Who Is This Franchise We're Rooting For?

Regarding CBP: I still wish it had been built somewhere else. Not necessarily in Center City, but somewhere within the urban fabric. That it was built in the Sports Complex is just another example of the can’t-do attitude and failure of imagination that always seem to plague Philadelphia.

But otherwise, great post. It’s gratifying to be able to root for a team that’s been top-notch on the field without feeling too mercenary.

According to the latest attendance data the Phillies have the highest average home attendance percentate (101.8%) in MLB, higher than even the Red Sox, who last year had 104%.

Strangely, the Phillies are only 14th out of 30 in road attendance, behind Atlanta for example.

They’re very vulnerable to injury, as they don’t have much depth at some key positions.

Middle Infield especially

is that this is a franchise on a major roll, unprecedented in its long history.

What I still struggle to wrap my head around is how much of this is luck and how much design.

When they hired Manuel, I thought the biggest reason why was to keep Jim Thome happy—a classic Phillies cronyism move. But he’s clearly turned out to be the best manager the team has ever had, a superb clubhouse leader who might know as much about hitting as anyone in the game and who seems to relate with stars and bench guys equally well, maybe because he’s been both himself (“The Red Devil” was HUGE in Japan!) He also grasps the limits of his own knowledge, e.g. by letting Dubee run the pitchers pretty much on his own.

And when they brought in Amaro, I thought it would be even worse: all we’d heard was that he disdained performance analysis, was a numbers guy, had come up under Wade—an ass-kisser to an ass-kisser. My fear was that he’d combine Wade’s unctuousness with the arrogance of an ex-player and Gillick’s faith in his “gut,” and get rolled by smart execs. Instead, he pulled off an astonishingly good trade with the guy I used to believe was the best GM in the game, Mark Shapiro.

Did they get lucky with these two guys, or did they know much more than I did? Maybe the latter.

Not exactly. Growing up, the Phillies were the only home team I’d rather watch on TV instead of seeing live. I never liked the Vet except when I had really good seats to something. I went to Fenway a couple times in college and afterwards – it wasn’t until then that I FINALLY understood that baseball should be seen live, and could be really enjoyed too. So for that I say Thank God for CBP. I could care less where it is. We have a proper ball park and that’s all that matters to me.

In 2006 I went to RFK to watch the Phillies beat the Nationals. I remembered at that point exactly what I hated about the Vet. Granted, RFK did not seem quite as cavernous; I was seated in straightaway center field, right behind Aaron Rowand and still felt like my sight-lines to the plate were OK. However, if I got up to get food or use the bathroom, I was immediately overcome by that stale beer / vomit / peanuts / concrete smell which personified the Vet.

Although it’s basically a by-product of the others: Players wanting to come here.

Since before Curt Flood, through and maybe beyond Scott Rolen, good players hadn’t wanted to come to Philly. It was all the losing, it was the phans, it was the local press, it was the organization, it was the ballpark. Curt Schilling used to say that ownership/management would do little things that would piss players off, like scheduling things at inconvenient times that interfered with precious downtime, things that assumed outsized importance in some player’s minds. Now, we’re winning; the phans still sometimes boo but lately it’s not nearly as noticeable (because there’s much less boo-worthy performance); the press is relatively mild; the organization is committed to winning and even sometimes does nice things that players appreciate; and the ballpark has nice facilities. All in all, good players seem like they’d be happy to come here – it sounded like Halladay would’ve been happy to waive his no-trade (he had one, right?) to become a Phillie, bandbox accusations emanating from the Atlanta metro region notwithstanding.

And you’re being asked which of the Big Four professional sports teams in Philadelphia will be the first to win a championships, the Phillies would have to have been a clear #4, right?

Eagles: Outstanding, great young quarterback hitting his peak, well coached, weak Conference.

Flyers: They’re the Flyers, perennial playoff contenders, excursions deep into the playoffs are routine.

Sixers: Coming off an appearance in the Finals, one of the top players in the game on the roster.

Phillies: Cornerstone third baseman begging to leave town, mediocre pitching, new ballpark a couple years away, apathetic fanbase, etc. etc.

David’s post is extremely well-taken, and yet – how many of us felt this way a little over three years ago? Obviously, as WholeCamels notes, nobody felt this way circa 2002. But by July 2006, it now appears in retrospect, the new Era of Good Baseball Operations was pretty well underway. Yet I don’t think most of us felt that way on the day Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle were traded away – the trade felt like precisely more of what we’d been spoonfed for years, and it seemed to portend more years of frustration. Gillick, IIRC, was even quoted as saying we couldn’t expect to contend for several more seasons.

Somebody smarter than me should do a post looking back at that trade and see what it meant to our subsequent success. Obviously the players we got from NY were worthless. But – was it critical to clear up that salary space? Did picking up Werth replace Abreu’s production well enough, and with a younger and cheaper player, that we were able to apply Abreu’s money to locking up Utley? Or did it not ultimately mean anything, and if so, how was it that the team was able to do so well after dumping a critical piece like that? (I do not, by any means, wish to restart the Abreu-was-dragging-us-down nonsense and I apologize in advance if this comment in any way ends up contributing to that.)

I really hope we don’t end up playing the Angels in the World Series this year. It would be really ugly when Abreu batted, and I don’t want to have to be a part of that.

The team is managed by an old hick who no one can understand at press conferences. Yet, he seems to be able to manage players perfectly.

Replace “old hick” with “crazy Venezuelan” and you’ve got Ozzie Guillen.