In Defense of the Phillies

by Jeremy Rosenberg

These are strange times indeed to be a Phillies fan. The 2007 season was marked by three distinct periods: First, there was the Phils’ annual horrible April, a month during which they seem thoroughly incapable of winning; a bad Phillies April is as sure a sign of spring as blooming trees and melting frost.


Phils fans can't help but scratch their heads when knowing optimism surrounds the current Phillies roster.

At this point, no matter how you feel about the 2008 Phillies, you still can’t bring yourself to believe in them until May 1. The Phils could sign Alex Rodriguez, trade for Johan Santana, have a $400 million payroll, and still muddle their way to a 10-14 record during that cruel, evil month. That was followed by the Phils’ usual pattern: getting really good in May and June, except for mysterious stretches where they went 1-2 against the Royals or some other ridiculous team. This season was particularly special, as the Phillies had to also spend that time answering repetitive questions about their impending 10,000th loss.

This was an easy topic for fans in other cities to latch onto and use to make fun of Phillies fans for daring to root for such an obviously pathetic and loathsome team. And it gave the national media something they hadn’t had in a long time: a reason to bother remembering that the Phillies exist.The problem with the 10,000th loss thing that everyone seemed to ignore was how completely irrelevant it was. It was just a number, nothing more, and a great many of those losses occurred many, many decades before any of us were even born. It was painful to watch the poor Phillies players deal with this issue, as if it was somehow their fault, or their responsibility to justify the poor play of their ancestors.

“Jimmy Rollins, the 1941 Phillies went 43-111. Starting catcher Bennie Warren hit .214. How do you feel about that and how are you going to fix it?”

What were the players supposed to say? The national media’s attitude was both fascinated and scornful, as if it was the job of the 2007 team to win 1,100 games so the franchise could pull even at .500.And finally, the Phils got incredibly hot, capitalizing on the epic collapse of the Mets, which, if you’re a Phillies lover and a Mets hater (like all sensible people), was probably the greatest thing that has ever happened in the history of sports, if not all of recorded human civilization. Sadly, the playoffs were mysteriously canceled before the Phillies could start their series with the Rockies, so we’ll never, ever know how it would have turned out.

Again, the national media seemed less impressed by the Phils winning their division than by the fact that it was the first time the Phils had done so in 14 years, and only the 10th time they’d ever made the postseason in their lengthy history. And it’s true, it’s impossible for even the most apologetic Phillies fan to deny that the Phillies franchise has been generally disappointing and embarrassing. You don’t lose 10,000 games by accident; you lose them by being (a) around for a long time and (b) terrible. The Phils’ history of failure is like the presence of Chris Wheeler: something we all just have to live with.

But we’re not here to rehash the decades of losing, the thrown batteries, or the horribleness of Putsy Caballero. Instead, it can be argued that there are more than enough reasons for optimism. We’re currently in a Phillies golden age: they haven’t had a losing season since 2002, and have, over the past few years, been as much the victims of bad luck as anything else. The Phils had good, even occasionally great, teams in 2003, 2005, and 2006, but had the wild card stolen from them each year by somebody else getting inexplicably hot at the worst possible time (the Marlins, Astros, and Dodgers, respectively). The Phils’ shadowy cabal of unseen owners gets a bad rap for being cheap and greedy, but the team’s payroll in 2008 will be around $105 million – that’s really not too shabby at all. And it’s only the annoying YankSox-centric mentality of sports today that makes us believe you have to spend twice that to win.

The Phils traded for Brad Lidge this week – a great, bold move that serves notice to the pitching-thin Mets and moves Brett Myers back into the rotation (a much better idea than giving an idiotic contract to somebody like Carlos Silva). The Phils’ core of fun, likable, and extremely good players is all home grown, so the team seems to have finally figured out what they’re doing on draft day (no more Jeff Jacksons or Wayne Gomeses!). So feel good, Phillies fans – these guys are built to contend. Forget the 10,000, forget Omar Daal and Chad Ogea. Shed your inferiority complex like Red Sox fans did years ago. The Fightins are for real.

Wow, optimism feels so weird. I think I need a shower…