Phillies: NL East Threepeat!

Blogging under the influence is becoming a tradition for me.

On September 30, 2007, the Phillies won the National League Eastern Division championship for the first time since 1993. From 2001 through 2006 they came agonizingly close to winning the title numerous times, but in 2007 a strong September combined with an epic collapse by the New York Mets allowed the Phils to finally break through on the final day of the regular season. I had a bottle of "champagne" (technically, sparkling wine) sitting unopened. That day, I opened it and polished it off in short order. While drinking, I wrote this post for the Outsports blog.

That year, the Phillies were eliminated in the playoffs as immediately as possible, swept away by the Colorado Rockies. One year later, the Mets seemed poised to win again, but once again they faded late, and on the next-to-last day of the 2008 season the Phils clinched another NL East title. I was fortunate enough to be at Citizens Bank Park to see it in person. When I got home, I drank again to celebrate (this time, Southern Comfort and diet cola) and blogged again.

Unlike 2007, however, 2008 had a happy ending, as the Phillies went on to win the World Series. It was only the second Phils' championship ever, and it was the first title for the city of Philadelphia since the 76ers' 1983 title. Having to go 25 years without a parade, while seeing upstart teams with no history -- and, really, undeserving fan bases (the 2003 Florida Marlins, the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes) -- win championships, was painful. To finally see a Philly team come through was exhilarating. So, once again, I drank (rum instead of Southern Comfort this time) to celebrate. And blogged.

And so we come to 2009. The Phillies struggled early, mainly due to their starting pitchers. Closer Brad Lidge, who was perfect last year, has been far from it this year. The rest of the bullpen has battled inconsistency and injury. But unlike the last two years, the Phillies spent most of the season on top of the division and, despite the pitching conundrums and other issues (such as the horrendous slow start by Jimmy Rollins), stayed on top the rest of the season. Even with a late-season swoon shrinking their lead from 8 to 4 games, setting off some panic from fans old enough to remember the Phillies' historic 1964 choke job, this team kept its cool and reasserted itself in time to win the NL East crown once again, and gave themselves four games to rest their regulars and reset the rotation for the postseason.

What this means for the 2009 playoffs, as the Phils attempt to become the first National League team to repeat as World Series champs since the Cincinnati Reds of 1975-76? Who knows? What I know, right now, is that the Phillies reign over the National League East, and that I am surprisingly capable of writing a coherent blog post even after consuming quite a bit of alcohol. The Phils rock! And so do I!