Philadelphia Baseball History

It was five o'clock in the morning, and my roommate, Jim, was waking me up so we could hop in his brown, sporty but beat-up Nissan to travel across Alligator Alley and up the Gulf Coast to Clearwater. In my junior year at the University of Miami, this was the first time I had ventured to see the Phillies in Spring Training. Just the day before, Jim made the suggestion. I packed my books so I could get some studying in during the five hour drive, and off we went. Jim was something of a odd bird. Unlike me, who was raised in Fishtown and spent much of my childhood at Veterans Stadium, Jim was from North Carolina. He rooted for the Phillies because he loved Mike Schmidt. Although we were two years removed from Schmidt's retirement, he continued to be a Phillies fan. This created a strange combination for him, as he was a Cowboys fan in football; something I always teased him about. At the time, baseball card collecting was in its hay day. In Miami, a Jose Canseco rookie card cou...

Yesterday, pitchers and catchers reported for the Phillies, opening Spring Training and the 2017 campaign. The Phillies are coming into 2017 with somewhat higher expectations than last year. While few expect the Phillies to contend for a play-off spot, many see .500 as a reachable goal. Why so many feel that an appropriate measure of success for this year's team is the number of wins is beyond me. The fact remains that the Phillies are a young team, with a number of promising prospects still developing in the minor leagues. To be sure, the Phillies appear to have improved by addressing offensive weakness in the outfield. They did so by signing veterans Howie Kendrick and Michael Saunders to one year deals, with the team having the option to extend Saunders for another year. But the Phillies have young outfield talent in the organization. Aaron Altherr is expected to be available off the bench in the majors. Roman Quinn, Nick Williams and Dylan Cozens are expected to hone their craf...

(Photo by Yong Kim, philly.com) It's only spring.  (The Phillies are 10-3-2 in Spring Training games.) These games don't count.  (They are ties with Toronto in the Grapefruit League and Arizona in the Cactus League for most wins.) You have to temper your expectations.  (Maikel Franco is hitting .346 with 4 home runs and 10 RBIs.) This is a young pitching staff, and you can't expect much.  (Vince Velasquez has a monster fastball and has struck out 9 in 9 innings of work.  In 8 innings, Brett Oberholtzer is yet to give up a run, and has a WHIP of 1.13.) We can't expect them to score runs.  (The Phillies are second only to Arizona in runs scored in Spring Training, with 89.) Teams don't play their best players in Spring Training.  (Adam Morton blanked the presumptive Yankees starting line-up yesterday in 4 innings of work.) And everyone who is anyone is picking the Phillies to come in dead last for the foreseeable future.  (Did I ment...

I have to admit, personally I feel disappointed. Last year, in late September, I sat in the nosebleed section of Nationals Park with my daughter and a group of her friends when the Phillies came to DC. I remember distinctly when Arron Altherr hit a line drive to centerfield with the bases loaded and Michael Taylor misplayed it.  Altherr turned on the speed and almost ran over Jared Eickhoff on the base pads. The result was an inside the park grand-slam home run. I have been a fan ever since. Altherr was likely to make the major-league roster as a starting outfielder this year. In a spring training game, he dove to try to catch a fly ball and landed awkwardly on his left wrist. Now he needs surgery to repair a torn tendon in the wrist, and will mess 4 to 6 months in recovery. I feel bad for Altherr. I pray that this is nothing more than a minor setback in what hopes to be a fine major league career. I was certainly looking forward to see how he would handle a full ...

Original thinking is not necessarily the hallmark of sports reporting these days.   It’s more like a pack mentality.   Here we are at the beginning of Spring Training.   No games have been played, and the roster has not been set.   Indeed, for the Phillies, this is a year of major transitions.   Yet, before anyone truly knows who is going to be on the major league club, all of the major outlets are simply assuming that the Phils will be as bad, if not worse, than last year. Quite frankly, I find this nothing more than lazy reporting.   Certainly, the theme for the Phillies this year is that of change; long awaited change.   Thankfully, the new guard has chosen to build through youth.   What this means is that the major league roster will be full of players with a limited track record from which to judge.   For those who make a living off of prognostication, the Phillies present a particularly difficult problem, that of uncertainty. ...