August 2011: When the Phillies Became a Top-Tier Football Team

In other words, the common thread is anger that the Phillies aren’t X% better than what they are now. The “what they are now” can change but the “X%” always remains constant no matter what.

And now we’ll get to hear it in STEREO!

Frequency Modulation Baby!

But yeah, I think you’re on target. I have a somewhat different perspective, obviously, because I really couldn’t pay close attention prior to 2006, when Gameday Audio started delivering long-distance heaven. In any case, what coverage there was that made it to me was limited to the “Worst Team Ever” and similar themes, but there was definitely a negative attitude, even in 2007. Now, we need Pence to win the Series. Or Lee. Or Oswalt. Or whoever. What before were trivialities are now crises.

I want to hope they do.

But I think that for every fan like you and me, (and my dad, and people like him) who grew up with maroon sttriped pennants in their bedrooms, had the day after the 1980 WS off as a school Holiday, so we could go to the parade, and remember when the Phanatic was introduced, who apreciate the way WE DO…

There are probably two of the younger crowd who feel entitled. Its a fdifferent appreciation.

I went to FSU in the early 90’s. Miami beat us every year. I sat through two wide right games my first two seasons, and when we won teh National championship in 1993 it was like it didn’t happen, because we were always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

We went on a tear for a few years, and it was like 1996 before we lost to miami again. I remember being at the game as an alumni, and talking to kids on campus and they were shellshocked. “How could we lose to Miami?” I just laughed.

To me its about my kid, as much as anything else, if that makes any sense.

Whats the old ABC sprts theme, “the thrill fo Victory, and the Agony of Defeat?”

They’ll appreciate it in ten years, when the cycle comes full circle again.

and they’ll talk about Rollins, and Howard, and halladay, and Utley the way we talk about Carlton and Boone, and the Bull, and Schmidt.

No, I don’t. Unfortunately, it’s human nature to not really appreciate good times until you’ve suffered through bad ones. All the tales of pain in the world will not make them feel it.

I think that depends. Kids like in Joecatz story have no way of appreciating it. If basically all you’ve ever known is this current run you have nothing to gauge it against. It becomes the norm for them.

If you are old and lived through the at least the 20 years prior to this run then you should know how special this current era in Phillies baseball and appreciate.

I get the impression too many fans don’t entirely appreciate this for all its worth. I think too many people get caught up in shortcomings from one specific game and extrapolate them to be larger issues than they really are. They forget the baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. Hence football attitude in my opinion.

I think they love them, but i don’t think there’s any way for them to appreciate it, in the way you mean. how can they? there was so much negativity that went along with being a Phillies fan – the inevitable losses, the lousy decisions in the FO, the cheap owners, and worst, the defensiveness about being a Phillies fan at all. the goddamn inferiority complex. they have no idea, and i’m happy they don’t. but they can’t possibly know how good this feels.

I am sort of the same way.

Born in 1989, I have no recollection of the 1993 team. What I do remember, though, is looking at a ticket stub from that World Series. Presumably my Dad went. If he went with anyone else, I do not remember. If I was there at the game, I have no recollection. I do not remember what game of the series it was, or even where the stub is today. It may have been thrown away. All I know is that it’s been years since I’ve seen it.

As for me, growing up as a child in the 90s, I always felt baseball was boring. Maybe that’s because as a kid, I did not really want to follow a team that consistently went nowhere. Aside from going to a few games a year at Veterans Stadium, my parents did not really care anymore either. Perhaps the heartbreak of 1993 followed by the years of suckiness turned them off. I’ve never asked.

My grandfather owned season tickets (and still does, in fact, although they are split several ways that ultimately sees me go to 4-5 games a year), so we would inevitably give a few to my dad who would then take us. Our favorite was fireworks night. Something about Phillies fireworks, no matter how good or how bad the team was, was always worth it. I do not recall much in the way of specific games, although I do recall one year where the Phillies got trampled on by the Yankees at the Vet. Derek Jeter had a big game. I hated him even then.

I started actually getting into baseball in the mid-2000s. As the years went by and the team was decent, I would watch more and more games a year. They were not a playoff team yet, but the fact they kept getting close made it exciting. At least more exciting than the late 90s. Of course, since 2007, watching and following the Phillies has been a blast, made even funner by my learning of advanced stats a couple years ago.

Given all that, I like to think I know what Phillies fans felt between 1984 and 1992 and the rest of the 1990s after 1993 and just how special this golden era is, but really, I probably don’t. Because I never lived and breathed the truly terrible Phillies every day like some have that would allow for them to enjoy this more than younger me. That being said, I do realize what we are witnessing now is special. But I recognize it is probably something I won’t truly, truly appreciate until it’s over and the Phillies find themselves in last place again, whenever that may be. I know it’s special, but when I look back on it years from now and tell my kids about it is probably the first time it will truly hit me how special this team truly is.

’grandpa, why are you a Phillies fan? they stink!"

  " ’tweren’t always that way, sonny…let me tell you bout Cliff Lee….."

I’m probably about the same age as Joecatz’s dad, close to your age. The thing you said about the 1980 World Series seeming anticlimactic struck a chord. I, too, was probably more excited that year about the victory over the Astros, after the three frustrating losses in the NLCS 1976-78. I also had a secret hope in my mind that when the Phillies got to the Series they would beat the hated Yankees, who most experts predicted would win the ALCS. So, the Series against the Royals did seem a little less special. I was so hoping that in 2009 we would finally see that win over New York but it wasn’t to be. Maybe this year.

because the Phillies always win and the economy always sucks.

This is funny coming from a fan of a team with 3 guys in their 30s making $20+M per.

If that were the case, it would be stupid and I would ignore it anyway.