Kuzul

Many fans have given up on the Phillies.  It’s just the truth.  But there are reasons why we shouldn’t give up on them.  And I’m going to tell you about them.

First of all, if the season ended today, the Phillies would make it to the playoffs.  No, they wouldn’t win the division, but they would still win the Wild Card, and that’s good enough for any team.  I mean, just think about it.  Teams like the Pirates would be overjoyed if they won the Wild Card.  But for some reason, some people think “not the Phillies, they’re too good for the Wild Card.” 

Well I have something to say to those people.  No, they are NOT.  To get the Wild Card would be great.

And the other argument against getting the Wild Card is that they would probably be the worst playoff team, and they wouldn’t get home field, blah blah blah.  I mean, no offense to the people who think that, but seriously. 

The Wild Card team can win a World Series.  It’s happened before. 

In 2004, when the Red Sox played in one of the most remembered World Series, when they broke the famous curse of the Bambino after years and years of defeat, did they win their division?  No.  They were the American League Wild Card team.

Second of all, these are the Phillies.  They have been down before, and they have won.  Although they don’t have to win the division, there’s a good chance they will.  On September 3, 2008, they were behind the New York Mets by three games, just how they are now behind the Braves, and they ended up winning the division and the World Series.

The year before that, they tied the record for the largest comeback in September.  And the key to all of that: the players and the fans did not give up hope. 

In 2007, when the Phillies were down by seven games with seventeen games to go, they did not give up hope.  In 2008, the Phillies did not give up hope.  Earlier in 2010, the Phillies did not give up hope.  So why should they now, when they are closer to a playoff berth than in any of those situations?

For the last reason, I am going to state a concept that I have repeated throughout this article.  The Phillies are already there.  There are so many teams that actually have to make a big comeback to make the playoffs.  The Phillies are not one of those teams.  They are better off than the Mets, than the Marlins, than the Cubs, then the Astros, than lots of other teams, even than the Giants. 

They are first in the Wild Card.  They don’t need a comeback.  All they need is to keep their lead, and they can make a fourth consecutive playoff berth. So what if they don’t win the division.  The Wild Card is enough for me.  And it would be enough for most any team.  So why should the Phillies be different?

They can do this.  They’ve done it before, and they can do it again.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

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“I can remember a sports writer asking me for a quote and I didn’t know what a quote was.  I thought it was some kind of soft drink.”-Joe DiMaggio

Well, everyone who reads this article probably knows what a quote is (hopefully).  And you have to admit it, sports have had some funny quotes.  And many of them are from baseball.

Part of that reason seems to be that baseball just has so many aspects that there are that many things to joke about. 

Whether it be Yogi Bera or Ralph Kiner, all of the quotes are in the same ballpark. Here is a list of my top eleven favorites. Comment at the bottom if you have any orderly changes or any other quotes you think are better.

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Although it may seem strange, this year the Phillies feet have played a big role in their season.  Whether it be injuries, or balks, or just plain mess-ups, the Phillies have had some eventful things happen to them that involved feet.  Here is a list of some of them:

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The Phillies have had a good year this year.  They may not be first in their division or the Wild Card, but they are close to the leaders in both.In this article, I am going to talk about all of the teams that the Phillies are close to in the division and Wild Card races.  Let’s start out by looking at the Phillies themselves:

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The Phillies have had some games in which their offense was not as good as it could have been, games in which they were held to very few runs, and games in which they had many base runners but just couldn’t seem to get hits in important situations.  Even some of those games were against pitchers who were not all that great.

When I looked at the score from one of those games, my initial thought was that maybe the reason they couldn’t knock in the runners was that their lineup wasn’t very good.

But in a moment, I realized that I was wrong.  The problem was not in their lineup.  The problem was in their players. The lineup had holes.

The Phillies have a very solid team.  They have great pitching, great offense, a good manager, and good coaches. They are just a plain, good, old team.

Because of that they have, unlike many other teams, the potential to do good.  They have a World Series winning lineup.  They have a starting rotation that is one of the best in the league.  They have all that it takes to win.

Those players who created the holes had the potential to do great.  If they were playing as good as they had at their best, they would have knocked in those runs. 

The Phillies won the World Series in 2008, and they won the National League title in 2009.  Both of those years, the key to their success was that all of their players were playing as good as they could.

For a lot of teams, the only reason they lose is because their players aren’t very good, and the only reason they win is because their players surprise everyone by doing good.

But not the Phillies.

Almost every single one of the Phillies players is good.  There are no surprises when Ryan Howard hits a home run.  There are no surprises when Jimmy Rollins steals a base. 

Because those players are good.  The Phillies are good.

The Phillies win when all of the players in their lineup play as good as they have, as good as they could, as good as they should.  That is the key to the team of the Philadelphia Phillies.  They just have to get all their players playing on the top of their game.

The Phillies have the potential to win.  They have the ability to win.  They have the skill to win.  They have the players to win.  All they have to do is to get it to fit.

That’s what they did when they won the World Series.  And that’s what they have to do to win it again.

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