It's Over

Well the fat lady hasnt sang yet, but she's getting real close. The Phillies did what they always do, make it close towards the end, tease the city of Philadelphia with that horrible thought that we have a shot at the playoffs. Sure, now its Charlie Manuel and Pat Gillick, but its still the same shitty story - "Phils fall apart at the end." Now I do hate the Mets, but it may be a better course of action to finish in third place for years in a row (instead of second) and then finally put the pieces together for a great year (Securing a playoff spot in early September). Instead the Phils finish just out of the wild card for another. Another tease of a season. Another just a few games.
2005 - one game out of wild card (88 wins)
2004 - 6 games out of wild card and 10 games out of first place (86 wins)
2003 - third place in division - 5 games behind the Marlins (86 wins) (a season they truly fell apart)
2002 - only 80 wins
2001 - 2 games out of first place in east (86 wins)
2000 - last place in division (65 wins)
1999 - 77 wins

One could say maybe there's a trend of the team getting better. It's more of a trend of the team not getting the job done. You don't get paid to make it an exciting september, you get paid to make it to october. Pat Gillick and Charlie Manuel better not come out and tell me how it's pretty amazing we made it this far considering 'the season had been given up on.' That's not the point. The point of this team is that they were able to control their own destiny of making it to the playoffs. The Phillies WERE in FIRST place in the wild card a few days ago. Now they are two games back, that is their fault. Blame the streaking Dodgers all you want, but when the phillies lose to a Nationals team that isn't even playing Alfonso Soriano, they are basically losing to a AAA team.

I was at the game last night, I wanted to get down there to be able say I saw on the final phillies games in 06 when they made the playoffs, but nope, they don't want that. There were more of the same problems last night - jon lieber fucking up right on cue as normal and manuel thinking that he could somehow make it out of it this time (good thinking) - ryan howard slumping, getting called out on strikes twice (questionable maybe, but twice in a row?, get your shit together and deal with it when the team needs a hit not a K). Pat Burrell was the only person who played different than normal last night, even if he was 2 feet short on one flyball and 15 feet short on another at least he didn't strike out. The Phillies got one run on an ERROR, not a single RBI in the single most important game of the season - that's clutch.

Before the final out of the game it was exciting to be there. My friends and I were 4 of only about 500 people (our estimate) that sat through the 4 and half hour rain delay. More people came around game time when they must have heard the game was starting. It was exciting to be there - it was a home game for the Phils. In warmups every Nationals player got booed and every single phillies player got a cheer - even a chant started when the bullpen guys headed out to their spot. If the Phils any bit of the energy the fans had last night things would have been different. We froze our asses off, chanted M-V-P at every Howard sighting, yelled for Harry Kallas in between innings, booed 'Screech' the shitty mascot, yelled "Asshole" at the ump, chanted "JRoll" to the rythym of "olay, olay, olay" in response the Nationals employees chant of "Jose", stole a foulball basically from the hands of this bitchy, ugly, asian nationals fan, paid $3 for a ticket, paid $3 for hot chocolate, booed Jon Lieber, etc. I could go on and on - what do obnoxious phillies fans do. Was there any appreciation about the fact of what the fans did last night, all of us showing up to cheer on the team. There was basically no thanks from the players. I saw one quote from Chris Coste saying he was thankful for the fans and the ovation he got when he took the field. Besides that nothing. Show us some love Phillies.

Bottom Line - the Phil's disappointed for another year. Another tease of a season. All of it worthless. A bunch of August trades for nothing. All we'll get is a thanks from MLB and ESPN for making it exciting and giving them something to talk about.
I don't think I can watch the game tonight, so let me know how they do and when the players come out thanking us for all that we've been. Yea call me asshole and I know this is a long fucking rant, but if the Phillies do this shit again next year it's not going to be "Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

Save these Dates

Knock on wood, the Phillies will survive this final week and make it to the playoffs for the first time since 1993. If that were to happen the Phillies would get two home games in the first round of the playoffs (the 2nd game being 'if necessary').

October 7th, 2006 would be the first home playoff game for the Phillies since the 1993 season. (according to the recent Phillies e-mail the game will be on the 7th, not the 6th)

October 8th, 2006 would be game 4 of the National League Divisional Series. It is a Sunday. What else is on Sunday, Oct. 8th? Why it's also the day T.O. returns to Philadelphia to get his ass beat by Brian Dawkins. So on Sunday October 8th the city of Philadelphia could potentially have both a Phillies playoff game and the return of T.O. to Lincoln Financial Field.

Just keep these things in mind. And don't forgot to root for the Phillies this week.

Phillies are in first place in the wild card

The Phillies came back from an early 4-0 deficit to maintain their wild card lead. Rollins, Coste, and Utley all hit home runs; Utley had two home runs on the day.
The win keeps the Phillies at the top of the wild card standings with the last week of the season about to begin.

I'm going to Phillies at Nationals game on Thursday, so let me know by tonight if you want to go with us or see you there Phil's fans.

Also, when are playoff tickets going to go on sale? Anyone know?

Phillies Update 9/21

Phillies as of 1:15AM EST on 9/21/2006 have gained a tie in the National League Wild Card with the Dodgers.
So with 10 games left in the season the Phillies are tied for the Wild Card lead.
They have 3 games at home against the Marlins and then the last home game on Monday versus the Astros. Then they play at the Nationals next Tues., Wed., and Thurs. Then the final 3 games are at the Marlins - ending Sunday October 1st.

Here are the pitchers:
Friday: Hamels
Saturday: Lieber
Sunday: Moyer
Monday: Wolf
Tuesday: Myers
Wednesday: Hamels
Thursday: Lieber
Friday: Moyer
Saturday: Wolf
Sunday: Myers

Myers will pitch the regular season finale, which looks like a good thing considering how he has been pitching. Lieber's start has been moved up so he doesn't have to pitch in Florida, which is a good thing because he sucks.

Also, if anyone wants to go see the Phillies next Thursday in DC let me know, I plan on going to the game even if Jon Lieber is going to be pitching.

Eagles Vs Giants, Get Pumped with YouTube

Just gettin you pumped for eagles vs giants on sunday with some youtube videos.









and this one for the Jets fans, no relevance here but funny video.

Iverson. Reebok. Awesome.

Just watch this video. Does it not get you pumped for Sixers basketball?

September

Baseball is coming down to the wire, football is just starting up, college football is in full swing, we're all back in school, and my birthday is in less than a week. September sure is a great month.

The Phillies need to pick it up. I haven't been watching the games because I can't, but basically it looks to me like the team has lost some of their drive and this is probably the most important time of the year to have that desire to win. Don't they have any desire to fight hard to the end and go and beat the Mets in the divisional series after being embarressed by them all season. I know I sure want them to do that. Right now San Diego has a good hold on that wildcard lead so don't buy your playoff tickets yet.

The Eagles are in first place thanks to a nice win and the rest of the NFC East losing their week 1 games. Every win is going to be crucial in the NFC East this season so it looks like a great start. The Giants have a tough schedule working against them along with Tiki who always seems to fumble at the best moment possible for the Eagles. The Redskins looked pretty crappy on monday night getting beat by Brad Johnson right after he picked up his social security check for the month. And Dallas, T.O. doesn't even need to be a distraction Bledsoe is looking to doom that team on his own.

76ers? We still got Iverson thank god.

Flyers? A dominating flyers team would definately be good for the league trying to make a come back, the NHL should help them out.

Penn State can still have a great year, just no National Championship this year. Definately should still be an exciting year, look for them next year. They don't lose anyone on their offense except Tony Hunt; they return all their receivers and Morelli will have a full year at QB under his belt.

Bill Simmons Supports the Eagles

ESPN.com: Page 2 : The Sports Guy's NFL preview

So, there are probably a million NFL season preview articles out there. But this one basically says the Eagles are really good and it's funny. So if you read just one season preview article, make it this one. You don't have to read it all, just the Eagles parts (like 12-4 baby).

Go Iggles!

Howard Never Did Steroids

Philadelphia Phillies : News : Philadelphia Phillies News

Please, there's no way Howard is on steroids.
If he's on steroids then he has been since he was like 12.