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."