Nine-thousand, nine-hundred, ninety-six Phils losses in all.
Nine-thousand, nine-hundred, ninety-six losses.
If one more late comeback should happen to stall;
Nine-thousand, nine-hundred, ninety-seven Phils losses in all…
Nine-thousand, nine-hundred, ninety-six losses.
If one more late comeback should happen to stall;
Nine-thousand, nine-hundred, ninety-seven Phils losses in all…
Our hometown baseball team, the Philadelphia Phillies, are closing in on a record of futility that is somehow befitting this woeful franchise and its long-suffering fans. As of Tuesday morning, they are four losses away from their 10,000th in the team's history, which goes back to 1883. For you math majors, that averages 81 losses a year. Eighty-one is the benchmark of mediocrity in baseball. It is the exact center of being average. They play 162 games a year and lose half of them. Perfect. Add in a few dozen rotten years and the Phillies have lost more games than any franchise in sports history. While it’s true that baseball plays more games than other sports, why does it have to be the Phillies? Because they have a legacy of losing that is the Yin to the Yankees’ Yang. Bad players that were picked by bad managers who were hired by bad owners.
The boys are on the road now, finishing up a series in Houston. They get a well-deserved day off on Thursday and then head to Denver to play the Rockies before the All-Star break. My fervent hope is that they come home on the 13th needing one loss to make it to 10,000. They play the Cardinals at home in Citizens Bank Park – The House That Lose Built – and the movie-script drama of Friday the Thirteenth and the milestone happening here in Philadelphia will be too much for even the See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil front office to ignore.
I don’t think I could get the Phillies to embrace The House That Lose Built as a nickname for the ballpark, but I like it. They are in denial, and have chosen to take the No-Road toward recognizing this ignominious milestone.
They have ignored it, in spite of a Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer front page story. Not the front of the sports page, the front of the paper. Sports Illustrated ran a feature on it this week, and on Tuesday, USA Today did a full-page sports section blast of the futility of a franchise that, in 124 years has been to five World Series’ and lost four of them – the last one in 1993. Those losses don’t count toward the 10,000. I’m sure you will see a story on ESPN, and it will be interesting to see if the Fox guys mention it during the All-Star game on Tuesday. The drama is building, and if they are within two or three losses at the break, their next home stand should be a hoot!
Stay tuned.
The boys are on the road now, finishing up a series in Houston. They get a well-deserved day off on Thursday and then head to Denver to play the Rockies before the All-Star break. My fervent hope is that they come home on the 13th needing one loss to make it to 10,000. They play the Cardinals at home in Citizens Bank Park – The House That Lose Built – and the movie-script drama of Friday the Thirteenth and the milestone happening here in Philadelphia will be too much for even the See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil front office to ignore.
I don’t think I could get the Phillies to embrace The House That Lose Built as a nickname for the ballpark, but I like it. They are in denial, and have chosen to take the No-Road toward recognizing this ignominious milestone.
They have ignored it, in spite of a Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer front page story. Not the front of the sports page, the front of the paper. Sports Illustrated ran a feature on it this week, and on Tuesday, USA Today did a full-page sports section blast of the futility of a franchise that, in 124 years has been to five World Series’ and lost four of them – the last one in 1993. Those losses don’t count toward the 10,000. I’m sure you will see a story on ESPN, and it will be interesting to see if the Fox guys mention it during the All-Star game on Tuesday. The drama is building, and if they are within two or three losses at the break, their next home stand should be a hoot!
Stay tuned.
"If we have 10,000 losses and 8,800 victories, that means we're only a hundred-and-something wins away from reaching the .500 mark."
- Charlie Manuel, arithmetically-challenged Phillies manager, after a 12-8 loss to the Tigers.
- Charlie Manuel, arithmetically-challenged Phillies manager, after a 12-8 loss to the Tigers.
2 comments:
and people used to say the Red Sox were the icon of futility. Suck on that bean town.
I can say this because I am a Red Sox fan before the Phillies
Keep up the good work.
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