Last Wednesday night, I turned on Fox Sports to watch Game 1 of the Rangers vs. Giants series to see what a World Series looks like without the Phillies. To those who don’t know, it looks basically the same; the only difference is I am significantly less interested. This doesn’t mean that it’s unwatchable; it is still great baseball and a great game to watch, however, the lack of a home team to root for makes it less attractive.
It was certainly a great season full of ups and downs and homeruns and strikeouts and shutouts and blown saves and no-hitters and great games and perfect games and terrible games and long streaks with embarrassingly few runs. Despite being the defending National League champions, some time in late July when they were 48-46, although we still had hopes, another World Series run looked unlikely. They then won 11 out of their next 13 games and climbed back to the top of the NL East in a typical Phillies fashion (or phashion, for those who are still in withdrawal from endless Phillies puns).
The key to this season’s successes and failures are rooted into the trades and moves of last offseason. Of course, the most obvious of these is the three-team mega-trade that brought the 2003 Al Cy Young award winner, Roy Halladay to Philadelphia. The Phillies got Halladay, the Mariners got Cliff Lee, and the Blue Jays got Kyle Drabek, Travis D’Arnaud and Michael Taylor. The most important trade also brought the most successful outcome. After his incredible playoff run, Cliff Lee looks like a good deal for the Rangers, but we so easily forget that Lee was injured for a portion of the regular season and during this time Halladay was unstoppable. He pitched a perfect game and a post-season no-hitter, making a solid argument for the greatest season a Phillies pitcher has ever had.
However, other acquisitions in the pitching staff did not become so spectacular. The Phillies signed relief pitcher Danys Baez to add experience and much-needed talent to the bullpen. He started off strong but went onto the DL with back spasms in late August and was rendered useless for the rest of the season. He finished with a mediocre 5.48 ERA. Also joining the bullpen was Jose Contreras, the righty from Colorado. Contreras did not have a great season, but he played better than most of the Phillies bullpen, with a solid 3.34 ERA and 4 saves.
One of the strongest acquisitions of the off-season was Second baseman/shortstop/third baseman Placido Polanco. Although we all expected him to be a good addition, he exceeded our expectations and filled the hole left by Pedro Feliz quite well. Although Feliz had more RBIs (82), Polanco had an impressive .298 batting average, a stat that he has ruled for many years. He also filled his position in the field extraordinarily, boasting .986 Fielding percentage with 5 errors at third base and a 1.000 fielding percentage with no errors at second base.
The flip-flopping regular season ended with the Phillies at the top of the NL; This was expected at the beginning of the season, but seemed doubtful during it. There is nothing I love more than post-season baseball when the Phillies are still in it. It’s very similar to the Olympics in that there is something interesting to watch almost every night. Because of this, we have quality entertainment every night to distract us from the stresses that plague us all. Who wouldn’t take a good baseball game instead of work?
The post-season began with an unbelievable no-hitter by Roy Halladay, also known as Doc Halladay. Every Phillies fan thought that they were unbeatable, that they would make it to the World Series easily, and they would have another chance for revenge against the Yankees. Our hopes were quickly diminished by a tough loss in Game 1 against Lincecum and the Giants. The entire series was nothing short of a reflection of the entire season: they are expected, they don’t come out strong, they come back and show hope, then lose in a close Game 6.
It was a good season; it was fun; it was definitely interesting. Although it didn’t end with a parade like we were all hoping for, it did take us for a ride on the Phillies roller coaster and anyone who had the privilege to attend a game knows that Phillies games are incredibly fun when they play well and are still fun when they don’t. The Phillies will continue to build and have a solid chance to make another World Series run next year.