From 1976 to 1980 they won 4 NL East titles, 1 National League Pennant and 1 World Series.

 From 2005 to present they have won 3 National League East titles, 2 National league Pennants and 1 World Series.

The first team included the group known as the Whiz Kids, with nearly every member of the team either in the hall of fame, or close to it, and known nationally as household names due to the exposure they recieved during their dominance.  The second team is still playing so does not have the advantage of securing a historical place in our minds and memories as of yet, but may equal or exceed the ability and statistics of the first group of Phillies superstars. 

This [...]

After starting last year against the perennial rival Atlanta Braves, the Phillies will have a chance to start off strong an immediately separate from the rest of the National League East.  Their first 9 games come against 2 teams that went a combined 133-191 in 2009.  With the addition of staff ace Roy Halladay and 5 of their first 8 series coming against sub .500 teams from 2009, the Phillies may have a real shot at the best start in team history.   Halladay may have 3 starts against National League bottom feeders before he is put to his first true test.

It is funny though, from all the reports I have read, and out of all the quotes attributed to Halladay, [...]

The inevitable and the disappointing happened on Monday when Mark McGuire finally came clean and admitted to taking steroids.

That McGuire chose now to disclose the truth on his steroid usage is not all that surprising given that he will be in his first year serving as the hitting coach for the St Louis Cardinals. Questions would have followed both the former slugger and his team throughout the upcoming season.

During his apologies McGuire seemed a bit naïve saying “I truly believe (I could hit those home runs without any PEDs). I believe I was given this gift. The only reason I took steroids was for health purposes.”

Like many baseball fans I wanted to hope that McGuire was clean and that his [...]

If the Phillies want to become a dynasty, I offer 5 suggestions to send them on their way. They have a good balanced ball club, one that has won the National League east three times in a row, been to 2 World Series and won one. That is a good 500 or so games for the team. But to truly become a dynasty, they need to sustain this level of play for 1000 or so more games.

That is tough in an arbitration filled, salary capped, league unless they plan on spending half a billion dollars each and every off season like the Yankees seem to do. Frankly, as much support as the Phillies get, I still  [...]

There may not be a more exciting player to see come up to the plate than Matt Stairs.

When he swings, all of Citizen bank Park shakes. He swings for the fences with no outs or two outs and it doesn’t matter the score. He is looking for a fastball every time. And when he get’s one, he can send it a mile.

But at age 41, those swings producied a lot more misses than they did highlight reel dingers last season. He hit .198 and went hitless for a stretch of two months. Stairs said he still believes he can get it done and wants to play one more season.

The question is: Does Stairs deserve to be a member of the [...]

While the Philadelphia Phillies former ace is already talking about next season, the current staff ace will do his best to keep this season alive.

Cliff Lee takes the mound tonight at Citizens Bank Park as the Phillies hope to extend the World Series to six games against the New York Yankees.

New York is on quite a run winning three straight contests, taking the Phillies home crowd out of play. Tonight Lee will look to slow down the Bronx Bombers and repeat his Game 1 performance when he pitched a complete game and allowed just one unearned run.

He will be opposed by A.J. Burnett, who also has a victory in the series, as he held the Phillies in check for seven [...]

It wasn’t a blown save, it was something much worse.

Bard Lidge allowed three runs in the ninth inning and the New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-4, to take a commanding 3-1 lead in the World Series, Sunday night.

Pedro Feliz hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 8th off Joba Chamberlain to tie the game at 4-4 and give the Phillies the momentum heading in to the ninth. Lidge came in and got the first two hitters out, as it appeared his postseason reconciliation was going to continue.

Then it all fell to pieces.

Johnny Damon hit the blooper of all bloopers to keep the inning alive. Damon, not the fastest runner these days, stole second and third [...]

We are now just one day away fro Game 1 of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees. There promises to be plenty of drama as these two teams face off in the World Series for the first time in 50 years.

Bellow is a breakdown of how the teams match up position-by-position.

 First Base: This would be the marquee position with two players who are not only of All-Star caliber, but MVP worthy. Ryan Howard has been a monster year after year, producing 40-plus home runs and 140 RBIs a season. His defense has improved and he defines the word clutch. Most people credit Jimmy Rollins for being the engine of the team but it became clear [...]

Now that was an absolute-LEE beautiful beating!

Led by the pitching of Cliff Lee and the hitting of – well – everyone, the Philadelphia Phillies put an old fashioned beat-down on the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday night to take a 2-1 lead in the NLCS.

Lee was again amazing, allowing just three hits, while walking none in eight profound innings.

The Dodger hitters looked clueless at the plat all night.

Meanwhile the Phillies offense went to work early and often, scoring four runs in the first inning on a two run double by Ryan Howard and a two-run bomb to dead center by Jayson Werth.

At that point it was already over.

Citizen’s Bank Park was rocking from the very first pitch as “Beat L.A.” and [...]

Tonight begins the next step in the Philadelphia Phillies quest to repeat as World Series champions. The Phils take on the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight at 8:07 p.m. in the first game of a best-of-seven NLCS series. Last year the Phillies beat the Dodgers in five games in the NLCS, but how will they fair this year?

 He is a breakdown of how the match up:

 Phillies Pitching:

Game 1: Cole Hamels: The lefty has had his ups and downs this season and was less than stellar in his outing against the Rockies. Against the Dodgers, however, he has been dominant. In his two starts against them this season, Hamels posted a 1-0 mark with a 0.56 ERA. He also struck out 14 [...]

It was everything that October baseball is supposed to be.

The Philadelphia Phillies showed once again why they are “Must See TV” pulling out a dramatic victory that sent them back to the NLCS and put them one step closer to repeating as World Champions.

After giving up three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and facing the prospect of coming home for a Game 5, the Phillies staged one of the greatest ninth innings in team history, coming back to defeat the Colorado Rockies, 5-4 at a chilly Coors Field. With two outs and two on Ryan Howard sent a Houston Street offering to the right field wall, scoring Shane Victorino and Chase Utley with the tying runs. Jayson [...]

The past two nights the Phillies are looking like a team that gave it’s all to clinch the division and are not all that concerned about home field advantage for the championship series.  With the exception of another towering homerun by Howard in the bottom of the first (his 44th) the Phillies offense was flat.  Joe Blanton looked equally flat as he allowed 5 runs in 6 plus innings and never seemed to be on top of his delivery. 

Charlie Manuel rested Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino took over the leadoff spot for the night and went 1 for four.  Tracy got his 4th pinch hit in the 7th inning, but was stranded on base as were all the Phillies that [...]

The Phillies left no doubt about it tonight as they clinched their third straight division title for the second time in franchise history.

They set various benchmarks, had virtually every starter contribute to the 10-3 score, in a game featuring a rejuvenated Cy Young award winner, an early appearance by a middle reliever who pitched 3 scoreless innings and a beleaguered closer who came in and got the final out in a non save situation.  This team appears to be ready for the post season.

The Phillies played small ball, long ball, and all ball as they pounded a home run, two triples and three doubles.  They scored in 4 of their 5 final at bats to put this one away and [...]

The Phillies took another game to the wire tonight. With their magic number down to three, they tried to fight for the victory. Moyer pitched 4 in relief of Kendrick, and seems to be becoming the Phillies specialist in long relief. Now all we need is a closer.

The Phillies continue to be an offensive juggernaut. Howard hit his 43rd homerun, Baku chipped in with his 3rd and the Phillies scored 5 runs in the loss to Milwaukee. Walker came in and proved no pitcher can seem to close effectively for these Phillies by allowing 2 runs and getting nobody out in the ninth inning. If Philadelphia had a closer they could be challenging for the best record in the cities [...]

The Phillies won again.  Hit 4 homeruns.  Ho hum.  We Phanatics are getting spoiled.  This is a really good team, with a lot of depth.

Example 1. Pitching :  Happ left in the third with a mystery injury, probably reinjured his oblique muscle, and with all the talk about the bullpen, Kendrick comes in and pitches 4 innings of shut out 2 hit relief.   The Phillies bullpen for all it’s late inning woes has been notorious this year for clutch long middle inning relief, between Happ early in the year, Madsen all year long, Moyer late in the year and Kendrick tonight, all 4 pitched 4 innings or longer in relief of starters for various reasons.

And these starters are pretty dang good [...]