Phillies & The Rain: A Depressing Combination

When the Phillies miss the playoffs by 1 or 2 games like almost everybody would guess they would do (I am guess my optimistic friend Mike Gross and Billy Bredt still think otherwise), we can all look back to the dog days of August when the men in the red hats blew 4-0 leads on back-to-back days to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pittsburgh freaking Pirates. And I know there will be people to quickly throw the blame on Jolly Chollie for not going to is bullpen earlier. But I blame Pat Gillick, the GM. As a manager, it is never a good idea to go with a knife to a gunfight. Yes, the bullpen has put up respectable numbers over the last 30 days. But please, it is still a house of cards that is apt to collapse with the slightest wind. They have a legitimate closer in Brett Myers, a bunch of old has beens who are trying to get by on guts and guile (Gordon, Alfonseca, Mesa), a guy with great stuff who is so wild he was cut by a contender earlier this year (Romero) and two young guys who are horrible (Zagursky, Condrey). The GM needs to give Chollie the bullets to use his guns.... (note: the GM is really the face of the organization so he gets the blame, but all Phils fans know that the owners of this team are the real culprits because despite selling out every game, they have just not been willing to spend the extra money to get over the hump.)

The Phillies have a gigantic 10 game homestand that will define them as contenders or pretenders. I think they will rise to the occasion and play pretty good ball, winning at least 6 of the 10. But alas, it is still August. I still think this team will come up just short for the 14th straight year. Which is too bad because the spirit of this team is worth rooting for.

On a personal note, we are heading on a non-Thanksgiving vacation for the first time in over a year on Monday. We are going to this great resort (Hyatt in Cambridge, MD on the Chesapeake) that gets rave reviews. And of course watching the Weather Channel tonight shows that non-stop thunderstorms are pretty much expected the entire week. What do you do in that situation? Just brutal. It has barely rained all summer and it is going to make up for it the entire week we are gone. I guess the good news for you is that it will leave plenty of time for blogging....

Stay dry. Go Phils.