The Philadelphia Phillies are the cause of and solution to all of life's problems. There are the headaches--why can't Brett Myers pitch great on a consistent basis? Why does Charlie Manuel let young pitchers flounder in important games? Why does Pat Burrell pull an MLS ("Mike Lieberthal Special" aka an infield or shallow center field fly ball) every time the game is on the line? Why can't Aaron Rowand hit better than .260? He has the skills he just doesn't remain consistent, I don't understand the reason for that. At least Abraham Nunez has placed himself back in my good graces, his batting average is just south of the Mendoza Line at .198. But, the Phillies are the cure-all for all my frustrations sometimes. There is nothing like working hard all day long and then coming home and flipping on the game. Missing the game makes me feel like an alien. Every time I can't be around to catch at least a few innnings of the game, I feel so out-of-sorts it's as if I'm living in bizarro world. There's something inhumane about missing the Phils game. And going to the game! Now that is a treat! It's so special there. And there is truly something about experiencing and talking to another TRUE Phillies fan who actually KNOWS baseball and knows full well that Bobby Abreu is a fantastic ballplayer, one of the best in the game, but not a good fit for our team. I only know a handful of true baseball fans and I really treasure their knowledge. Baseball is a forgotten sport by a lot of people. There's so many games it's just a part of life in the summer, going to a game is normal for most people even if they don't know how much Pat Burrell sucks in the clutch despite having the skills to come through. Everyone is surrounded by the Phils in the summer in one way or another but only a few really pay attention.
So. That said. Do you really think the Phils have a shot at the Wild Card? As it stands tonight, they are 2 and a half games back from the Reds, but tied with Arizona and San Diego in that position. There are still a good amount of games left. (Thirty-five? Or something) And in that span, about a million things can happen. Ryan Howard will almost certainly break the franchise record held by Mike Schmidt for homers in a single-season. Schmidt hit 48, Howard's on pace to hit about 55. That is extremely impressive for a sophomore season. Which leads me to another thing that boils me about the Phillies--so much talent but it never really comes together for them on a consistent basis at the right times. They go through stretches where they can absolutely dominate their opponents ... good formidable opponents like the Mets... and then all of a sudden have it all fall apart, unable to score a single run or something like that.
My hope. My one and only hope. Is for the Phils... to get the Wild Card--- face the Mets in the first round and knock them out of the playoffs. If they advance farther, it would just be a bonus. Deflating all New York's hopes would please me more than anything I can imagine. It would be like how happy I'd be if the New Jersey Devils folded and were no longer a franchise.
Anyway. Here's hopin'! There's a lot of baseball left!!!!
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2 comments:
If the Phillies made the playoffs, they'd probably play whoever ends up winning the Central division, because in baseball a team can't play someone in their own division in the first round of the playoffs.
So to knock out the Mets, they'd need to do it by going to the World Series. How cool would that be?
Realistically though, I still don't think they're going to make the playoffs. Not that that will stop me from hoping. It hasn't stopped me in any of the past 5 years. (Well, except 2002... we'll forget that ever happened.)
Also, I don't care how bad of a fit Abreu supposedly was, when you trade one of the best hitters in the game, you should expect to actually get something in return other than freeing up salary.
So true, we really got absolutely nothing for Abreu, it's pretty sad. Plus, Lidle was thrown in and all we got was nonsense!!!!!!! And I did not know we couldn't play the Mets until later! Still, that would be so sweet to get in a series with them scumbags and knock them out by going to the world series, oh my god, it would be so GLORIOUSSSSSS.
We have a lot of talent on this team, we really do have a shot. I mean what's it hurt to hope ????
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