As I am sure many of you do, I log on to espn.com religiously and look for an article written about the Phillies and their success this season.  I do not look for stories with a twist such as Jimmy Rollins and Pat Burrell playing together for years or Mike Victorino traveling with the team.  I look for articles, much like the ones written about other teams.  The articles that bring attention to all of the positive aspects of the Phillies of 2008.  I want to see an article written about the greatness of Ryan Howard's season not just the negativity of his strikeouts and low batting average or that Chase Utley is really the MVP of this team.  I want to read an article about the downright incredible pitching that came during the Brewers series.  For some reason the articles are about the Brewers lack of hitting, rather than the Phillies dominant pitching performances.  I want to understand why so many writers are picking the Dodgers in 7 when the Phillies tied the season series 4-4, adjusting for the first 4 defeats and winning the last 4. Cole Hamels who will pitch 2 possibly 3 times in the series and absolutely dominated the dodgers lineup with Manny in it while the Phils will face RH low ball pitchers, whom they generally feast on!  The reasons given are "Brad Lidge hasn't blown a save this year, and that is a bad thing!"  How is that a bad thing??  Who is to say he will blow a save in postseason just because he has not blown one yet??  Who is to say that the games will even come down to save situations.  Other arguments are "Phillies inconsistent offense" and my favorite of all "Manny Ramirez's series against the Cubs." This is a new series!! Against the Phillies this year, Manny Ramirez's stats are eye popping right??  A .212 batting average with 1 hr and 5 rbi 2 runs 1 double.  He has also walked 9 times and struck out 8 in 33 at bats.  His OBP is .409  and his ops is a measly .742.  Do sportswriters look at stats??  Do they have a basis for any argument?  Dodgers/Red Sox are a sexy pick.  There is a story line behind it.  But, our Phillies have a story line as well.  They have building up to this moment as a perennal contender for much of this century.  They deserve to be on magazine covers and to be spoken of positively on radio and in articles. 

What set me off is that I found an article on msn.com.  The headline reads With Cubs out, Phils now lovable losers.  I tried to find something in the article that depicts the PHils as lovable.  Instead, i found an article that does not mention even one Phillies player on the current team.  The article focused on Philadelphia sports miscues and leads the reader to assume that this Phillies season will just be another miscue.  These Phillies players and us Phillies fans deserve more.

Here is that article:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8651562/?MSNHPHMA

Another convincing surrender by the Chicago Cubs has removed from the 2008 Major League Baseball playoffs a franchise that defines futility.

It's hard to compete with 100 years of screaming karma.

For the record, the times haven't been rosy in Los Angeles, where the Dodgers just ended a 20-year postseason drought by skunking the Cubs. But the Dodgers did achieve a World Series victory in 1988, and have treated their fans to a fine, if distant, history of Fall Classic success.

The Tampa Bay Rays have handed their gun-shy fan base a mostly miserable, 10-year existence, while followers of the Boston Red Sox evolved from historically tortured to unrepentantly smug in only four years.

(Click thru for the rest)