One of my best memories as a Phillies fan is also the quirkiest.  I was 12 years old when I attended the Phillies-Pirates game at Veterans Stadium on June 21, 1985.  The Phillies rallied from a two-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth to tie the Pirates and take the game into extra innings.  They eventually won the game 7 innings later with a Juan Samuel RBI double that scored Derrel Thomas (an aside - you could have offered me millions and I would have never come up with that name as a former Phillie).  Final score: Phillies 4, Pirates 3.

But the long extra-inning game wasn't what made this game so memorable or so quirky.  Rather, it was the moths.  Friday, June 21, 1985, was the night that the moths descended on Veterans Stadium.  For whatever reason, moths started appearing during the game.  The conditions must have been perfect for moths, because they somehow notified their friends and soon it seemed that every moth in North America was at the stadium that night.  Looking up to the lights was a sight to behold - moths almost darkened them.

I have two distinct memories of that game, other than all the moths.  I remember sitting in the lower level on the third base side and counting the number of moths that would hit me.  As the game progressed and more moths appeared, more than 40 were hitting me each half inning.  Being a 16 inning game, not to mention one in which moths took over, the stadium emptied out as the game went on.  I took advantage of that and moved to the first row at third base.  I recall asking the third base ump and Pirates thirdbaseman Bill Madlock if they had ever seen anything like the moths that night.  Neither had.

With this bizarre memory of moths swarming Veterans Stadium firmly branded into my memory, I've always sought out a Sports Illustrated story that appeared sometime after the game talking about that night.  I've looked at SI's website in the past but had no luck because old articles were (originally) only available through special order or (more recently) behind a pay service.  But, this morning I discovered that SI has now seen the light and opened up its "vault" to all who want, free of charge.  I quickly found the article - How Bugs Drive Baseball Batty.  It's a fun read for any fan of the game, but especially so for Phillies fans who happened to be in attendance that night.

Here's the intro to the story, describing the night the moths took over Veterans Stadium:

June 21, 1985, will be long remembered at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia as The Night of the Living Moths. The Phillies were leading the Pirates 1-0 in the fifth inning when the moths began arriving, filling the air around the light towers.

By the seventh inning, millions, perhaps billions, of the fluttering insects were in the stadium. "It couldn't have been worse," recalls then Phillies catcher Ozzie Virgil . "You'd go up to hit, and they were in your eyes and ears and mouth." To Phillies outfielder Von Hayes , the ballpark suddenly looked like one of those water-filled paperweights that you shake to make "snow" fall. "It was just like playing in a furry blizzard," he said. "From the outfield you couldn't see home plate."

The game went extra innings. In the bottom of the 15th, Pirates third baseman Bill Madlock was in the process of fielding a routine grounder when he inhaled a moth, gagged and threw wild to first for an error. The Pirates were able to survive that moth in the ointment, but finally, in the bottom of the 16th, Juan Samuel won the game for the Phils with a one-out double down the rightfield line. No bugs were involved.

There's no doubt that we are in a golden age of individual Phillie performances.  In Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Pat Burrell, we have four of the best Phillies to ever play the game at their position.  If it weren't for Steve Carlton's Hall of Fame career, most of it with the Phils, we might be able to say the same about Cole Hamels in the position of lefty starter, but that would be getting ahead of ourselves as he's only started 71 games in the majors.

And yet, with these four all-time great Phillies, we have 3 playoff games and 0 playoff wins.  If that number doesn't significantly change over the course of the next few years, blame lies completely and solely at the foot of management.  Not complementing these four players with enough talent to get to the playoffs and succeed is a crime against every Phillies fan.

Back to the quartet.  Just how good are Howard, Utley, Rollins, and Burrell?  Let's look at their stats compared to other Phillies who have played their positions.  There's no doubt Howard, Utley, and Rollins are the best ever to play their positions in a Phillies uniform.  Left field has been a better position historically for the Phils than first, second, or short, so Burrell falls short of the "best ever" label, but he's still in the top five.  Consider the charts below the fold that make the case.

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The Phillies newest pitcher, RJ Swindle, was called up twice by the big league team in the past week.  His first big league stint lasted all of two days -- once Clay Condrey was available again, RJ was sent back to AAA so JA Happ could start Friday night.  But, with Tom Gordon going on the DL Sunday, the Phils called up RJ again.  And, as luck would have it, on Monday, RJ's 25th birthday, he made his big league debut.

Of course, at first it didn't go as planned, as RJ really struggled in his first inning, giving up 2 runs, 4 hits, and 1 walk.  But, he settled in for the next two innings, facing 6 batters and retiring them in order.

RJ was kind enough to do an interview with me about a month ago when he first popped onto The Good Phight radar as a result of his eye-popping minor league stats and bizarre history of being released by the Red Sox and Yankees despite outstanding minor league performance.  Now that he's a big leaguer, I didn't know if he'd have the time to do another interview, but I thought it worth a shot to ask.  And RJ once again generously came through, talking with me about his big league debut.  As with the previous interview, I think you'll enjoy reading about RJ's night against the Mets:

TGP: Congratulations on making it to the big leagues. Quite a birthday present. How’d you feel yesterday on the mound making your big league debut on your birthday?

RJ:  Last night (Monday) was awesome, definitely a birthday I will never forget.  I knew I would probably be pitching, but never expected to go 3 innings or get an at bat let last night let alone ever actually be in the big leagues, so it was that much more special. I was a little disappointed my wife, parents, and sister couldn’t get there last night, but did have my aunt and uncle and cousins there so that was nice.

TGP: The first batter (David Wright’s full-count home run) was obviously not how you envisioned your big league debut. Was it jitters? Or just what happens sometimes when anyone faces a perennial MVP-candidate? A mistake in how you pitched him? Or something else?

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Not a bad birthday present.  On his 25th birthday, RJ Swindle is back.  And he'll probably stick this time.  He's not filling in for a temporary leave, but rather replacing the injured Tom Gordon.  It'll be interesting to see how Manuel uses him.  Is he going to be relegated to mop-up duty?  Or, as another lefty in the pen with JC Romero struggling a bit, will he be immediately inserted into important lefty situations?  Here's hoping, once again, for success at the big league level for RJ!

[JULY 2 UPDATE: Bumped back to the front page in light of RJ's call up today.  Originally posted June 4, 2008.]

Since Baseball Prospectus highlighted Phils' farmhand RJ Swindle, he's become a big interest of mine.  Currently a Lehigh Valley IronPig, he barely hits the mid-80s on the radar gun, and has a curve ball in the low 50s.  (Yes, you read that right.)  Yet, he's been wildly successful in the minors so far, even though he's now in his third organization.

Through the miracles of Web 2.0, I tracked down RJ.  He is a very friendly, easy-going guy who was gracious enough to participate in an interview for TGP.  I think you'll enjoy reading the interview below.

(Please note: all but the last question and answer (obvious when you get to it) took place before he had his first rough outing for the IronPigs Monday night (letting up 2 earned runs, 3 walks, 2 hits, in 1 inning).)

TGP: Let’s first talk a little bit about your pitching.  What pitches do you throw?

RJ: I throw 5 pitches - fastball, curveball, slider, cutter, changeup.  My fastball is about 81-84, my curveball that everyone knows me by is about 51-55, all the other pitches come somewhere in between.

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To replace Brett Myers, the Phillies called up RJ Swindle today.  Yup, the RJ Swindle that has become a Good Phight favorite.  The RJ Swindle who throws a curve in the low 50s and a fastball in the mid 80s.  The RJ Swindle that did a great interview with us earlier this year.

I know I speak for all of the Good Phight writers and readers wishing RJ the best of luck in the big leagues.  His minor league performance has been outstanding.  Even with a few rocky performances in early June, RJ comes to the Phillies after posting a 1.93 ERA with the IronPigs and a 0.54 ERA with the Reading Phils.  All told this year, his minor league numbers are sickening:  1.35 ERA in 40 innings pitched, a 48:6 strikeout to walk ratio, and a 0.85 WHIP.  After being jerked around by a couple other organizations, RJ certainly has earned his big league invite.

Go get 'em RJ!

More interleague play this weekend?  Seriously?  Haven't we had enough already?  July and a return to NL games can't come soon enough for the Phillies.

The Phillies are now 3-9 in interleague play.  Only the Padres have a worse interleague record, at 3-12.  (The Dodgers also have the Phillies' 3-9 record.)  But, the Phillies have the worst differential between their NL-only play and their interleage play.  By far.

Below is a chart showing the NL teams that have been most helped and most hurt by interleague play.  The differential is the difference between the team's winning percentage in interleague play and their winning percentage in NL-only play.  A positive differential indicates the team is better in, and thus helped by, interleague play; a negative differential indicates the opposite.

On May 9, I took a look at Ryan Howard's first 36 games of the season.  The start of the season, in which he hit .165/.285/.331, was clearly the worst 36-game performance of his career.

Since then, he's played in another 36 games, and there's not much to complain about anymore.  His second-36 game triple-slash numbers are .277/.360/.645 for a nice 1.005 OPS.  His .645 SLG is just a bit short of his MVP-year .659 SLG.  His eye could use a bit of improvement though, as his walk to strikeout ratio of 17:46 is significantly short of the ratios he's posted over the past two years (better than 1:2 each year).

His raw counting numbers have been very impressive.  Over the last 36 games, he has 13 home runs, 45 RBI, and 32 runs scored.  Translated to a full season, those numbers are monstrous:  59 home runs, 203 RBI, and 144 runs scored.  Of course, the last two numbers are largely because of the incredible lineup he's in, but there's no reason to think he'll have fewer RBI or run scoring opportunities as the season goes on.

With Howard performing as we expected, Rollins and Victorino healthy, and Burrell and Utley playing like MVPs, this lineup is back where it belongs.

After last night's game, the Phillies are now back where they belong: first in runs scored in the National League.

There's still work to be done though.  The Cubs are only 2 runs behind the Phils but have played two fewer games.  However, with the Phillies' lineup completely healthy right now and the Cubs missing Alfonso Soriano for a significant chunk of time once again as well as playing Jim Edmonds almost every day, I expect the Phils' lead to widen over the rest of the season.

What's more surprising though is that the Phillies are third in the NL in runs allowed.  I'm pretty sure that no-one's pre-season fantasy, not even Rich Dubee's, included the Phils' pitching staff doing so well at this point of the season.  As MattS showed last week, there's a lot of flukiness in the Phils' stellar bullpen performance, but there's also a lot of improvement that can be had if Bret Myers can figure out how to pitch again.

I expect the Phils to fall back to the middle of the pack in runs allowed as the season goes on, but if the offense keeps chugging along on all cylinders, the team should still thrive.

This team is an offensive juggernaut.  With even mediocre pitching to complement it, we should continue the early season success without much problem.

My favorite Phillies farmhand pitched last night for the IronPigs.  He came in with the Pigs down 3 in the 8th and pitched two innings of, you guessed it, scoreless, walkless ball.  He struck out two and gave up one hit.  So, his AAA stats are getting more unreal every day:  11.3 IP, 0.79 ERA, 13:1 K:BB, and 0.53 WHIP.  What's it going to take to get him in Philadelphia?