Philadelphia Baseball History

In the midst of an up and down season, the Philadelphia Phillies found themselves six games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates in August of 1980.  It was a critical moment in Phillies history.  The Phillies had won the National League East Division in 1976, 1977 and 1978, only to lose in the first round of the playoffs.  Pete Rose was signed as a free agent in 1979 to help the Phillies get over the hump, and make it to the World Series.  The plan did not work in 1979, as the Phillies saw their division rivals, the Pirates, take the division, and go on to beat the Orioles in the World Series.  If this crew of talented veterans was going to win it all for the City of Philadelphia, time was running short. The Phillies roared back into contention in the months of August and September.  The charge was led by future Hall of Famers Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt.  But te Phillies found help from an unlikely source.  September call-up, Marty Bystrom, proce...

After finally watching the slow-motion video replay from Friday night’s controversial play in the Indians win over the Yankees, I do not believe that a replay review would necessarily have gone the Yankees’ way. The reason is in the standard needed to overturn the call in the field. That standard is clear and convincing evidence. To review, it was the bottom of the sixth inning. The Yankees were ahead by a score of 8 to 3. Lonnie Chisenhall came to the plate, with two men on base and two out.  The count was no balls and two strikes. Yankees pitcher Chad Green throws high and inside. The umpire signals that the ball has hit Chisenhall’s hand. Catcher Gary Sanchez, who caught the ball, immediately points to the dugout to signal his belief that manager Joe Girardi should request a replay review. If the call were overturned, the result would have been a foul tip strike out and the inning would have been over. Instead, of course, the inning continued any grand slam home ...

The Wild Card games are over. We now know that the Yankees and the Diamondbacks will move on to the next round in the playoffs.  But for many Twins and Rockies fans, this outcome may seem unfair. They played an entire 162 game season for it all to be decided in just one game?  What if my pitcher had an off-night?  What if my best hitter were in a slump? Seems like this was all left to chance. In baseball, things are decided in a series.  Historically, there is an argument here. Baseball is the only sport where the season is built around playing a series of games against your opponents. Your team plays three games at home, and then three games on the road against a single team. Well, except for that pesky interleague play stuff where you may only have either a home or an away series. But that’s just a modern invention, and anyway you are still playing games in a series, not single games against your opponent.  The fact is that the series is deeply ing...