Many people give the example of the Chicago Cubs when discussing baseball franchises who have suffered over a long period of time. While the Cubs haven’t won a championship in 99 years, it is in fact the Philadelphia Phillies who are the most suffering team in baseball history. In their 125-year existence, the Phillies organization has won only one title, the 1980 World Series defeating the Kansas City Royals. Twenty-seven years have passed since the last Phillies championship and fourteen years have passed since the Phillies have made the postseason. The pain for Philadelphia had to end sometime, and what better way to do so with a dramatic come-from-behind surge to grab the National League East title from their most hated rivals, the New York Mets.
After much of the 2007 season spent hobbling along trying to stay within contention of the NL Wild Card, the Philadelphia Phillies surged in the final month of the season determined not to go down without a fight. As of August 26, the Phillies were 6 games out of the NL East and ready to face the rival New York Mets in a 4-game battle. The Phillies down 6 games to 5 to the Mets at that point in the season were determined to gain the respect of New York and they did so, sweeping the Mets and cutting the NL East lead to 2 games. With another series sweep of the Mets in mid-September, the idea of winning the NL East sounded a lot sweeter than pursuing the Wild Card. The Phillies surged ahead winning 13 of their last 17 games of the season, while the Mets collapsed, losing 12 of their last 17.
The Phillies organization can relate very well to what the Mets are feeling right now as they suffered a similar collapse in 1964. The Phillies at the time had a commanding 6.5 game lead in the National League with 12 games left on the schedule. They lost 10 straight games including a series sweep to the St. Louis Cardinals who went onto win both the NL pennant and the World Series that year. The Phillies fell one game short of the lead to what was considered then, the greatest collapse in baseball history.
Another sad realization that occurred this year was when the Phillies, in front of a national audience, endured their 10,000th loss in franchise history; the most losses a team has suffered in any major sport. Ironically, the noise coming from Citizens Bank Park stands sounded a lot more like cheers instead of boos as fans didn’t seem to be very disappointed by this fact, embracing the “honor”.
Now, the only thing that matters is what waits ahead. The Phillies are in the playoffs and they are in pursuit of their second World Series championship. Can the Phillies do it? They certainly have the right stuff. The Phillies offense is one of the most powerful offenses in the league led by Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Aaron Rowand, and Pat Burrell. As great as these players are, none will probably win the NL MVP award, which is actually a good thing. The last time someone hoisted both the MVP trophy as well as the World Series trophy was 19 years ago when Kirk Gibson did it with the Los Angeles Dodgers; call it an MVP Jinx if you will. That said, the Phillies rank second in the majors in most runs scored behind the New York Yankees and second in the majors with the most homeruns hit behind the Milwaukee Brewers. If the Phillies want to win the championship this year, they need to get it done with their bats.
That’s not to say that the Phillies’ pitching won’t be of any help; contrary to popular belief, the Phillies pitching isn’t all that bad. The Phillies will not need to use all five of their starting pitchers in the playoffs due to the spread out schedule. That means Cole Hamels (3.39 ERA), Kyle Kendrick (3.87 ERA), and Kyle Lohse (4.62 ERA) will be the starters throughout most of the playoffs with Jamie Moyer (5.15 ERA) used only when necessary. A pitching staff like that can keep the team in the game and allow their offense to win the games for them. The bullpen has been criticized worse than the starting pitching has and rightfully so. They have 21 blown saves this season which is tied for 11th worse in the majors. However, the Phillies’ new closer, Brett Myers, has only been responsible for three of those blown saves. The rest of the bullpen has to perform in the playoffs as the team has never lost in the month of September when the bullpen did not give up any runs. More importantly, five of those times, the Phillies won the game in later innings.
Jimmy Rollins stated in the beginning of the season that the Phillies were the team to beat in the NL East. After everyone finished laughing at him, the Phillies went onto live up to his words playing with great teamwork and heart down the stretch. With the playoffs ahead of them, the team will continue to play their best to keep their storybook finish alive and turn a year, which was supposed to be remembered for its 10,000th franchise loss, to a year remembered for their second franchise championship. The Philadelphia Phillies are comprised of great players with a bright future ahead of them. Maybe now, we won’t have to hear disrespectful “E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!” chants in the stands of Citizens Bank Park but rather well-deserved “Let’s Go Phillies!” chants.
Sports Moment of the Week
The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Washington Nationals on Sunday to complete one of the greatest upsets in baseball history, grabbing the NL East crown from the New York Mets.
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