Phillies: From Champs to Chumps

My Fellow Phans,

My apologies to my avid readers who were waiting for a post on this blog actually concerning the Phillies last night; sadly I passed out last night. It was a long day of playing with siblings, straightening up around the house and running a bunch of errands here and there. The Phillies were off which guaranteed one thing; they couldn’t lose.

During this whole streak, we had pointing out numerous reasons for the Phillies’ struggles; mechanics, missing short stops, lack of a good hitting coach ect. I for one never thought about looking at the overall attitude of the team. I mean, that is what made the past two year’s teams so good; the Phillies lived, played and died as a team. There was no cockiness or arrogance, at least not enough to directly affect their play on the field. Oh, how times have changed. Just ask Charlie Manuel.

"I got upset when I came in and saw everybody looking at movies. We had a whole audience in there looking at movies and [bleep]. And I thought, 'What the hell? We should be getting ready for the damn game.' I don't like things like that," said Manuel of the clubhouse television, which earlier had been showing "Gran Torino."

The most ironic point of this whole story is that the star of Gran Torino is the 80 year old Clint Eastwood, Happy Belated Birthday to him by the way. Anyway, the star of the movie is an 80 year old man and that seems to be how the Phillies are playing these days; like 80 year old men. I’m sure Clint could grab a bat and hit a few out of the park; how about you Phillies? He’s twice your all your ages and then some, except for Moyer of course, but were not counting on Moyer to hit.

The movie example being just one piece of evidence, I think Charlie sums up the problem of the Phillies in one statement.

“I see a whole lot of cockiness and big-headedness and complacency,” Manuel said. “Just because we did something last year doesn’t mean we’re going to do it this year."

To hear such things about the team who played so hard and won the hearts of every member of this city the last two seasons is disheartening, sickening, frustrating to say the least. As I said before, this is not the same attitude that this team showed the last two seasons. I think that is obvious by the quality of play that they are putting forward. Our World Series trip would not have been possible last year if we had this attitude; hell we may not have been able to come back to beat the Rockies or Dodgers. The trademark of this team was its team play, the lack of cockiness, big-headedness, or complacency.

I think having back to back trips to the World Series would make this team realize how tough is truly is and this would help shape them as players. To hear this is sickening to me. The Phillies have a solid number of diehard fans; who sat year after year through 100 loss seasons and saw this team do the unthinkable in 2008. I used to believe that I would never see a Phillies’ World Series Title in my lifetime. Thankfully, they proved me wrong.

Now, they seem to be throwing all that away. Is everything that made the Phillies great in 08 is being tossed away due to the inflation of egos? Fans here in Philadelphia don’t ask for perfection, we just ask that you try you hardest. Last decade, the best you guys could give us was 70 or so wins and those teams still played their a**** off and did their best for the fans.

This year, You have the talent to win this division and possibly go far in the playoffs, and you refuse use it and sit around watching movies just 30 minutes before a ball game? If you’re going to roll over and play dead the rest of the year; just let us know. We can mark you down as one of the most disappointing Phillies teams in history, maybe the most disappointing ever. Bandwagon fans may not care as much, but us diehards are slowly breaking apart by this BS you are pulling here. Championships are not won with cockiness and arrogances, they are won on the field by you proving you are the best team; not just thinking you are and everything will come to you.

Charlie seems to know what’s what. Why cannot anyone else see this?

“"Success changes you. Winning changes you. People sometimes don't even know that. But you'd better stay the same if you think you're going to be as successful as you have been.” Manuel said. “Success is great, but at the same time knowing how to handle it and keeping it for a long time is even better."

I guess the question is, do the Phillies want to be remembered as a two season wonder or do they want to show that they are the class of the National League for many years to come? I guess we will wait and see. I sincerely hope it’s the latter. I vote for getting your heads of your behinds and playing some Phillies baseball because, let’s face it, when we do that nobody can beat us.

Let’s start tonight. We are back home for a few games; the ballpark is still going to be packed despite your struggles so there is no reason you cannot start a new page right here right now. We all know you can do it, so let’s put that recent road trip behind us and turn the corner. I’m sure all Phillies fans would be willing to do that. Our ace is on the mound; let’s get this thing turned around.

I am curious to see the response of the fans tonight. Go out and give it your all and there will not be a Boo Bird in sight. Go out, and play like you don’t care and the Boos will probably be heard across the area…

Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!!