I Am, In Fact, Kidding You: Phillies 12, Rockies 11
by Wet Luzinski on Sep 2, 2010 11:58 PM EDT
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Imagine the bar dosh you'd be rolling in if you were to have sauntered into your local taproom at around 6:30 p.m. EST and said, "Fellow fans of retail alcohol! Unless the Phillies do ALL of the following things tonight, I will buy all of you drinks all Labor Day Weekend! If not, you're buyin' for ME!" and enumerated thusly:
- "Joe Blanton will slide home! And it will look kind of awkward!
- Utley will homer - no! He will hit a GRAND SLAM!
- Oh, oh, and Ryan Howard will hit a homer, too!
- And, and and Jayson Werth will hit a homer!
- Think I'm fullovit? Then they'll do it ALL IN THE SAME INNING, wiseguy.
- Antonio Bastardo, Ben Francisco, and Jose Contreras will contribute!
- They'll give up 20 hits and 2 errors and STILL WIN.
- They will be four runs behind in the 6th, then take a 5-run lead in the 7th, then hang on by one run.
- Brad Lidge will save us all! And after their fastest player reaches first on a leadoff error! And he'll use just 21 pitches to do it!
- Double or nothing holiday weekend bet: And the Mets will beat the Braves, too!"
Please celebrate responsibly this weekend, Phillies fans!
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That fangraph looks like the Rockies. Spiked hot chocolate would taste good right now.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
Excellent recap. What a mess of a game. Coors is so ridiculous. I can’t say I would much like being a Rockies fan and seeing this stuff with regularity. Even for action movie buffs, there comes a point when the explosions get so excessive and so unrealistic that they stop being enjoyable. The whole appeal of games like this is supposed to be that they’re rare and unforeseeable.
Now, changing gears a bit, I can’t speak for the rest of y’all. But for me, after coming home from a hard day of work and watching the end of such a stressful Phillies victory, there’s nothing else I’d rather do than turn on some classical music, sit back in my recliner, and enjoy a fine whine.
How in the world do their injuries compare to the Phillies from this season? And the Phillies have NEVER used it as an excuse for their performance, nor have the fans. As far as giving credit where it’s due, I haven’t seen much on here that diminishes what the Braves have done to date and it really sounds like more of an insecurity on the part of the Braves fans than anything else.
As far as analysts are concerned, they ALWAYS take the safe route when making predictions. The Phillies have been to back-to-back World Series, which is no small feat. The 14 consecutive titles the Braves won happened a long time ago so I don’t see how that part of the argument is at all relevant. Just sounds to me at the end of his rant that they are diminishing more what the Phillies have done in tooting their own horns. Yes, the Braves have been very good this season (and it was expected, at least from me), but yes, they’ve been fortunate to not be overly affected by injuries and to be able to take advantage in the division when their toughest competition was decimated by them.
That’s the game of baseball. “No one appreciates us or believes in us.” Eat it. Welcome to our world. It took 2 straight WS appearances for analysts/other fans to not think the Phils were a fluke. Sounds to me like the Braves fan, in trying to get more respect for his/her team, is dismissing the Phillies as just that.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
by doubleh on Sep 3, 2010 12:27 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
And furthermore, why do they care what analysts and everyone else thinks enough to write a manifesto about it? Everytime I listen to ESPN they are sucking the Braves off, so I have no clue what they are talking about other than “predictions” which are all crap anyway. Remember the predictions for the 2008 World Series? Who picked the Phillies? Not many. I remember Keith Law said “Rays in 3”.
Anywho, point is, in the end everyone hears what they want to hear. Like Phillies think the national announcers all hate the Phillies and the Braves fans think they all love the Phils and hate the Braves. World is full of tin foil hat wearers.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
While the Braves fans may have had a point at early points this season, I don’t think that it holds water now. The ESPN announcers have become more and more fair to them, although I will admit that the Baseball Today Podcast does have a bit of a Phillies bent (one of the announcers is indeed a rather large Phillies homer), but even they have the Braves (along with the Phillies).
I for one, no longer believe that the national media hates us. While they do not love us in the same way that they love the Red Sox and the Yankees, I think that they are at least fair— but our memories hold in the negative moments and get angry and bitter over the bad things that have been said and brace against a real or perceived slight.
Why do you care...
that they care?
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
Exactly my point.
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
I admire the vigor and agree with the larger point about media attention, I really do, but, umm, Phillies fans have used injuries as an excuse for their performance. I have.
by Wet Luzinski on Sep 3, 2010 12:48 AM EDT up reply actions
Either way I think they’re worried. Of course we only gained +1 run diff tonight so they still have that argument over the Phils
by Sept.28.Oct.27.Dec.28.2008 on Sep 3, 2010 12:53 AM EDT up reply actions
Also, the whining about national media attention.
If they actually showed up to games, maybe they would get some more attention
by Sept.28.Oct.27.Dec.28.2008 on Sep 3, 2010 12:57 AM EDT up reply actions
Meh, no one can say with any certainty that injuries haven’t affected their performance—of course, they have—but I don’t think anyone has used it as any sort of crutch. That is to say, no one waves a hand at what the Braves have done with a “yeah, but…”
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
Exactly.
The Braves are a damn good team, and I think you’d be hard-pressed to find an analyst who would argue otherwise — for instance, it’s noting like the collective reluctance to accept the Padres for what they are (of which I’m a part). Their lineup is vastly improved, their pitching is incredibly deep in both the rotation and the bullpen, they play well at home… they’re just good, maybe the best in the National League.
But the whole “woe is me” thing is just bullshit. I guess it’s just one fan’s way of adopting a “nobody believed in us!” mentality, but the whole thing is just stupid.
True… and considering the length of the Phillies disabled list this season, such a reaction is natural. I know that I have blamed this season’s problems on injuries at times and have been guilty of more than one game of “what if” involving the outcome of this season if the injury luck had fallen more in the Phillies’ favor.
The Phillies "Stole" a game
This seems to be the new rallying cry, even after the abortion of the Astros series. The ump giveth, the ump taketh.
Let’s give that game back, but then let’s have Troy Glaus’ or Heywards’ fly ball be about 5 feet shorter and the Phillies win a game. Shit happens yo.
"I remember being three and I wanted to be a baseball player, that's all I ever really wanted to be. That and Spider Man." -Raul Ibanez
by Jose and the Contrarians on Sep 3, 2010 12:52 AM EDT up reply actions
A few other commentators over there are bringing up games the Braves had gifted too, not to mention disagreeing with the author on a few points. Seems a tinfoiley backlash occurred
by Sept.28.Oct.27.Dec.28.2008 on Sep 3, 2010 1:01 AM EDT up reply actions
Heck, as even one of their commentators said, make strike 3 to Johnny Damon in the Tigers game the ball that it was (by several feet), and the Tigers maybe win that game, or any of a number of close calls that the Braves have received (Cole Hamels having to pitch in a downpour until after he gave up the 3 run homerun, anyone?) Over the course of the season, the calls usually even out.
by dannijd on Sep 3, 2010 2:50 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I actually don’t believe calls even out over the course of a season—I tend to think that’s a cliched fallacy (sometimes teams get repeatedly f’ed in the a, but no one wants to admit it because “human element, yay!”)—but that’s part of baseball until MLB sees the light and puts robots on the field.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
Perhaps you are right, and that is just what I am telling myself after some of the highway robbery that happened in the Astros series. But even if it is just human error, one would expect that given enough time a team would wind up on both sides of the stick.
by dannijd on Sep 3, 2010 3:53 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Goodness gracious, there is some kind of complex over there at TC. So the Phils get a lot of attention. Well yeah, that tends to happen when you’ve gone to the WS two years in a row and have a bunch of well-known superstars on your team. And a Derek Jeter complaint?? Really?? Yes, we know that Derek Jeter gets a lot of love from the national press. This has been true for over a decade. Who cares?
The Braves have a really good baseball team. I don’t think anyone questions that. Whining over that precious, precious Respect is an odd use of one’s time.
Some might say...
that whining over their whining is an odd use of your time.
It’s a blog. That’s one of the thing people do on blogs. Everything looks worse when someone else is doing it.
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
I would think that as a fan of a team that has to put up with whining about the ballpark, we’d give other teams a pass on that.
Ain’t like both teams don’t play at the same field for the game.
dammit taco pal
I hate when you post those links, it ruins my day. Makes me hate people.
Overall there are some very good blogs on this network, even for the Phillies’ “rivals” (Amazin Avenue, Federal Baseball, True Blue L.A.), but…
http://www.thegoodphight.com
I’m with you—I was all happy with the houdini win, and then I came on here last night and saw that link. It riles me all up to know there are so many stupid people in the world.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
Yeah...
the same thing happens to me when I read other blogs…like this one.
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
Simple Solution
Don’t. I know I don’t venture to other blogs very often and it’s for this very reason.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
Oh, and say what you mean to say. I hate passive agressiveness.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
Okay...
there are some stupid people here, too.
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
Of course there are
Every fanbase has them. Yours does, too. My underlying point is that “this whole world is against us” kind of blogging does nothing to serve a fanbase well and it’s the exact same thing I hate in the Philly fanbase. There are no conspiracies. The Braves are good and so are the Phillies. It’s not that hard to admit both as truths.
If you are saying that I’m stupid, well, then there’s nothing really left to say. You don’t know me and I have nothing to prove to you. I’m tired of people developing notions on what they think they know rather than on what they take the time to get to know. It’s just lazy.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
Sorry! I personally am a believer in angrying up the blood during a pennant race. More angry = more fun! But YMMV.
Being exposed to this baseball blog universe the last few years has brought some subtle shifts in my attitudes toward certain teams. For my whole life, I was always a Mets hater first, Braves hater second. But I definitely feel the gap narrowing there. Similarly, I had previously only disliked, rather than hating, the Yankees, and was always indifferent toward the Giants. But now I pretty much despise the Yankees and kinda like the Giants.
Well, that really agries up the blood.
Couldn’t resist responding to a comment about Chipper’s “sacrifices”
"thug"
I love when people use the word “thug” when you know they really, really want to use another word to describe an African-American.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
by WholeCamels on Sep 3, 2010 10:17 AM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
Yeah when I saw that I wanted to reach through my computer screen and mollywop that stupid motherfucker.
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
It’s probably unconscious though. I’m sure he doesn’t even realize what’s going on in his own brain. He just thinks you’re persecuting him with “political correctness.”
Going further, even if you attempt to inoffensively apply the “thug” label to a certain type of person/subculture, Ryan Howard is like, the least “thuggish” person in the world. He’s pretty much the sweetest dude alive (Non-Sweeney Division).
http://www.thegoodphight.com
Yes, I am “classless” because I had the temerity to point out that what he said was pretty fucking racist. I hate this “classy” nonsense anyways.
I read the rest of his comment, and the Ryan Howard jab wasn’t even the stupidest clause, but it was the part I thought most important to respond to if for nothing else than to highlight to others reading the thread that the guy is a stupid bigot.
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
Yeah, class has nothing to do with what it’s become associated, really. It’s chief definitions in this case are 1) a group of people or things that are alike in some way; 2) (the system according to which people belong to) one of a number of economic/social groups or 3) a grade or rank (of merit).
Let the movie lines go, people. They are often examples of abuse of the english language.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
Your ability to determine if someone else is a racist or bigot based on their use of a word that could well have been used with no such connotations is amazing. I have always thought of the word “thug” as based on someone’s behavior, not the color of their skin. I would not use the word to describe Ryan Howard, because he seems like a great guy.
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
But a lot of people do conflate the two words, that’s the danger. We live in a society that still form their beliefs based on prejudice, as evidenced by the very fact that people hate people merely because they root for one team over another one, for Heaven’s sake.
Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
It’s precisely the fact that Ryan Howard is not remotely thuggish, and standing at the plate for a moment admiring your home run is not thuggish behavior, that makes the use of the word “thug” in that context suspicious, in light of its racial connotations.
Exactly. But apparently this is a difficult concept for them to grasp. They’d rather defend that moron than acknowledge that pretty much everything he said in his comment was completely idiotic.
Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
by FuquaManuel on Sep 4, 2010 2:13 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
The point I, and others, are trying to make...
is that he used the word thug because he, in an opposing fan-like manner, wanted to insult him. Obviously he doesn’t know anything about Ryan Howard’s personality. Thug is the word he pulled out of his vocabulary on this particular occasion. Because Howard is black, and because you associate the word “thug” with black, your assumption is that he is using it as a racial epitaph. So the problem here seems to be one of semantics. I’m completely honest here when I say that if I were doing a word association game and had to name a Phillie’s player and someone said “thug”, I would say “Werth” I’m wondering if it might actually be a regional difference in the use of the word. Perhaps thug is used more often to describe a black person in the north than in the south?
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
Dear God, what an amazing game.
The Phillies fans were out in force again in Denver, as is customary. We obviously got louder and louder at about the 7th inning or so, (and didn’t need any prompting to make “NOISE” from the video wall to do so). Cute part was two kids having a dance off every time the music played in the last few innings, so they kept switching back and forth between them on the screen.
Lidge was his usual exciting self, and it was agreed that the worst part of watching him pitch was the fact that Coors stops selling beer after the 7th inning is over.
By the way, does drinking responsibly mean waiting until I get home to down a 12 pack to mix with the adrenaline that’s still in my system? If so, I’m set.
Utley
So if he had taken the original recovery timeline, he would have come back on Tuesday, which, it seems, is when he came back anyway.
Very observant
I enjoyed the set up you used with “who’ll take this bet?” I didn’t see anything involving Blanton, so I have no idea what that looked like. But I did think the list as a whole was interesting in that almost every thing on it by itself wasn’t that unbelievable – except maybe for the 20 hits and two errors part – but taken as a whole you’d have to suspend a lot of disbelief that it would all happen in one game. That’s the thing about predictions: if you start getting specific it’s almost impossible to be accurate; be vague and you could convince a lot of people you can see the future (see Nostradamus).
by phillyinportland on Sep 3, 2010 1:13 AM EDT up reply actions
Too true...
I was glad to have him back when he returned (and even made spur of the moment plans to go to the game), only to find myself missing him more with him there (as he turned into the shadow of his usual self that he was for most of the past two weeks). The last two days have been wonderful- he (and to something of a lesser extent Ryan Howard) look like their old selves again.
True, but would he still have need a few weeks to get up to speed?
by Screen Name 20 on Sep 3, 2010 8:01 AM EDT up reply actions
11 beers later and starting the 7th inning watching the replay, I’m still not sure what I watched.
At least I’m getting to the good part. =p
Ah…yes. The Chase Utley money shot…
Remember the Phitans
by RememberthePhitans on Sep 3, 2010 7:34 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I think the Reds game that the Phillies came back in the ninth to won on the Ryan Howard 2 run home run in the 10th, the Twins bullpen blowup, and the Dodgers Chooch-ing have to go on the list.
by dannijd on Sep 4, 2010 12:55 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
So I turned the game off when it was 0-4 and turned it back on when we were up 12-10, getting to sweat through the last five outs or so. I think the hidden key was how hard the Phils made Chacin work through the early going; he was up near 100 pitches by the sixth, and then we feasted on their bullpen.
This was what was missing for so much of the summer. If it’s back, the Phils will be very, very tough to stop.
by dajafi on Sep 3, 2010 11:03 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
Rock
The Fangraph chart looks like a side shot of El Capitan at Yosemite.
http://www.thegoodphight.com
by WholeCamels on Sep 3, 2010 12:23 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
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