"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people in the Boston
telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University." - William F. Buckley, Jr.
One would think that the Yankees should be favored with the steady Andy Petitte on the mound as opposed to the Phillies enigmatic Cole Hamels. However, games are won and lost on the field. Go Phillies!!!!
Copywrite 2009 - BG
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This didn't have to happen for the Phillies, this return to the World Series, and all those people telling you to savor these moments because they are rare and fleeting are correct.
The players know it, too. They know how capricious the game can be, an injury that happens here, a trade that works out there, and no one can predict which teams will be tapped on the head by the magic wand in a given year. Teams that get this far have to be good, and the Phillies are certainly that, but they have to be lucky as well. That's why there are always sighs of relief mixed in with the whooping celebrations of the clubhouses. The game didn't decide to hate them this time around.
Reminding Philadelphia fans that the baseball gods are not always kind seems unnecessary, as if two wonderful years of enjoying Charlie Manuel guide his silver ship can blot out the long seasons of watching Nick Leyva or Terry Francona crash their rudderless vessels into the rocks.
No, this is special and rare, and for further reference as the World Series approaches, it's worth wondering whatever happened to the Tampa Bay Rays, last year's opponent. The Rays, having shed the Devil from their nickname along with the demons of a losing tradition, came into the World Series billed as a young team on the rise. Maybe a little premature in their arrival at a stage that large, but definitely not out of place in those surroundings. The Rays had made it, and they weren't going anywhere soon.
Except that's not exactly the way it worked out.
This could have been the Phillies' fate when they were also a young team on the rise in 2005 or 2006, trying to find a way to build around a homegrown corps of talent. General manager Pat Gillick fussed and fiddled with the roster a lot before the tumblers of the lock fell into place. If figuring that Adam Eaton and Freddy Garcia might be the answer isn't the definition of trial and error, then perhaps it is Wes Helms and Rod Barajas.
In any case, it worked out for the Phillies and has continued to work, even as they have struggled to keep the starting rotation together with one breath only to find the bullpen falling apart with the next. The offense has been a constant, but that is because they were sharp enough to replace Pat Burrell with Raul Ibanez, and lucky enough to have Jayson Werth spectacularly complete a comeback from an injury that nearly ended his career.
With the Rays, things weren't quite as fortunate this season. Tampa Bay set team records this season in runs, home runs, extra-base hits, walks, stolen bases, and on-base percentage, and as soon as the season was over the Rays fired their hitting coach. Now, that's interesting.
One season after winning 97 games, the Rays dipped to 84-78. They came out of the box with a 9-14 April, revived through the middle of the season, but then fell apart in September after management traded away pitcher Scott Kazmir and after slugger Carlos Pena was lost to injury. In one stretch, the Rays lost 17 of 21 games, finally finishing 19 games behind the Yankees in the AL East and 11 games behind the wild-card Red Sox.
The difference between the Rays and the Phillies might be partly the difference between the AL East and the NL East, too. Stumble for a little while in Tampa Bay's division and those energy eaters from New York and Boston will leave their huge carbon footprints all over you. The Phils are in a more forgiving position, but they have to be credited for taking advantage of it, and their 93 regular-season wins are still the fourth-highest in franchise history since the turn of the century.
For the second straight season, the Phillies won't end the year making excuses, regardless of the Series outcome. You can't say the same for the Dodgers, who had the best record in the National League this season, glided past the Cardinals in the first round, but barely made a dent on the championship series.
Just as they did in 2008, the Dodgers took the five-game dismissal with a cool aplomb, which partly explains why they keep getting dismissed. Back home, where the fans are already more interested in how Kobe will blend with Andrew Bynum, there's no retribution from the town that put the LA in la-di-dah.
What would fans in Philadelphia call a good team that kept getting close but never reached the final goal? Oh, that's right. The Eagles.
There's the best reminder that these runs at the championship don't have to happen. Take a glance across the street from Citizens Bank Park at Lincoln Financial Field. If that doesn't make you savor the moment, nothing will.
Contact columnist Bob Ford
at 215-854-5842 or bford@phillynews.com. Read
his blog at http://philly.com/postpatterns.
SHALL WE HIRE A MONUMENT ENGRAVER TO GO TO ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY AND ADD THE MISSING WORDS?
THIS IS A MESSAGE FROM AN APPALLED OBSERVER:
Today I went to visit the new World War II Memorial in Washington , DC. I got an unexpected history lesson. Because I'm a baby boomer, I was one of the youngest in the crowd. Most were the age of my parents, Veterans of 'the greatest war,' with their families. It was a beautiful day, and people were smiling and happy to be there. Hundreds of us milled around the memorial, reading the inspiring words of Eisenhower and Truman that are engraved there.
On the Pacific side of the memorial, a group of us gathered to read the words President Roosevelt used to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor:
Yesterday, December 7, 1941-- a date which will live in infamy--theUnited States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked.
One elderly woman read the words aloud:
'With confidence in our armed forces, with the abounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph.'
But as she read, she suddenly turned angry. 'Wait a minute,' she said, 'they left out the end of the quote. They left out the most important part.Roosevelt ended the message with 'so help us God.'
Her husband said, 'You are probably right. We're not supposed to say things like that now.'
'I know I'm right,' she insisted. 'I remember the speech.' The two looked dismayed,
shook their heads sadly and walked away.
Listening to their conversation, I thought to myself, 'Well, it has been over 50 years; she's probably forgotten.'
But she had not forgotten. She was right.
I went home and pulled out the book my book club is reading --- 'Flags of Our Fathers' by James Bradley. It's all about the battle at Iwo Jima .
I haven't gotten too far in the book. It's tough to read because it's a graphic description of the WWII battles in the Pacific.
But right there it was on page 58. Roosevelt 's speech to the nation ends in 'so help us God.'
The people who edited out that part of the speech when they engraved it on the memorial could have fooled me. I was born after the war! But they couldn't fool the people who were there. Roosevelt 's words are engraved on their hearts.
Now I ask: 'WHO GAVE THEM TH E RIGHT TO CHANGE THE WORDS OF HISTORY?????????'
Ted has now been sober for 4 weeks.
Copywrite 2009 - BG
As the world responded with a mixture of surprise and amazement to the announcement of President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel insiders revealed that the President's "beer summit" at the White House put him over the top. "The committee was definitely split down the middle right up until the end," said Agot Valle, a Norwegian politician and member of the five-person Nobel committee. "Some of them were still quite upset about that nasty business with the Somali pirates."
But, according to Ms. Valle, "someone brought up the beer summit, and we all agreed that that was awesome." Ms. Valle said she hoped that Mr. Obama's victory would be seen not only as a victory for him, but "as a tribute to the healing power of beer."
Ms. Valle acknowledged that the President's win was widely considered an upset, with most pundits having expected the prize to go to Mad Men or 30 Rock.
Copywrite 2009 - BG
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