Okayyyyyyyy...here we are again. But first, let's reminisce. First, let's go back to 2007, when the New York Mets had a 7-game lead in the National League East with just 17 games left in the season. After a few near-misses from 2001 through 2006, it looked bleak for the Phillies once again. Yet, they kept winning, and the Mets collapsed. The Phils and Mets were tied going into the final day of the regular season, and then the Mets fell behind the Florida Marlins 7-0 in the first inning before the Phils even took the field for their game. The Phillies finally broke through and won the NL East title. I had a bottle of "champagne" that was sitting since 2001, and on that day I opened it and drank. All of it. And then I wrote this post on the Outsports blog.
Let's move a bit forward. 2008. The Phils had been knocked out in the 2007 playoffs, but went back to work. On the next-to-last day of the 2008 regular season, circumstances allowed me to get a ticket to the Phillies-Nationals game at Citizens Bank Park, and I was rewarded. A spectacular stop by Jimmy Rollins resulted in a game-ending double play, clinching the second straight NL East title for the Phils. I went home and drank. And posted this.
(Okay, I'm kinda getting woozy now from the alcohol...gotta fight on and finish this!)
2008 turned out to be magical, as the Phillies went on to end a 28-year World Series championship drought, and a 25-year drought for the city in all four major sports. And so, obviously, I drank again. And blogged. (By the way, when I post these old links, read them. They're pretty cool and I'm proud of them!)
2009: The Phils struggled early, overcame it, and won the NL East with 4 games to spare. So I drank, and blogged.
That brings us to 2010. I had the thought earlier of revisiting some of the things I wrote on the blog this year about the Phils...
April 5: I don't think any of the other National League teams improved enough to overtake the Phils. Look for a fourth consecutive NL East title.
May 28, after getting shut out in 3 straight games by the Mets: Of course, no one expects this to go on forever; people expect to be once again ooh-ing and aah-ing at the massive run totals again. But it makes me wonder, what with the bullpen still in flux and the starting rotation still having its ups and downs (even Roy Halladay looked less than superhuman in his last start), what if the Phils don't reach those levels? If, between injuries (Rollins, Carlos Ruiz) and age (Raul Ibanez), the Phils' offense is just in the middle of the pack instead of on top, do they have what it takes to get back to the playoffs and World Series?
May 31: Now for the bad news: this team really sucks right now...The Braves are now a half-game ahead of the Phillies in the NL East standings. Perhaps the shock of being in second place will wake up the Phils. Nothing else seems to be working.
June 2: The Braves now lead the Phils by 2 1/2 games in the NL East. It's early June, it's hardly an insurmountable gap, they haven't had Placido Polanco the last few games, they're still missing Jimmy Rollins, there's clearly no reason to panic just yet, but it's still incredibly annoying. The Phillies are unwatchable right now, unless Roy Halladay is pitching, and for a team with this much talent that is unfathomable.
July 7: As I tweeted last night, after the Phils managed a measly three hits in an 11-inning loss to Atlanta, the more I watch this team, the more I feel that they're not going back to the playoffs this year.
August 4: Once again the Phils have three members of their starting lineup currently on the DL ...With all the inconsistency and underachieving and slumps and these injuries, after tonight's win at Florida (behind Roy Halladay) the Phils are just 2 games out of first place. How is that possible?
August 27 (After getting swept at home in a 4-game series by Houston): The Phils are lucky that they didn't lose even more ground in the standings...What is a bit more important is that they allowed the Rockies and LA Dodgers to gain some ground and hope, which make the Phils' upcoming road trip even more difficult...This is a bad time to be in a slump.
After that sweep at the hands of Houston the Phillies won 24 of 30 games. They were 7 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East after play ended on July 21. Since that date the Phils are 46-17. In September they're 20-5.
Editor's Note II: And that's where I dozed off and woke up and threw up and stopped for the night. But you get the idea. The Phils blew away the Braves and the rest of the league. They finished it off last night in Washington, as Halladay won his 21st game of the season (and had it not been for the lackluster offense at times he'd have won more), an 8-0 two-hitter despite a rain shower that picked up in intensity later in the evening, in front of a crowd of 14,309 -- mostly Phillies fans traveling down I-95. By contrast, in a domed stadium in Tampa Bay, 12,446 Rays "fans" bothered to show up to see their team's potential clincher.
Not only did they clinch the division, but they've clinched the best record in the NL, giving them home field advantage throughout the playoffs. A Phillies team has never done that before. They're also just the third National League team to make the postseason in four consecutive years. Granted, the entire postseason was only the World Series until 1969, when the leagues were split into East and West Divisions. But even since 1969 (and in the 90s when the leagues were realigned into three divisions each and the Wild Card was added, creating two more playoff slots), only the Braves from 1991-2005 accomplished the feat.
Whatever happens from here on, there is no doubt: this is the greatest era in Phillies history, surpassing the team that won three straight NL East crowns from 1976-1978, the 1980 World Series and 1983 NL pennant. No Phillies team finished in first place four years in a row -- until this one. No Phillies team was in the World Series in back-to-back seasons -- until this one, and they have a chance to do it for a third consecutive year, something that hasn't happened in the NL since the 1940s.
Phantastic.
No comments:
Post a Comment