know what to say if he's forced to talk about the Good Guys.

NHL Gets Something Right

J Stump

I'm more of an old-school hockey fan, I enjoy the fighting, the hitting, the strategy, and the nail-biting. Hockey to me is supposed to be 2-1 and 1-0 marathons, not 7-6 sprints at the end. It used to be that if your team was down a goal in the second period, you started to sweat about whether or not they could make it up. But in today's NHL, no lead is safe, even in the late stages of the game.

I understand that the NHL thought making the game more "exciting" and higher scoring would bring more fans to the most minor of a major sports, and while it's arguable whether or not the rule changes have worked, I'll count myself as one who wishes they didn't make all these changes to inject offense in the game. If I want a game with no defense, I'll watch the NBA or the Pro Bowl. Still, that's just my opinion, and I'm sure there's plenty of people who agree with me, and plenty who feel the exact opposite.

This post though, is about something that the NHL did get right. This year they've made the rule that an icing play will result in an immediate face off, instead of letting the networks cut to a commercial break. Today's sports world, whether we fans like to admit it or not is more business than game. The point of business, at least in a capitalist country such as ours is foremost to make money, and so that's the what the teams, the leagues and the networks that show the sports are going to put first. Nowhere is this more evident than the NFL, which seemingly would love nothing more than to show 3 commercials after every snap. Because of this, it's great to see the NHL make a decision that may actually decrease the revenues of its partners in order to put the game itself first. I may not like the "new" NHL rules, but I commend them for this decision.

On a completely random, unrelated topic, Michael Strahan guest starred on tonights episode of Chuck. Not only that, but one of the bad guys characters name was "Von Hayes"! (Coincidental? I think not!) And yes, because Chuck is not On Demand, I was watching that while flipping to the Phils during it's commercials...luckily Heroes is On Demand, so I am now focused on the playoffs (and flipping to the end of the Flyers).

What's Philadelphia?

J Stump

I know it's been forever since I've posted, and hopefully that trend ends tonight, but this post is going to be pretty short.

The Phils just pulled out a come from behind victory to win game 1 of the NLCS, and having watched the entire game on fox (while my lucky wife was in the 100 section behind home plate, just rows away from Tommy Lasorda, mind you), I"m amazed that I can say the Dodgers lost the game. After all, if you didn't have eyes to watch the TV, you might have been asking yourself "How is it that the Dodgers are playing a game without an opponent? All I hear is Dodgers this and Manny that and Derek Lowe is nearly Cy Young worthy and even when they make outs and errors they're still praised...by the way, how are they even making errors when there's no other team playing?"

Tim McCarver, you suck. Joe Buck, you also suck. National media who somehow thinks a team that finished the year a whole 6 games over .500 is favored, you all suck. The Dodgers had the 15th best record in major league baseball this year...that's right they were 2 teams away from being in the bottom half, and yet somehow they're "destined' to go to the WS.

Whatever.

(Since the good guys won, and it stinks to go to bed all sour at stupid announcers, it's wonderful to see MorM heating up right now...if this is his curtain call in a Phils uniform, I'd love nothing else then to see him leave as a champion.)

(PS, I'll be at the game tomorrow, so let's hope we see the Rock Star in Brett Myers for a second straight game)

Champions

Jason L

Haven't had much time to do any posting recently, but I just wanted to stop by and put up a link to this fantastic read by Jayson Stark. As a former Phils beat writer, he always does a really good job with stories relating to them, and this is no exception. Enjoy, and let's bring on the Dodgers!

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3627510

Early Edition

J Stump

This is going to be a short, scathing post, as I need to go to work. I'd just like to say screw you to the MLB playoff schedule makers. It's ridiculous that Wrigley Field will host a prime-time playoff game on Wednesday while CBP gets a lousy 3:05 start on that same day. Wrigley is known for day games, all they have are day games. Thus, their fan base must be accustomed to not working full 8 hour days so that they can see their beloved losers in the middle of the day. Philadelphia is not such a town. Perhaps they missed this, but Philly happens to be on the East Coast, where people work for a living and work hard and long hours. (Not because we want to, but because everyone else is, and if you want to afford a house even in this economy near Philly, you better have a full time job.)

This is the second year in a row (out of a whole two possible, so they're batting 1.000) that the Phillies get the shaft by having Game 1 be early. If you want to schedule Business Person Specials throughout the year, that's cool, because the schedule for 2009 is out already. I know this because I got a magnet with the schedule on it yesterday at the ballpark. That's about 7 months in advance of when people will be showing up to see these games. I've never heard of a business that requires more than 7 months of notice on a personal day. However, I have heard of businesses that would laugh if you told them you need to take the afternoon off in 2 days.

Partial-Season ticket holders to the Phillies are not initially given a choice of playoff games. They get a 4 game package that they can take or leave with a pre-determined set of games. So I got "home game 1". I didn't choose it, if I wanted to get a WS ticket, I needed game 1. It's completely unfair that I've spent a large amount of money (remember, the economy's tanking, yet the sports world sure seems to still be lavishing in cash and customers) to get tickets to a game that I may not have the ability to go to.

Once again, screw you MLB.

Bring On The Brewers

J Stump

With yesterday's win, the Phils sealed up the NL East Division, and with a win today (coupled with a great Mets loss) the Brewers sealed their fate of getting to be the first team beat by the Fightins in the playoffs since the 93 Braves. (Yeah, I'm saying it, we're moving past the divisional series this year.)

Just a few weeks ago, things were starting to look bleak for the Phils, and they needed to squeak out a series victory at CBP against the Brew Crew, both to keep pace in the division, and to keep close to the (then) Wild Card leading Brewers. Well, not only did the good guys respond with a series victory, but they swept the Brewers and sent them (and their manager) packing. The Phillies managed to miss Milwaukee's mid-season ace acquisition (the fat one) during that series. Even though CC pitched today for the Brewers, the break before the Divisional Series will ensure they get to use him in Game 2 and possibly Game 5.

It's been announced that Hamels will start Game 1, and I'll assume Myers will get the match-up against CC the next day. That has the potential to be a classic October baseball pitcher's duel, as long as Myers can pitch to his potential. The Rock Star in him should thrive in October, so I'm expecting he'll come out on fire. The Phillies can catch a break in that Ben Sheets (the other ace on Milwaukee) is banged up and hasn't gotten past the 3rd inning in his last two starts because of it. It'll be interesting to see if Sheets gets a start...if he's healthy, he's definitely their number two guy, but if not then throwing him out there may hurt them.

I'm gonna go with the prediction that the Phillies win the series in 4 games, and go on to face the Cubs in the Championship series.

Almost the end and just beginning

Jason L

With one season winding towards the playoffs, and another with just a few games under its belt (and another actually starting camp already...seriously?! Its hockey time already?!), what a better way to spend a Sunday that to have the Phils and Eagles both win important, meaningful games on the same day, at the same time.

Though the Phils game was only on 1 TV at Chickie's & Pete's, and I had to pull an Exorcist and spin my head around to see it, it looked like a pretty good game. Moyer only attempted to kill one Marlin by throwing his bat, and Chase and Pedro both came through with big HRs that had been missing from our lineup (unless your name is Howard). Though the pen got in a little trouble before Lidge came on to make it interesting...I mean close it out...the Phils seemed to know that they were going to find a way to win. Hopefully the Cubbies can sweep the series with the Mets and the Phils can walk into the playoffs giving their pen and starters a little bit of rest. Oh, and how about the Brad Lidge for Cy Young movement? Why isn't that picking up more steam? If a closer with average stuff and average numbers (except the saves total) can get tons of press for breaking the single season saves record because his team plays a TON of close games, why doesn't Lidge get any press for having fantastic numbers (except his WHIP, but as long as they don't score who cares?) without blowing a save all year? In my mind he should be on the Cy Young short list, but not actually win the award...the same way Howard should be on the MVP short list without winning. But that's a whole different post for a whole different time.

As for the other game, my what an interesting game of football. If you had told me before the game BWest was only going to play a quarter, and we were still going to win a game that had a total of less than 25 points scored I would not have believed it. The defense came up huge though, and Jim Johnson was able to batter the offensive line and make Big Ben wish he was back having motorcycle accidents. And how about Asante Samuel's amazing interception? I seemed to be the only one that noticed the incredible-ness of that play. I mean he literally plucked that ball off the receiver's fingers over his own shoulder. I guess thats why we pay him the big bucks.
The O-line deserves some credit as well, with McNabb only getting sacked a few times under the punishing Steelers D. Especially given the awful circumstances of Jamaal Jackson's brother being killed last weekend and him being in Florida all week only to return Saturday, with a few of his fellow offensive linemen who had gone down for the funeral, and learn the entire game plan for Sunday in 3 hours. Amazing. Word is that Jackson actually knew of his brother's death (which happened last Sunday) before the Cowboys game but decided to stick it out with the team and leave after the game to join his family. To be able to perform in the NFL is hard enough, but to do it with such a heavy heart....

It was a good Sunday, and it is always nice to see a double victory. Hopefully we can get the Phils in the playoffs and be hoping for triple victories once the Flyers start up.

Monday Night Thoughts

J Stump

The Nats beat the Mets!!! (That'll be enough baseball for Monday, but honestly, that is enough isn't it?)

Why is ESPN using Hank Williams to promote Hispanic Heritage month? Bizarre. I'm sure that hit the target demographic real well...

Tony Romo must be the QB version of that Burger King commercial with the guy with tiny hands who couldn't hold his own Whopper. And who better to be that guy?

Jaws sounds like he's doing video game sound bytes every time he talks...Madden football games may have turned 20 this year, but I can def. see Jaws having his own game and becoming the next Madden. (That's not necessarily a compliment - "Just don't do stupid things")

Guess the special teams has a little more work to do, huh?

On TO's first TD...why would the Eagles ever play a defense that let's TO of all people run right through their secondary? You'd think they'd remember what he can do from when he was their teammate. (And why did it take until he had 2 touchdowns to put Lito on him?)

He may not have great hands, or the most talent, but you've gotta smirk a little and nod your head to see that Greg Lewis play where he grabbed the corner and pulled him closer making the ref throw a flag on the guy. Crafty...and yes, I believe that was the exact outcome Lewis was looking to have happen (hey, if we know he doesn't have great hands, you don't think he's realized it to?)

DeSean Jackson, you have a lot of talent...and you are an idiot. Why even pretend to throw the ball anywhere near the goal line? Ugh. Hero to goat without a play being called in between. (Hey Tirico, let's not call it one of the "all-time" bonehead plays though...or we'll remind everyone of Leon Lett, in a game that mattered a little bit more than a week 2 match up) Wow, and the call just came in that it's still the Eagles ball...so now you are talented, an idiot, and insanely lucky DeSean.

OK, I'm going to type this right after Westbrook scored on DeSean's retardness...so I won't have "hindsight" to know the answer to this question. If you're Andy Reid, and your top 2 receivers are still unavailable for this game, how long do you hold Jackson out? You have to hold him out at least a series right? At least, if not a quarter...and if he wasn't my most talented guy (not named Westbrook or McNabb), he'd be on the bench the rest of this game. (Andy Reid threw him out to catch a punt, and then on the next offensive snap, so shows what I know).

Greg Ellis should've been called for a horse-collar on the sack of McNabb in that series that Jackson came back out on.

This game is forever long...nearly a 2 hour first half! Some of us on the East Coast have real jobs we need to go to tomorrow ESPN. They say baseball needs to be sped up....

The boys in green look a lot like the old Eagles. Our QB is tough to bring down when healthy, but still throws short passes into the receivers feet a little too often. The wide receivers almost routinely drop passes thrown at their chests (seriously, it's ridiculous that they can't catch the ball when that's what they get paid to do). The offense moves the ball efficiently between the 20's but seems to bog down a little in the red zone. And the aforementioned special teams unit still gives up a big play a game. At least one thing that's new is that our defense forced some turnovers, including new acquisition Asante Samuel coming up with an interception.

It amazes me that ESPN can always find guys with a New York-Boston-Dallas bias. New York-Boston-Dallas? Give me a break. I like watching PTI, but Kornheiser, get off your knees when Jerry Jones is in the same state as you, it's disgusting. Thank goodness for Jaws to keep the broadcast semi-balanced.

Another thing about the broadcast team...they felt they had to tell you what a spectacular game you were watching every 20 seconds...were they trying to convince us? At one point one of the announcers said he thought everyone on both sidelines was enjoying the game...but I bet Jim Johnson wasn't thrilled with his defensive unit's showing, turnovers regardless.

I love Dawkins, and wish he'd be able to play forever...but he doesn't have the ability to cover anyone anymore. Teams like to have special defensive ends they bring in on passing downs...Dawk might be useful as a blitzing safety only right now. He can still tackle guys, and he's still got to be the emotional leader of the defense, if not the team...but watching him get beat in coverage is like the equivalent to watching Jack Bauer not being able to save David Palmer. Jaw-dropping, wind sucking, head shaking, depressing stuff.

Ugh, and now that the games over, the thing that looks the most like the old Eagles? When the game's on the line and you need a play, throw the ball 10 yards short and pray. Where''s 4th and 26 when we needed him?

Overall, I'd give the Eagles a C for the game. Everyone thinks Dallas is one of, if not the most talented team in the league, and the Eagles offense took it to them pretty good in the first half. If I was rating only the first half performance, I'd give them a B-, because of not really being able to stop the Cowboys from scoring. But the second half was way below a C, with costly turnovers and bad throws and missed catches / coverage. It's week 2, and I think most people predicted Dallas winning handedly, so overall, not too broken up over this loss. Unfortunately, it doesn't get any easier in week 3 when Gang Green takes on the Steelers, who look to be an early season favorite to take the AFC.

VOTE VOTE VOTE

Jason L

Jamie Moyer is up for MLB Man of the Year. I don't really know what that is, or what it means, but I can say that if I was to vote for man of the year Moyer would be my guy both for what he does on the field and off of it with his organization helping children. Unfortunately fan voting ended last night...but here's to hoping that Moyer gets some new hardware for his mantle.

Also, Willie Mays Hayes is up for the Roberto Clemente Award for the work he does helping Philadelphia children learn to read. The full story is here, but to summarize...

"The award recognizes the player who best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's
contribution to his team."

Jamie Moyer has won this award in the past, and now its JRoll's turn. So cast your vote!

Well how about that

Jason L

For the second straight weekend the Phils had the chance to pull off an important series sweep by winning both games of a Sunday double header, and more importantly pull even in the two respective races. Unlike last weekend, when they were unable to close the book on the Mets and even up the NL East, they were able to take care of business at the Bank this weekend and take all 4 from the Brewers. Miraculously, the Phils are now tied atop the Wild Card Standings (how many times have we seen that over the last few years...ugh) and 2 down in the loss column to the Mets. It was a good weekend for the Phils.

A couple of Phils individually had good weekends as well. Ryan Howard of course is ripping the cover off of the ball and playing like everyone else is in Little League. We won't even bother talking about that because if you follow baseball at all you know he has been playing amazing over the past 2 weeks +. No, I would more like to concentrate on Jamie Moyer and Brett Rock star Myers. Both pitchers took the mound on short rest, and inspired confidence in the Phils ability to shorten their rotation in the playoffs. At the game on Saturday Jamie Moyer has actually listed on the Who's Hot Around the League interlude between innings on the scoreboard with 2 wins during the week and having given up a total of 3 runs in his last two starts. For the year he has dropped his ERA below 4, which if you had told me before the year I would have said that would propel us to 95 wins. I would have happily accepted a 4.50 ERA from Moyer as long as he did what he is best at...keeping us in games and eating innings. Moyer has gone above and beyond the call this year, for anyone on the staff let alone someone that is about to turn 46. There is only one person on the staff that should be expected to pull of what Moyer actually is pulling off, and that is Hamels...who just doesn't appear to have the heart to accomplish what Moyer can (but that's another story for another day). Myers on the other hand is pitching like he is an opening day starter. He loves this team, loves his teammates, and loves winning. And winning he has been, pitching lights out since coming up from the minors. His ERA before last night was the 6th best in the league since the All-Star break. He has gone the distance twice in important games, including last night where he gave the bullpen a couple extra hours of rest before the off day. He has his confidence back, and probably just as important to his fragile mental state, he has the confidence of the fans again (I will not forget the game I was at earlier this year where he went 6 innings of no hit baseball, then gave up a HR in the 7th and got booed when he came out trailing 1-0 in the 7th inning).

Hopefully we can ride this wave all the way into the playoffs. Hey even MorM got in on the action with a LONG shot last night that just squeaked by the foul pole. Maybe that will snap him out of his funk. It was nice to see the offense actually clicking over a full series, and just as nice to see that good pitching performances actually coincided with good offensive performances to result in some W's. Let's keep it up the rest of the way and knock the stupid Mets out of the playoffs.

Really, The Astros?

J Stump

Well, it seems a lot of people in bloggerland just gave up on the Phillies. I haven't quite reached that point...this weekend series may or may not force me too however. Basically the Phillies need to come out and sweep the Brewers and end up tied with them for the Wild Card lead, or any hope they have will be dangling by a mere thread.

They of course have zero momentum going into this game, as they just dropped two in a row to the Marlins. Tuesday night they never really had a chance with Kendrick giving up 7 runs in 4 outs, and having been at the game, I'm thankful they were able to mount any kind of offense and not make it a sleeper. Of course, in hindsight some of Tuesday's 8 runs that weren't enough would've helped out yesterday...at least before the 8th inning. So, if you can't make momentum on your own, you have to hope for a little help...and I think the Brewers have been much obliged. First, while the Phils have managed a 5-5 record over their past 10, the Brewers are only 3-7 over that stretch, and needed a come from behind victory yesterday. That's yesterday they needed a come from behind victory when CC SoFattia started the game for them. That's yesterday that CC started which means the Phils luck out and get a crucial, 4 game potential wild card tying series without having to face what's been the most dominant force in the NL since he arrived. That may not be a lot...but you're throwing up a 45 year old guy on three days rest against what used to be the Brewers ace tonight...they need to take any momentum they can get.

Here's the thing, Phillies Faithful...the baseball season is so long, that many times the teams that are overall the regular season's best don't go on to be World Champions. Case in point, is the 2006 World Champ Cardinals team...nobody gives them credit of being the best team in baseball that year even now. But they got really hot at the right time, and were able to ride it through the playoffs. Whether people think they won by a fluke or not, their players got the rings, and their fans got the parade. The Phillies are at the point in the season where if they catch fire right now and go with it, they'll have a great shot of going into the post season with momentum, and this time some experience to hopefully keep that momentum going through October.

So what have our guys got going for them in catching fire? Well, missing Sabathia should help. The fact that our roster has got to be one of the healthiest in the big leagues right now can't hurt. We've got an offense that is built to explode, and seemingly can get hot at any time. And, they haven't had that really hot streak that teams go through where they rip off a 12 - 1 record...which means it's still out there for the taking, right?

That sounds great, so why not? Well, let's not go all cup half full...after all, they haven't ripped off a really hot streak all season, which could very well indicate they're not capable of such a thing. The lauded offense that is built to explode has put out a whole lot of duds this year. The relief staff that held this team up this year is pretty much done...any starter who can't get through the 8th himself or to it with a 5 run lead shouldn't expect a W. And we're back to a team with 3 starters and 2 gaping holes in our rotation. Ugh.

But here's the worst thing of it all. We're now tied for second in the wild card race, at 4 games back. Thus, it's possible that we sweep the Brewers, tie them for the wild card, and possibly actually tie this third team for the wild card at the same time. Who is this mystery team? (Well, probably not much of a mystery if you read the post's title). That's right, the Ed Wade led and assembled Astros. The Astros! The team who gave up Lights Out Lidge for a quarter on the dollar this year by getting Geoff Geary and Michael Bourne back. The team that has a shortstop that aged 100 years in 1 day (and birth certificates be darned, it was probably the juice that made it that way.) The Randy Wolf is in our rotation freaking Astros. Did I mention they're GM is Ed Wade? Anyway, the Astros are a whopping 9-1 in their last 10...which may mean the reason the Phillies can't be the hottest team going into the playoffs is because the Astros are already taking that claim.

If Ed Wade makes October baseball and the Phillies don't...ugh, I can't even fathom it.

Confessions Time

J Stump

I confess...

I'm not ready for football season yet, it still feels like we should be more concerned about the Phillies.

I think the Eagles looked great on Sunday...but it was only against the Rams, who may be one of the worst coached teams in the NFL.

I liked the Joe Blanton deal up until tonight. I didn't expect Blanton to come and be a savior, but I expected him to be above average. He certainly hasn't been bad, and he's definitely been an improvement over Adam Eaton (though, 99% of people with arms may have been an improvement over Eaton). However, as a supposed inning-eater, he's lasted on average less than 6 innings for the Phillies, and he hasn't been able to hold any lead. He seemingly can't throw strikes consistently, and now Kyle Kendrick can't throw strikes, so I'm OK with saying that Blanton must've come here and poisoned our young starter, regardless of how absurd or improbable that notion really is. To make things worse, he didn't run out a ground ball he hit to lead off an inning when winning a game 5-4 in the 4th inning. That's simply unacceptable (ask Jimmy). If you want to play your lackadaisical game, then go back to the west coast where the people care more about who showed up in the stands and what they were wearing then what the scoreboard and standings show...but don't bring it here to our city where we're starving for a championship and are building a team that plays hard every night. You have no place here, and I hope you don't come back unless you wake up and realize how blessed you are to play a game for more money than my entire family makes.

I still hold a grudge against Jimmy Rollins, even if he doesn't suck right now. Your words hurt Jimmy, and you still remind me of Willie Mays Hayes. I wonder if Jason Donald wasn't called up because the team was afraid that it would hurt your recent performance in some way. (I'm pretty sure that's not the case, but as stated before, I don't necessarily care how rational my thoughts are sometimes, and this is what I wonder.)

I won't mind seeing Pat Burrell at first base next year, if it means we landed a bona fide #1 or #2 starter for Howard.

I like the Iguchi pick-up, and wish he was eligible for the post season roster instead of fat Matt Stairs. (Why is Matt Stairs getting any time other than as a pinch hitter? I'm pretty sure he is a worse outfielder than Burrell - who's secretly been really good this year defensively.)

I smiled when I saw that Tom Brady got hurt.

I frowned when I read that the Phillies designated RJ Swindle for assignment today. I was really hoping he'd make the big league team for an extended period of time, so I could get a throwback Swindle jersey.

I knew the Phillies would regret pitching Cole Hamels against Santana and not tonight against the Marlins. As I write this, Jayson Werth just made the game 8 - 4 with a three run shot, so hopefully it won't matter, but if they end up losing a game they should've won because Hamels pitched in a game they couldn't provide enough offense for...that sucks.

I picked the Saints to beat the Chargers in the Super Bowl (before Brady got hurt).

I smiled when I heard that Brady would be out for the year...it means if the Eagles make the big show, we won't have to worry about him.

I smiled more hearing that Billy Wagner needs Tommy John surgery and will be out for all of 2009 as well as the rest of this year.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Jason L

Today is a fantastic day to be a Philadelphia sports fan...at least at the beginning of the day. Not only do the Eagles start their season at home against the St. Louis Rams (Jackson is going to have a very good game in the place so Reggie Brown), but the Phils have a twin-billing against the stupid Muts. Not just any double-header, mind you, but a VERY important one. If the Phils win both they are tied for the division lead with the Mets thinking they are yet again letting the Phils take the division from them. They lose both and they are 4 games back...ouch. So come on boys, lets take care of business. How about three victories for this town in 1 day. Is that too much to ask?

So Money, You Don't Even Know It

J Stump

A modern classic movie was playing tonight as the Phillies were taking care of business at Shea Stadium, and I think it speaks perfectly to the 2008 Brett Myers. The movie was Swingers, and it's story basically mirrors Myers season so far.

In case you've never seen it, the movie's main character Mike (played by John Favreau) is a comic from New York who moves to LA to try and make it big as an actor, and ends up breaking up with his long time girlfriend from back home. The main substance of the movie is about his character trying to get over his break-up with his ex, and basically becoming a completely depressed bum from it. Similarly, Myers spent a major part of this season trying to get over his split from the closer's role. His change of scenery as a starter just wasn't working out for him. In the movie, Mike's buddies try getting him back in the groove. They're pretty much players, and they try their hardest to get him to hook up with some new ladies in an attempt to break him out of his funk. Phillies Co-Stars Uncle Charlie and Pat Gillick may be as funny as Vince Vaughn and Patrick Van Horn are in the movie...just in a more unintentional way. There role in Brett's mirror to Swingers? They sent him to the minors this year to get him back in the swing of things. (Yeah, I'll use that awful pun)

The movie's point though, is that Mike didn't become a different guy without his girl, he just lost his confidence. While trying to convince Mike to ask a girl he met at a bar for her "digits", Van Horn and Vaughn tell Favreau's character "You're so money, you don't even know it". I bet if Charlie would've told Brett that, they could've saved the whole trip through the minors. Brett never lost his ability to pitch, he just felt lost and out of position from what he got comfortable with as the closer. It was completely a mental thing, and based on his performances since he came back from the minors, I'd say he's got his mind just where the team needs it to be.

The talk in the beginning of the year was that the Phillies didn't get a #2 pitcher, that their rotation was an ace and a bunch of 4th and 5th starters and some bum named Eaton. Their response was that moving Myers back to the rotation was a better option than any of the available starters on the market...that he'd be their #2 guy. Well, it took over half the season, but it looks like that opinion has finally been backed up on the field.

Tonight's victory wasn't as exciting as the extra-inning victory at CBP last week, but hopefully winning a tough game in a mostly undramatic way will spark the Phils more than that emotional burn out did. They really needed the win tonight to start this series off right, and it was great to see Myers absolutely dominate the opposition. Now they need to get a happy ending in.

(Oh, and what happens if Swingers? If you have to ask, you should rent the movie, it's worth it.)

A dissenting opinion

J Stump

OK, now that the Phils have righted their ship by managing a split against the Cubs and then following up a poor loss to the Nats with a game that they actually gave Hamels some run support, the upcoming series at Shea Stadium is looming, and getting a lot of headlines.

It seems everyone and their mother wants Cole Hamels to start on Sunday against Johan Santana. Hamels has managed to miss the Mets a good deal this year, sometimes intentionally being rested extra by the club to avoid injuries. He had one start against NY this year, giving up 4 earned runs (5 runs total) in 7 innings and taking the loss. So he certainly didn't shut them down. Of course, that game was way back on April 18th, and he was indeed pitching against Santana that night.

The Phillies have actually faced the Mets ace 4 times this year. He's only managed one win against the good guys, but he's pitched 29 innings to an ERA of 3.10 against the Phils this year. We all know that Santana can be dominant, and that the Phillies offense can become nonexistent against lesser pitchers (Read: Tim Redding).

With all this in mind, I'm a little confused as to why the majority opinion is that Hamels has to start on Sunday against Santana and the Mets. No matter who the pitcher is, they'll most likely need to be able to throw a great game in order for the Phils to pull out a victory. Obviously they're chasing the Mets right now and winning the head to head match up is a great way to get back to first, but if there's going to be a game that you have little chance of winning, it may be the one against Santana...so why waste your ace in that match up? Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to concede that victory and have Hamels available to go on Monday against Florida in a game that should be more winnable?

To add to the argument, Hamels is over 200 innings pitched for the first time in his professional career this year, and we all know his shaky injury history. The last thing the club needs is to lose their ace when the post season is right around the corner. True, they have to pass the Mets to make it into said post season, but I think the way you beat the Mets is by playing a month's worth of good baseball and finishing that month with a record over .600. You don't win the division by beating Santana and NY on Sunday September 7th.

If the Phillies don't pitch Hamels against Santana on Sunday, who do they throw out there? Well, it would probably be Kyle Kendrick's start, but with his struggles lately, why not throw JA Happ or Carlos Carrasco out there? Let them prove they can keep your team in against a legitimate ace in the heat of a pennant race against a division rival. If they struggle, then let Kendrick come in as a long relief guy...or, if Happ starts and struggles, then let Carrasco come in. You're going to have to find out what these guys are made of sooner or later, and the only way to effectively do that is by throwing them in the fire. If they lose to Santana and a hot Mets team, then it shouldn't really damage their psyche so much, and you can chalk it up as the Phillies ran into a hot team with a great starter. If Hamels loses to Santana in the same conditions, then you're faced with the idea that your ace isn't up to par with your rival, and that your offense might not be good enough to overcome the slim lead the Mets have built.

Anyway, like I said, you win the pennant by playing .600 ball or better, which means they need to go out tonight and win this series with the atrocious Nats before we really get worried about Hamels starting on Sunday or not. To everyone worried that we're not making up ground on the division right now because the Mets keep beating the Brew Crew, well at least we're going to make up some ground on the wild card then. Better to have more options for a post season birth than a single one. And we also have a series upcoming vs. Milwaukee, so let's hope the Mets are just softening them up for us (and that NY will also burn themselves out by the time Friday rolls around).

Perspective

J Stump

OK, first let me say that I agree with everyone that these last two games have had disappointing outcomes, especially after the thriller that was Tuesday night. I agree that it's disheartening to see your bullpen seemingly repeatedly not get the job done and give up a lead, especially when you're chasing someone for a pennant and this close to it. I also think that the Phils need at least a split with the MLB leading Cubs in this series, and that any time you throw Cole Hamels vs. Ryan Dempster (regardless of their records), that should be a game that you come away with the win. But, before we line up to crucify Ryan Madson, let's all take some deep breaths and get a better perspective on this.

Last night, the Phils offense managed 4 runs, and had a few spots of decent situational hitting. But they still left 15 runners on base. That's a lot of runs hanging out there that the offense wasn't able to do their job with. Man or Machine left 5 runners on himself, having his second 0fer in the past 3 games. This isn't really what a team needs out of its 3-hole hitter. If you haven't heard yet, the Phils just acquired lefty outfielder Matt Stairs from the Blue Jays, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him playing right field and Werth in left field as soon as Stairs has a uniform so that Burrell can get at least a days rest. On Wednesday night, the Phils were even worse offensively, scoring three runs and leaving 16 men on base. This leaving double digits of runners on base every single game can't be forgotten when the bullpen fails to do its job.

Also, coming into the season, how confident were you in the Phils pen? Remember, we were looking at a Brad Lidge that no one knew whether or not he was healthy physically or mentally, another year older and still not healthy Flash Gordon, a JC Romero who was great last year but has pretty much imploded every other place he's ever pitched, and a Chad Durbin who couldn't beat out Adam Eaton for the 5th starters job in Spring Training. Plus, Madson and Condrey, and I think we all knew what we had in them. The bullpen on the Phillies was looked at as their absolute weakness. No one worried about the offense, and the starting rotation was a question...could be good, could be bad. Well, here we are nearly at September and even with the recent meltdowns, we've still got the best bullpen ERA in the NL, and second best in the entire majors. Also of note is that our relief record is 29-21...the Blue Jays have a better relief ERA than the Fightins, but their relief record is only 10-20...the record may speak to our offenses ability to come back late in games more than signifying great relief pitching, but coupled with the ERA, I think it's safe to say that for the guys they've thrown out there this year, the bullpen has been great.

The problem that now seems to face Charlie is who to throw out in the 8th? I haven't gotten to the point that I wish Flash was still healthy for that spot, and honestly I doubt I ever will get to that point. It's clear that if the starters can't make it 8 innings to get to Lidge (and our starters throw too many pitches in today's era to make it 8 innings consistently...whether you agree with pitch counts or not, it's the way it is now), that we need someone reliable to take the 8th. Right now we probably have one guy who you'd feel comfortable with in that role, and he's starting Saturday's game against the Cubs...and he's been good enough as a starter since his trip through the minors that you can't consider messing with Myers' head any more than it already has been messed with. That's even taking the waiting in the wing starter JA Happ into consideration. What the Phillies should really do is push hard for Brian Fuentes from the Rockies and try him in the 8th inning. According to reports, Fuentes has cleared waivers and I'm not sure there's many other late inning arms out there that are a better situation.

All in all, the bullpen has cost us lately, but it's probably more of them just pitching at the level you'd expect rather than being a real disappointment. The 8th inning of the next few games, or maybe the next month's worth of games is going to get stressful for all of us until we find a guy who can consistently get the ball in Lidge's hand. While you're booing Madson the next time he comes into a game, just keep in mind that the Phils offense has probably already left 10+ scoring opportunities on the base paths. I think we'll all have to come to grips that the only overachieving piece of the team this year has been our bullpen, and that we wouldn't be within a game of the division without them.

Whoo Hoo!!!

J Stump

I had zero intention of writing another post tonight but after that fantastic victory, how can I not write WHOOOO FREAKIN HOO!!! I'm so amped about that victory, that the following post may become completely incomprehensible when I wake up tomorrow morning and re-read it!

Where to even begin? Jamie Moyer, who's been a stalwart all season gets knocked out early. The Mets catch a giant break when they don't call Beltran out at 3rd being hit by a batted ball in fair territory, which is followed by a 3 run HR by Tatis. The Phils fight back from a 0-7 deficit to win in extra innings...their 2nd extra inning, come from behind victory in 3 days. The bullpen pitching 10 innings of 1 run ball after Jamie's early exit to give the offense the chance it needed to make it count...and every reliever on the bench was used (Kendrick was warming up to come in the 14th if the Phils didn't win it). Jimmy freaking Rollins all the sudden deciding "Hey, I am the reigning MVP aren't I?" and playing like it, while getting more hits in the past two games...heck, more hits in this game alone than he had combined in what seemed like the last 10! (I'm too excited to check the actual stats on this, you get the point.) Carlos Ruiz playing an inning at third base! Holy Crap! Especially because Charlie had the foresight to realize that if they subbed Ruiz in the 8th down by one, they'd lose Eric Bruntlett who was their last position player off the bench with the pitcher spot coming up 4th in the 9th inning. Then that exact pitcher's spot coming up in the 9th with Werth on first and Bruntlett playing clutch with a GIANT 2-out pinch hit and scoring Werth. Werth gunning David "I'll never be good enough to be an MVP" Wright out at 2nd in the 10th. The game went so long that Tom McCarthy got delirious and kept saying the Met's bullpen has had issues "here at Shea Stadium" as they clearly show clips of CBP (where tonight's game was held, by the way) in the middle of the 12th inning. Then in the 13th, Victorino leads off with a triple, and the Mets intentionally walk Werth and Bruntlett to load the bases and bring up the pitchers spot (Rudy Seanez at the time), knowing the Phils have no positional players left. Charlie throws Brett Myers out there (because he'd already used Hamels as a pinch hitter) and tells him to not swing no matter what, hoping maybe he could work a walk. Myers managed a full count, but by then I think the Mets figured out that he wasn't going to swing and he struck out. Up next? Chris Coste, who delivered his 4th hit of the game in 4 plate appearances after coming in as a pinch hitter in the 8th inning. Game over!

Unbelievable. Truly.

I don't know what the Phillies did differently on Friday night before the first game against LA...maybe they hung a picture of Rowand up in the locker room to remind them of last year, maybe they got drunk enough they didn't care anymore and could finally play loose or maybe just the opposite and they actually decided they cared too much to continue with their mediocrity. Whatever it was, I hope they keep it like this the rest of the season and throughout October. I wrote earlier tonight that this series wasn't do or die, make or break, and I still believe that, for both the Phils and the Mets...but a win like tonights, coupled with the Mets late season failures of last year has to resound somewhere inside the players on both sides. This is the type of victory that can seriously get the mojo going.

So. Freaking. Excited!

The Home Stretch

J Stump

Last night I posed the question on whether we'd be more comfortable on our teams postseason chances had they gone 2-2 over two series against LA, rather than being swept first and then returning the favor. Honestly, I'm not sure which I'd prefer, though I know I'd rather have swept them after they swept us rather than vice versa. To end on a high note is always a plus as it gives hope for a strong future. However, in the same sense, is it an omen of any sorts that we couldn't win a game on the road but were able to take care of business at home? The point of home field advantage is that you're supposed to be able to win more games, and last night's victory did put the Phillies 10 games over .500 at home, compared to their slim 3 games over .500 on the road. Put in that perspective, the 2-5 West Coast road trip feels even more ominous than it sounds...going into that they were plus 6 on the road, and realistically should've come back plus 7 at the least, since they were heavily favored over the Padres. Of the 31 games left to be played in the regular season, 16 of them are on the road while 15 are at home. They're going to need to finish better than 3 games over .500 on the road at the end to capture the division, especially given the quality of the opponents that are coming up. All of the road games except for four coming up this weekend are against division opponents. It's an even split at 3 games in each of the East cities (Atlanta, NY, Florida, DC). At home, it doesn't get easier, or much more outside of our division with a four game series against the Brew Crew, and 3 games a piece vs. Atlanta, DC and Florida, plus tonight and tomorrow's home stand vs. the hated Mets.

A lot of writers have written about this two game set against the Mets not being a Make-It or Break-It series, and I'd say they're pretty much correct. However, the key to a pennant is dominating your division, and this last month is going to prove whether or not the Phillies are able to do that. By my count, they are currently at 27-22 against their division, simply owning the Braves with a 10-2 record, but struggling against the Mets at 4-9 with no more than 1 win in any series against NY. Considering they're only 12-11 against Washington and Florida, that has to lead to a little bit of trepidation for fans, because they should be able to dominate both of those lesser teams. If the Phils come out and lose these next 2 games, it's true they'd only be 2.5 down with 29 games to go, which is a margin which is certainly attainable, it means they go into Chicago (the team with the best record in MLB right now) without any of the momentum they just gained by sweeping LA, and then have a generally tough, if familiar road ahead of them.

All in all, the month of September should be a very exciting time for baseball fans, and let's hope those attending the games can continue to lend their energy and excitement to the Phillies like they did Sunday night, as the team makes it down the home stretch. It's clear to tell the Fightins are a team that really succeeds when they've got energy and are loose, and a rocking crowd can only help them continue to find that energy. (Plus, maybe we can get back in the heads of the Mets tonight and tomorrow and help them start a slide now)

A Tale of Two Cities

J Stump

A mere week ago, things turned very bleak for the Phillies, as they were embarrassingly swept in LA, to start a road trip that ended a disastrous 2-5. Along with being swept by the Dodgers, the Mets took over sole possession of first place. Adding insult to injury, JRoll made his now infamous comment towards the Philly fans on national TV, and then proceeded to back it up by throwing out a mechanical mannequin to play the next week and a half worth of games.

What a difference a few days and 2,700 miles makes. Tonight the Phillies completed their own sweep of the Dodgers. Three of the four games were pretty handedly won, including tonights shut out of the boys in blue in addition to the hard fought come from behind victory I've already covered here. The Mets were able to beat up on Ed Wade's team today, so the Phillies still sit a half game out of first, but certainly the future is brighter than it had been coming into the weekend.

Tonight, Jimmy even made a return from the dead by getting on base all 5 times he came up. Let's hope the body double is never heard of again, and I never have the right to invoke the Willie Mays Hayes moniker that often fits a little too snug on our little MVP. Brett Myers pitched another tough game, getting himself out of trouble every inning, and turning the ball over to the bullpen without giving up any runs. If this is the Brett Myers that's going to show up the rest of this year, I think we finally have a #2 starter behind Hamels.

Here's my question though...last week was a pretty depressing time for all of us and right now, we're probably feeling rather optimistic. So given an outcome of 4 victories and 4 losses against the Dodgers, who happen to be fighting for a playoff birth and upgraded their offense significantly with the addition of Manny, is it better to have been swept and then returned the favor, or would we have preferred splitting each series at 2-2? The outcome is the same, so perhaps the point is moot, but I'm talking about the feelings stirred up by the team, the faith that each of us pours into them, the intangible belief we hold onto for the outcome of the season.

Feel free to weigh in on your feelings whether we'd have been more comfortable with the Phillies managing a win or two in LA or if we're OK with the outcome we got of going 0-4 and then coming back and ripping off our own sweep. I'll have a follow up post tomorrow about what lies ahead of the team as we reach the postseason.

Whatever It Takes

J Stump

Having the Sunday season tix plan for Phillies, I was in attendance at last night's 5-2 overtime victory against the Dodgers. It was a great win for the Phillies, a win that the team was able to pull out even though they didn't have a great offensive performance, and a win I think they really needed in terms of how they were able to win.

Their first hit didn't come until the 5th inning, and when it did, it was delivered by near-Mendoza line hitting Carlos Ruiz. Thankfully, Chase Utley got their second hit of the game in that same inning to drive Ruiz in and tie the game up at 1. The beginning of the game looked like it was going to be disastrous for the Phils, but Joe Blanton fought his way out of a 28 pitch inning with the bases loaded, and only gave up the one run. After that, Blanton was steady, certainly not dominant, but good enough to keep his team within that one run until they decided to hit the ball. I would say Blanton is exactly what we thought we were getting, a guy who's going to give you 6 strong innings a game and keep the score tight. It's not CC or Harden dominant, but as I've stated before, the Phillies didn't realistically have the resources to get either of those guys. I think overall we should be very happy to have Blanton...after all, if not him, Eaton could still be here, and he never would've gotten out of a bases loaded first inning with only giving up 1 run. (I also think that if the Phillies make it to the WS, Blanton's AL experience could be a huge contribution...case in point, he struck out ex-Boston Slugger, and current NL pitching feaster Manny Ramirez twice last night which kept the Dodgers from getting any kind of sustained rally going)

The real story of last nights game was the 9th inning and extra frames though. In the bottom of the 9th, down 2-1, Shane Victorino led off the inning with a nice single. Lets see a show of hands from the faithful who thought that A) Shane would have the highest batting average of any regular Phillies player and B) that he would be batting 5th this season in the midst of a pennant race? Nobody? It's honestly pretty amazing what he's done this second half, and hopefully he gets rewarded both monetarily and with the respect he deserves for showing he can be an everyday player, and an impactful one at that. Pedro Feliz, who was a late innings replacement for Dobbs came up later in the inning and drove Victorino home to tie the game. Throughout that entire inning, I'm pretty sure that CBP was the loudest I've heard it all year in person. It was an electric atmosphere with the fans standing and cheering on every pitch. Up to that point in the game, the Phillies had something like 4 hits, and hadn't done much to inspire a come from behind victory, and yet everyone really seemed to believe they had it in them. Perhaps part of that belief stemmed from having a reliable guy come up as a lead off, as opposed to you know who. (Who ended the rally after Feliz's hit by the way.) I was really impressed by the crowd's excitement and you can tell that this town hasn't lost it's hunger for postseason playoffs...hopefully we get enough results like yesterdays to make that a reality.

It seemed a lot of people left after the 9th inning, probably due to having to get up early for work on Monday and not wanting to get stuck in traffic at the ballpark and get home at 1 am, but the remainder of the people did a decent job in keeping the stadium loud in support of the home team. It wasn't quite as electric as the 9th, but it was a crowd that was into the game at least. In the 12th inning, Shane led off again, and this time stretched a single into a double, coming out of his head first slide with fists pumping. I've read it suggested that maybe Shane is the leader this team needs more than WMH or even Utley, and while I disagree with that based on some of the immaturity that Victorino will still show here and then, it's nice to see a guy who you know wants to win and has the fire inside to show his competitiveness. Jason has talked about the "fire" in Howards eye finally showing up lately while Rollins still just seems like a body going through the motions, and that's really evident last night. Howard didn't do anything at the plate (though he did make contact for the most part, at least he didn't have one of his 4 K games), but he made a superb catch in foul territory that I never would've guessed he could make. It has to make you wonder what's wrong with Jimmy, as he just doesn't look like he's got anything in him. Anyway, back to the 12th, now with 2 men on and 2 outs, Feliz came up again and really played hero by knocking in a 3-run walk off HR.

I started this rambling post off by saying it was a good victory for the Phils, and a victory that they needed, and I really believe that. So much of their offense is reliant on the long ball, and so much of their victories are reliant on their offense. Even though he ended it with a HR, the Phils pitching kept the dodgers to only 2 runs, and they were able to come up with enough small ball to tie it, even though they struggled. With the inconsistencies of the entire team being magnified lately, it has to feel good for them to gut out that victory. We know by now that they're not going to obliterate all their competition with double digits scores, so they need to get used to fighting and clawing and coming up with clutch hits throughout the entirety of the game. Let this be the beginning of stretch where they go out and do what they have to in order to get the W.

Pics from San Diego

J Stump

My wife and I decided to take our vacation in San Diego last week, and a main factor was to see the Phillies play the Padres. The Phillies are obviously my favorite team, and I root for them above everyone else, but if I had to pick another team to root for, it would definitely be the Padres. I loved Tony Gwynn, that we got Kruk and Victorino from the Pads, and the sweet old school brown, white and yellow jerseys.

The game we saw was the friday night 1-0 victory that ended a 4 game skid after the Phils got swept in LA. Jamie Moyer pitched a great game and Man or Machine came through with a big home run.

Anyway, we took pics from the game, but of course I forgot the hook up from the camera to my laptop, so I couldn't upload them until today. Sorry they're late, but enjoy.

Here's a few pics to get a quick taste. Or just View all our Pics from the Stadium Tour / Game

View all our Pics from the Stadium Tour / Game

Just a few thoughts

Jason L

I would just like to state for the record here, that although it appears otherwise, the Phillies are not the only sports team we follow. However, because it is preseason for the Eagles, who the hell cares? Ha ha, I'm just kidding...sorta. One of the things that annoys me about the NFL is how much round the clock year round coverage there is. Why do I care how the 3rd string weak side linebacker from the Rams spent 2 weeks of his offseason? Preseason games aren't much different. They have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on anything. In fact, if I recall correctly, the Raiders may have won nearly as many preseason games last year as they did in the regular season. So all you football fans that put a ton of stock in the preseason, give it a rest and wait for the regular season to start. Nothing annoys me more than when I am sitting at a Phils game, or a Flyers game, and I hear the Eagles chant. If the Birds are in the playoffs, and the game is happening at the exact time that you are in attendance for another sport, maybe the Flyers, then yes you can do an occasional Eagles chant. If if is the middle of June and you do an Eagles chant at a Phillies game, you are either mentally handicapped and don't realize what sport you are attending, or you deserve to have your vocal chords removed. Either way, shut the hell up. That being said, there are a couple of good things that have come out of this camp:

The word is that Jerome McDougal had a good camp, and he played pretty well in the game against the Steelers. If he keeps it up tonight maybe it will be a step towards him finally realizing his potential.

McNabb didn't throw any balls at receivers' feet during the Steelers game. I think McNabb still has a number of quality years left in him, and I think this is the year he starts to put it all together and return to elite status. A.J. Feeley, on the other hand, did throw a ball 5 feet over the head of an open receiver in the end zone during the 2 minute drill at the end of the game, but hopefully we won't be seeing him at all this year anyway.

DeSean Jackson looked good. More importantly he didn't drop any balls. Everyone always says that we need a superstar receiver. That is not what we need. We need someone to catch the ball. I am not talking about the acrobatic one handed sideline grab. I am talking about knowing the receiver is going to catch it if its thrown to him. Eagles receivers constantly drop easy passes and it really hurts the team. If Jackson has sure hands I don't care how small he is, I want him in the game. I say he starts challenging for a starting spot as early as the opening of the regular season.

Only 3 more stupid games to go before the season actually starts and you can start caring what happens, since afterall, the only thing that comes out of the preseason is injuries.