{"id":2375,"date":"2014-06-08T07:57:51","date_gmt":"2014-06-08T11:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dougsbriefcase.com\/blog\/?p=2375"},"modified":"2014-06-09T09:14:02","modified_gmt":"2014-06-09T13:14:02","slug":"phillies-returned-form-unfortunately","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dougsbriefcase.com\/blog\/phillies-returned-form-unfortunately\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies Have Returned To Form \u2026 Unfortunately"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Phillies dropped a close game yes\u00adter\u00adday in Cincin\u00adnati, leav\u00ading Gen\u00ader\u00adal Man\u00adag\u00ader Ruben Amaro at a loss for answers. (Cred\u00adit: CSN<\/span> Bay Area)<\/p><\/div>\n

The famil\u00adiar anguish of being a Phillies fan is back.<\/p>\n

I felt it again this past week when I attend\u00aded two games between the Phillies and Nation\u00adals in Wash\u00ading\u00adton.  Just three years ago, this ball\u00adpark tucked between the Ana\u00adcos\u00adtia Riv\u00ader and the US<\/span> Capi\u00adtol was known as \u201cCit\u00adi\u00adzens Bank Park South,\u201d as bus\u00ades dis\u00adgorged Philadel\u00adphia fans by the thou\u00adsands who had drunk their way down I\u201195 to watch their beloved Phillies beat up on the hap\u00adless Nats.  They seemed to out\u00adnum\u00adber the home\u00adtown faith\u00adful and always made their unwel\u00adcome pres\u00adence felt.  They were rau\u00adcous, some\u00adtimes coarse, and usu\u00adal\u00adly left hap\u00adpy, if obnox\u00adious\u00adly so.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Between 2005, when the Nation\u00adals arrived from Mon\u00adtre\u00adal, and 2011, the Phils were 38\u201326 in games played in Wash\u00ading\u00adton.  Since then, they are 6\u201315, and have lost 10 of their last 12 games there, includ\u00ading 3 this past week.<\/p>\n

The Phillies\u2019 sour\u00ading per\u00adfor\u00admance against the Nats coin\u00adcides with a broad\u00ader rever\u00adsal of for\u00adtune.  Their unchar\u00adac\u00adter\u00adis\u00adtic rise began in 2005; they began to revert to form in 2012.<\/p>\n

Ryan Howard was Rook\u00adie of the Year in 2005, a sea\u00adson in which he slugged 22 homers and drove in 63 runs in just half a sea\u00adson.  He would hit 262 homers over the next 6 years, aver\u00adage 132 RBI<\/span> over that peri\u00adod and win an MVP<\/span>.  He joined Jim\u00admy Rollins (who also won an MVP<\/span>), Chase Utley, Pat Bur\u00adrell and Shane Vic\u00adtori\u00adno on a team that was begin\u00adning to shed its peren\u00adni\u00adal los\u00ader image.  The Phillies fell just one game short of mak\u00ading the play\u00adoffs that year.  By 2007, they had begun their streak of 5 divi\u00adsion crowns, a run that includ\u00aded two World Series appear\u00adances and one world championship.<\/p>\n

They assem\u00adbled an almost per\u00adfect team in 2011, when they added sol\u00adid start\u00ading pitch\u00ading to a potent line\u00adup.  The 2008 cham\u00adpi\u00adonship team suc\u00adceed\u00aded in spite of its start\u00ading pitch\u00ading.  When the 2011 sea\u00adson opened, they had the Four Aces \u2013 Roy Hal\u00adla\u00adday, Roy Oswalt, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels \u2013 all vet\u00ader\u00adan start\u00ading pitch\u00aders who had com\u00adpiled glit\u00adter\u00ading records over a peri\u00adod of years.  They were not mere\u00adly good; they were dom\u00adi\u00adnant. The team won 102 games, the best in base\u00adball and a fran\u00adchise record. Dis\u00adap\u00adpoint\u00adment was not far behind.<\/p>\n

Philadel\u00adphi\u00adans are accus\u00adtomed to fate\u2019s abrupt and bit\u00adter twists.  In 1964, the Phillies seemed des\u00adtined to win the NL<\/span> pen\u00adnant, hold\u00ading a 6\u20131\/2 game lead with just 12 games to play.  They lost 10 straight games and fin\u00adished in a sec\u00adond-place tie.  No team has ever col\u00adlapsed so quick\u00adly or so com\u00adplete\u00adly so late in the season.<\/p>\n

In 1993, the Phillies entered the last of the ninth inning of World Series Game Six with a 6\u20135 lead.  It all end\u00aded in a instant.  Phillies\u2019 reliev\u00ader Mitch Williams sur\u00adren\u00addered a Series-end\u00ading three-run homer to the Blue Jays\u2019 Joe Carter.  The World Series has been played 111 times.  Nev\u00ader before or since has it end\u00aded with a come-from-behind, game-end\u00ading home run.  Had Williams pitched for ear\u00adly four\u00adteenth cen\u00adtu\u00adry Flo\u00adrence, Dante would have con\u00adsigned him to the ninth cir\u00adcle of hell.<\/p>\n

The Phillies\u2019 most recent lurch toward obliv\u00adion came in a play\u00adoff game fol\u00adlow\u00ading their 102-win 2011 reg\u00adu\u00adlar sea\u00adson. Roy Hal\u00adla\u00adday yield\u00aded just one run in the deci\u00adsive fifth game of the divi\u00adsion cham\u00adpi\u00adonship series, but it proved one too many.  In an omen for the ages, Ryan Howard hit a game-end\u00ading ground ball and crum\u00adpled just a few strides from home plate.  He lay there help\u00adless, his Achilles ten\u00addon rup\u00adtured, as the Car\u00addi\u00adnals cel\u00ade\u00adbrat\u00aded around him.  It pre\u00adfig\u00adured the col\u00adlapse of a franchise.<\/p>\n

Roy Hal\u00adla\u00adday would pitch only a hand\u00adful of qual\u00adi\u00adty games after that night.  By May 2012, he was on the dis\u00adabled list.  By 2013, he was out of base\u00adball.  Roy Oswalt\u2019s career also took a fate\u00adful turn after 2011.  When he, like Hal\u00adla\u00adday, called it quits in 2013, he had an 0\u20136 record with an 8.63 ERA<\/span>.<\/p>\n

2013 also would be a fate\u00adful year for Phillies man\u00adag\u00ader Char\u00adlie Manuel, an affa\u00adble base\u00adball man who com\u00adpiled the win\u00adningest record in fran\u00adchise his\u00adto\u00adry.  On July 19, his team used a 7\u2011run 3rd<\/sup> inning to pound the Mets, 13\u20138.  Manuel some\u00adhow had the dete\u00adri\u00ado\u00adrat\u00ading Phillies in sec\u00adond place and ahead of much bet\u00adter teams, includ\u00ading the under\u00adachiev\u00ading Nation\u00adals. His tenure would end less than a month lat\u00ader.  In Manuel\u2019s final weeks, his team went 4\u201319.  His fir\u00ading was a mer\u00adcy-killing, spar\u00ading the 69-year-old the indig\u00adni\u00adty of watch\u00ading the team he\u2019d built trans\u00adform itself into one of baseball\u2019s worst.<\/p>\n

And then there was Ryan Howard.  In 2010, he signed a five-year con\u00adtract exten\u00adsion that would pay him a total of $125 mil\u00adlion between 2012 and 2016.  In 2011, the year before the lucra\u00adtive exten\u00adsion kicked in, he hit 33 homers.  In the near\u00adly 2\u20131\/2 sea\u00adsons since, he has so far hit a total of 36.  The Yan\u00adkees\u2019 con\u00adtract with Alex Rodriguez is baseball\u2019s worst; Howard\u2019s is not far behind.<\/p>\n

Ruben Amaro, the man who signed Howard to that con\u00adtract, shoul\u00adders most of the blame for the Phillies\u2019 decline.  Amaro became the team\u2019s gen\u00ader\u00adal man\u00adag\u00ader \u2013 the man respon\u00adsi\u00adble for iden\u00adti\u00adfy\u00ading and devel\u00adop\u00ading tal\u00adent and build\u00ading the team for longer term suc\u00adcess \u2013 after their 2008 World Series tri\u00adumph, when his pre\u00adde\u00adces\u00adsor, Pat Gillick, retired.  Gillick assumed the reins in 2005 and fash\u00adioned the team that would take its place among baseball\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n

Amaro inher\u00adit\u00aded Gillick\u2019s suc\u00adcess\u00adful project and served under an own\u00ader\u00adship team that was will\u00ading to spend mon\u00adey.  Dur\u00ading his tenure, play\u00ader salaries bal\u00adlooned (the Phillies have baseball\u2019s third high\u00adest pay\u00adroll and its sec\u00adond worst record through June 7) as he refined the team Gillick built.  Roy Hal\u00adla\u00adday, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Hunter Pence were among his mar\u00adquis acquisitions.<\/p>\n

All of that worked well enough until the nucle\u00adus of the Gillick team start\u00aded show\u00ading signs of age.  On Amaro\u2019s watch the Phillies failed to recruit and devel\u00adop fresh tal\u00adent and replen\u00adish an aging team in des\u00adper\u00adate need of rein\u00adforce\u00adments.  So long as he remains gen\u00ader\u00adal man\u00adag\u00ader, the Phillies will inhab\u00adit the base\u00adball wilderness.<\/p>\n

It is ter\u00adrain to which its fans are accus\u00adtomed.   The team\u2019s his\u00adto\u00adry began on May 1, 1883. They went 17\u201381 that year, set\u00adting the tone for most of the ensu\u00ading 130 sea\u00adsons.  They became the world\u2019s first team in any sport to lose 10,000 games on July 15, 2007, a dubi\u00adous mile\u00adstone that only the Braves (in 2011) and Cubs (in 2014) have sub\u00adse\u00adquent\u00adly reached.  Their 10,000th<\/sup> win remains on a dis\u00adtant hori\u00adzon.  Their record is 9,416\u201310,502.  To even their record, they would have to begin a win\u00adning streak this after\u00adnoon in Cincin\u00adnati and con\u00adtin\u00adue it through the next 1,085 games they play between now and ear\u00adly 2021.<\/p>\n

This nar\u00adra\u00adtive of fail\u00adure has been punc\u00adtu\u00adat\u00aded by spasms of suc\u00adcess.  It took them 97 years to win their first cham\u00adpi\u00adonship (1980); they have since won just one (2008).  Short\u00adly after appear\u00ading in their first World Series (1915), they com\u00adpiled an inter\u00adwar record that the Base\u00adball Almanac<\/a> describes as:<\/p>\n

a dark and dis\u00admal peri\u00adod vir\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly unmatched in the game\u2019s his\u00adto\u00adry. Dur\u00ading the next three decades they would fin\u00adish last 17 times and next-to-last sev\u00aden times, los\u00ading more than 100 games for five con\u00adsec\u00adu\u00adtive sea\u00adsons (1938\u20131942).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Their prospects bright\u00adened when a core of young play\u00aders \u2013 two of them future Hall of Famers \u2013 led them to the 1950 pen\u00adnant.  But after being swept by the Yan\u00adkees in the World Series, the team failed to live up to its poten\u00adtial.  Years lat\u00ader, Hall of Famer Rich Ash\u00adburn explained why he and his fel\u00adlow \u201cWhiz Kids\u201d nev\u00ader won anoth\u00ader pen\u00adnant: \u201cWe were the last to get any black ball play\u00aders<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revert\u00ading to form, the Phillies fin\u00adished in last place four straight years (1958\u20131961).  Eddie Sawyer, who had man\u00adaged the 1950 team and then returned to the helm in 1958, quit after the first game of the 1960 sea\u00adson.  \u201cI\u2019m 49,\u201d Sawyer<\/a> explained, \u201cand I want to live to be 50.\u201d<\/p>\n

His deci\u00adsion was a sound one.  The 1960 sea\u00adson was dis\u00adas\u00adtrous.  But not near\u00adly as bad as 1961, mem\u00ado\u00adrable not only for 107 loss\u00ades, but also for a record of inep\u00adti\u00adtude that still stands: 23 con\u00adsec\u00adu\u00adtive loss\u00ades.  They escaped the base\u00adment in 1962 only because the expan\u00adsion Mets and Colt 45s joined the league and sank below them.<\/p>\n

The Phillies final\u00adly field\u00aded a bona fide African-Amer\u00adi\u00adcan star in 1964.  Richie Allen\u2019s Rook\u00adie of the Year sea\u00adson helped make the Phillies a con\u00adtender but was not enough to fore\u00adstall their epic collapse.<\/p>\n

Ruben Amaro\u2019s dad played short\u00adstop for that star-crossed 1964 team.  The younger Amaro, for\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, has no cog\u00adniz\u00adable mem\u00ado\u00adries of that epic fail\u00adure, being a fetus at the time.  He was born the fol\u00adlow\u00ading Feb\u00adru\u00adary.  He hoped to fol\u00adlow in his father\u2019s foot\u00adsteps.  He made it to the majors, but played in few\u00ader than 500 games over an 8\u2011year career in the 1990s, most of them in a Phillies uni\u00adform.  His roots with the Phillies run deep.<\/p>\n

Which is what makes his fir\u00ading so dif\u00adfi\u00adcult and so nec\u00ades\u00adsary.  Emo\u00adtion\u00adal attach\u00adments and loy\u00adal\u00adty have no place in rebuild\u00ading a fail\u00ading fran\u00adchise.  The team needs some\u00adone who will change every\u00adthing \u2013 from its scouts to its coach\u00ades to its play\u00aders, includ\u00ading ven\u00ader\u00ada\u00adble Philadel\u00adphia insti\u00adtu\u00adtions like Rollins, Utley and Howard.  Above all, the team requires an exec\u00adu\u00adtive astute enough to exchange these stars for prospects who can form the nucle\u00adus of a club that can con\u00adtend in the future.  Ruben Amaro is not that guy.<\/p>\n

The Phillies\u2019 own\u00ader\u00adship has nev\u00ader\u00adthe\u00adless cho\u00adsen to retain him, mean\u00ading that even if they do deal some of their old\u00ader play\u00aders, they are unlike\u00adly to get suit\u00adable replace\u00adments in return.<\/p>\n

Leav\u00ading the team and its fans in a dark, dis\u00admal but famil\u00adiar place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The famil\u00adiar anguish of being a Phillies fan is back. I felt it again this past week when I attend\u00aded two games between the Phillies and Nation\u00adals in Wash\u00ading\u00adton.  Just three years ago, this ball\u00adpark tucked between the Ana\u00adcos\u00adtia Riv\u00ader and \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u2192<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"nfd_image_url":"","nfd_onboarding_generated":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[704,915],"tags":[931,928,918,924,921,933,919,927,926,925,930,1206,932,922,923,929,917,920,916,775],"class_list":["post-2375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baseball","category-phillies","tag-carlos-ruiz","tag-charlie-manuel","tag-chase-utley","tag-cliff-lee","tag-cole-hamels","tag-dick-allen","tag-jimmy-rollins","tag-joe-carter","tag-mitch-williams","tag-pat-burell","tag-pat-gillick","tag-phillies","tag-rich-ashburn","tag-roy-halladay","tag-roy-oswalt","tag-ruben-amaro","tag-ryan-howard","tag-shane-victorino","tag-washington-nationals","tag-world-series"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t