Time to earn some respect !

by Joseph Birmingham

Thursday October 22, 2009 

Time to earn some respect ! thumbnail

It’s official. Ever since the Phillies won the National League and gained their second straight trip to the World Series I have been conducting an informal poll anong die hard Phillie fans. The answers I am getting are suggestive of how this team has changed.

Yes we are the Phillies, the first team to lost 10,000 games. Not only have we been around forever, we weren’t very good for a long, long time. It used to be decades of suffering with the occasional glimpse of hope or standout player. The Whiz Kids. Schmidty hitting #500, Lefty striking out everyone in the league at least once in his stellar career. And in between were years of finishing 4th or last in the NL East and watching the Braves or Mets go on in the postseason.

The poll I conducted was simple. Who would you prefer to see the Phillies face from the American League in defense of last years championship title ? You have the Yankees and Angels playing, one a perennial champion that matches up pretty tough against the Phitens, the other a flash in the pan team that was good enough to manage to win one Series, in 2002, but more often is known as the post season choke artists. And the Angels decidedly appear on paper to be an easier opponent for the Phillies. They hit for good averages, but don’t have the power, the pitching or the bullpen of the New York club. And the Angels have won one World Series, not 26.

California, since their 2002 World Series miracle, has appeared in the post season 5 times, going 1-4 and winning no league championships. In this time they have lost to the White Sox, the Red Sox, and those pesky Yankees. Those Yankees have won 26 Series and appeared 39 times. Granted the past ten years they have been about equal to the Angels, but the national perception of their franchise is that of the perennial winner.

That is why the result of my poll was so interesting. Phillies fans, at about a 4-1 ratio want to face the Yankees, the perceived tougher opponent. Why ? Maybe because after so many recent occurances of pulling out a game in late innings, and the recent repeated success of this team, the fans are starting to believe in these Phillies.

Maybe we want some respect. We want to be the team that gets to play at 8pm, primetime, while the other team gets the 2:30 afternoon slots when everyone else is at work. We beat the Tampa Bay Rays last year for our first championship since 1980 and, out of our 6 total appearances, our only other win. Beating the Angels would give us our third World Series win, but beating the Yankees would give us credibility. It would also avenge our 1950 loss when we were swept and made to look like the hapless 10,000 loss team, the laughingstock of the league that we then were.

Not these Phils, these Phils are riding a 7 season winning record streak of .550+ ball. Not exactly the next Yankees dynasty, but no pushover laughingstock either. These Phils stand a real chance of actually BEATING the Yankees, which is precisely why we want so much to play them.

The Angels are balanced, much like our Phillies, but there is no A Rod, no CC Sabathia or Derek Jeter on their squad. If we beat the Angels, it will be good, but hardly a shocking happening. It will get standard national coverage and people in about 46 states will say, “Hey, they won it again, big deal, someone else will put them in their place next year.”

Now, if we beat the Yankees, we will be on Sportscenter once a week in the off season. Every trade we make will be scrutinized, potential matchups against next years best AL team will be made, interviews will be requested and granted, in short, the victory will linger. So I say, bring on the Yankees. because once we dispatch them some folks, at least, will have to agree that this Phillies team is pretty darn special.

It will be ok if the Angels continue to look good tonight and win, and maybe take this thing to 7 games and wear out the Yankee bullpen however. I would love to see the Phillies play the Yankees, but no harm in having them show up worn out and on the ropes, is there ? After all, we may want some respect, but we aren’t stupid !! Go Angels, but we will lay in wait for the fellows in pinstripes. Here’s hoping it will be a riveting World Series.

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