jsantoliquito
10-25-2010, 11:08 AM
Brand Them The Philly Flops
By Joseph Santoliquito
You didn’t see this coming? Not back in May, when a supposed offensive juggernaut went whimpering through New York without scoring a run throughout an entire series? You didn’t know what was bound to happen, before Ryan Howard strode to the plate with two out and two on in the bottom of the ninth against San Francisco’s Brian Wilson in the deciding Game 6 of the National League Championship Series?
If you didn’t, you weren’t watching the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies, a team that now belongs to the ages, along with the other Philadelphia sports wrecks that swelled a loyal fan base with promise and hope, only to have their hearts tread on like the Game 6 programs strewn all over the grounds around Citizens Bank Park.
A quick show of hands out there from the Phillies’ faithful fandom, how many of you really thought Howard wasn’t scare you-know-what in the Phillies’ final plate appearance of 2010? How many of you out there will remember that over the many good things the Phillies actually achieved this year?
Not many.
Not many because this team wore a win-everything-or-else badge that the organization and the adoring fawning media that followed them placed there. What will the Phillies do with all of their 2010 World Series championship t-shirts they had made back in February, or the design plans of their 2010 World Series rings?
Face it, this team, from top to bottom, had an arrogance that in the end bit them in their collective butts. Consequently, they sucked in the minions who believed they’d roll over everything in their way before 2010 even began.
Remember the barking hound calls of 100-win seasons, and winning the National League East by 20 games, and stomping over anything that stood in their path of reaching a third-straight World Series? Remember them? Where were those calls Saturday night, after Howard got caught with the bat on his $25-million shoulders on a called third strike?
They were nowhere.
It’s what happens when fans and media alike are blinded by things they should be happening—but are not.
The 2010 Phillies did a lot of things this season—but not what it was supposed to do and that’s win the World Series. Anything than that less marked 2010 as a major disappointment, up there with the 1979 team that I’ve been comparing this version of the Phillies with all season.
This Phillies team was arguably the greatest in franchise history, better than the 2008 World Series winners, better than the 2009 Phillies that reached the World Series. And what did they do? Do we really have to remind you again?
The scary thing is a window of great opportunity has closed. This is an aged team that underachieved. Anything less than a World Series championship was unacceptable. It’s the least the Phillies could have done for an incredible fan base that sold out Citizens Bank Park every night.
Joseph Santoliquito is a nationally read sportswriter who is based in the Philadelphia area.
By Joseph Santoliquito
You didn’t see this coming? Not back in May, when a supposed offensive juggernaut went whimpering through New York without scoring a run throughout an entire series? You didn’t know what was bound to happen, before Ryan Howard strode to the plate with two out and two on in the bottom of the ninth against San Francisco’s Brian Wilson in the deciding Game 6 of the National League Championship Series?
If you didn’t, you weren’t watching the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies, a team that now belongs to the ages, along with the other Philadelphia sports wrecks that swelled a loyal fan base with promise and hope, only to have their hearts tread on like the Game 6 programs strewn all over the grounds around Citizens Bank Park.
A quick show of hands out there from the Phillies’ faithful fandom, how many of you really thought Howard wasn’t scare you-know-what in the Phillies’ final plate appearance of 2010? How many of you out there will remember that over the many good things the Phillies actually achieved this year?
Not many.
Not many because this team wore a win-everything-or-else badge that the organization and the adoring fawning media that followed them placed there. What will the Phillies do with all of their 2010 World Series championship t-shirts they had made back in February, or the design plans of their 2010 World Series rings?
Face it, this team, from top to bottom, had an arrogance that in the end bit them in their collective butts. Consequently, they sucked in the minions who believed they’d roll over everything in their way before 2010 even began.
Remember the barking hound calls of 100-win seasons, and winning the National League East by 20 games, and stomping over anything that stood in their path of reaching a third-straight World Series? Remember them? Where were those calls Saturday night, after Howard got caught with the bat on his $25-million shoulders on a called third strike?
They were nowhere.
It’s what happens when fans and media alike are blinded by things they should be happening—but are not.
The 2010 Phillies did a lot of things this season—but not what it was supposed to do and that’s win the World Series. Anything than that less marked 2010 as a major disappointment, up there with the 1979 team that I’ve been comparing this version of the Phillies with all season.
This Phillies team was arguably the greatest in franchise history, better than the 2008 World Series winners, better than the 2009 Phillies that reached the World Series. And what did they do? Do we really have to remind you again?
The scary thing is a window of great opportunity has closed. This is an aged team that underachieved. Anything less than a World Series championship was unacceptable. It’s the least the Phillies could have done for an incredible fan base that sold out Citizens Bank Park every night.
Joseph Santoliquito is a nationally read sportswriter who is based in the Philadelphia area.