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Written by: Mike Krueger
Hope springs eternal in the human breast
[The Phillies’ fans] never Are but To be blest
- with
apologies to Alexander Pope
As the summer warms up so does the pennant
race. Again the Phillies are right in the middle of it and hope
springs eternal for the long suffering Phillies fan.
Unfortunately, the past couple years have left Phillies’ fans on
the widow’s watch, never quite seeing that championship boat, or
even playoff boat, appear on the horizon. But today is not the
day to think about those unhappy one-game-back endings. Today
you shouldn’t be thinking we only have one starter with playoff
experience, who has been struggling recently and is starting to
show his years in the dog days of summer. Today we shouldn’t be
thinking about how we have the highest ERA in the league or that
our hitters are in the top five in strikeouts. Do you really
want to know that 3 of our 5 starters have ERAs over five or
that our manager does the voice of Cletus in the Simpson’s
movie. To keep your mind at ease, don’t start to think about
how we may mortgage our future for some C class pitcher in the
next few days.
Now everyone reread everything I just wrote
and worry…..go ahead no one is looking……it’s alright they are
legit reasons…..they are already five games back…..panic….okay
now stop….fine a little longer…now, really, stop.
I just gave you many reasons why the
Phillies have no chance to make the playoffs. But as you sip
your coffee and fold your newspaper I want you to forget about
all those reasons. I want you adopt a new attitude, an attitude
that has not been around this team for decades, an unfamiliar
attitude some of you probably didn’t even know existed…It’s
called a winning attitude. Now that everyone is caught up it’s
time for us to all be on the same page. If you don’t want to
then stop reading this article but you better stop watching the
team you claim to love. You wouldn’t watch a replay of a game
you know they lost. Why waste the last month of summer watching
something you know the outcome to (especially when YOU “know
they will lose it in the end.”)? But if you like this new style
of thinking continue to the next paragraph…if not just remember
Eagles training camp opens August 1st.
That strange sense of ease that you just
got…that’s optimism…it’s a great thing to have so just keep that
positive attitude and keep reading. It really shouldn’t be that
hard. Hey people, we have the best offense in the league with
three legit MVP candidates. And, yes, if the Phillies get hot
Jimmy Rollins is a legitimate MVP candidate. He leads the
league in runs, has as many homeruns as Barry Bonds, plays a
great short-stop, and is the catalyst behind the league’s top
scoring offense. The other two go without mentioning. We lead
the league in runs, doubles, RBIs, on-base-percentage, and
slugging percentage. On top of that we are second in hits and
batting average. Pulling up the rear is a putrid 122
homeruns…good enough for only 3rd in Major League
Baseball.
The pitching staff with the worst ERA I
just mentioned may not be as bad off as you think. Cole Hamels
takes care of himself and seems to like the attention he is
starting to gather. The man cut by three teams this year, J.D.
Durbin, has shown promise in his last two starts and the other
guy called up by the Phillies, Kyle Kendrick, is 4-1 with a
solid 4.40 ERA. Right now it is easy to question my optimism,
but hey now your along for the ride so lets keep on reading.
Remember this, we don’t need the best pitching in baseball to
make the playoffs, not with this offense…we just need better
pitching, something that is starting to happen, something that
can’t help but continue to improve with the two best relief
pitchers on the team coming back.
The problems for the Phillies in the past
couple years wasn’t the offensive numbers in July, they were the
clutch hitting and pitching late in games down the stretch. No
one knows how they will do down the stretch this year but,
again, think positive. The three players that make up the meat
of out order: Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Aaron Rowand are all
in the top 10 in BA with runners in scoring position and two
outs, AKA clutch hitting. If that doesn’t calm your stomach,
this should: even Pat Burrell is getting hot and has hit safely
in 11 of his last 13 games.
What is undeniable is how likable these
Phillies are, full of energy and talent: a slugging corner
infielder, and a hard nosed do-anything-to-win-type leader, a
lefty ace, speed at the top of the lineup. Sound familiar?
Maybe something like the 1980 Phillies, throw in a
balls-to-the-wall (or in this years case head-to-the-wall)
center fielder and a shaky bullpen and you have the two most
liked Phillies teams in the past 3 decades combined; both of
whom made the Fall classic.
Maybe we are getting ahead of ourselves
here, but who cares. There is no team in the NL that you can
say is definitely better than the Phillies. So start liking
these Phillies, start rooting for them, start believing in them
and ride this wave of winning attitude…how could a fan of a team
which has 10,000 loses have any different outlook?
© Michael A. Krueger 07/07Back
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