Posted: Monday, August 25, 2008, 9:37 AM | 33 comments |
 

Phillies: Ignition?
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August 10th passed this year, as usual, without comment. But it remains the anniversary of one of the great days in Phillies history. On that day in 1980, between games of a doubleheader in Pittsburgh,  Phils manager Dallas Green unleashed the tirade that launched a World Series. It was loud enough that the writers were able to hear all of it through a closed clubhouse door (although whether it was Green's intention to allow them to hear remains an unsettled question). The key quote, which crystallized Green's season-long battle with a talented, veteran team that was bobbing around a bit above .500, went like this:

"You've got to stop being so bleeping cool. Get that through your bleeping heads."

It is amazing, the things you think about when watching Shane Victorino take an extra base on Dodgers leftfielder Manny Ramirez in the bottom of the 11th inning of a game that never seems as if it is going to end.

It is an extra base that became moot when Pedro Feliz, who tied the game in the bottom of the ninth with a two-out single, hit a three-run homer to win it at the end, 5-2. It became moot, except as a symbol.

Now, this is not then and this team is not that team. This Phillies team is not so much cool as it is confident. It is not so much cool as it is insistent on insulating itself from the panicky football mentality that rules so much of this city. It really is a long season in baseball, and one-game snapshots tend to be so terribly out of focus.

But we are now into the urgency portion of the schedule. The games do start to matter now like football games. Moments will now decide who wins the National League East -- moments, individual efforts, plays born more out of desire than ability. And so, there was Victorino, busting it out of the box, probably sensing that Ramirez would have a hard time anyway if he used his speed and then receiving the gift of a less-than-insistent throw to second base. Runner on second, nobody out.

Now, he wasn't the only one. Earlier in the game, I saw Ryan Howard make the best defensive play I've ever seen him make, diving and catching a foul ball on the dead run, a long way into rightfield. He covered a ton of ground and then totally laid out for the ball -- just a great play. In the innings thereafter, it is hard to recall what was more disappointing: when Howard got picked off first base in the bottom of the 10th inning, or when he changed the shirt that he had made so wonderfully filthy. Doesn't he realize the value in this town of a shirt like that? Short of breaking your face on the outfield fence, an honestly-earned dirty shirt is honored around here.

Anyway, with 32 games to go, the Phils are now even in the loss column with the Mets. What seemed fated from the beginning, a gut-struggle for the division, is set up just that way. But these are the pictures you are starting to see: Howard's shirt, Brett Myers going crazy in the dugout after Feliz tied the game in the ninth, Victorino standing on second and clapping an insistent, let's-go clap. It's time.
Posted by Rich Hofmann @ 9:37 AM  Permalink | 33 comments
33
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:31 AM, 08/25/2008
    Here are my thoughts on last nights game, it may mean nothing though, im just a fan 1. The Sports Guy says, and I agree, that you can tell alot about a team based on how they react after a walkoff. meaning, if they go crazy after, beat the dude up, etc...its a great clubhouse....last nihgt, it was more like, "ok we are out there, a little craziness, but lets get back to the clubhouse" so thats not good 2. tehre are 2 "front rail' guys on this team, only 2.....burrell and dobbs...game was close all night, no one on the front rail for philly except those 2....almost hte whole dodgers team was tehre
    — TR
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:36 AM, 08/25/2008
    The METS
    — wes
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:41 AM, 08/25/2008
    Amen.
    — Big Game
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:54 AM, 08/25/2008
    TR, do you have spellcheck?
    — mokey1057
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:56 AM, 08/25/2008
    did football season start yet????
    — pieman
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:03 PM, 08/25/2008
    is football here yet!!!
    — pieman
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:10 PM, 08/25/2008
    College football this weekend. Way better product than professional sports.
    — Leron
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:11 PM, 08/25/2008
    Great hustle play by Shane, looked planned like they'd been waiting for Manny to pull a Manny all w/e. Great play by Howard; mystifying how a guy that isn't running can get picked off 1st to end an inning. Unfortunately, the cynic in me wondered if Howard makes the great play down the line if it isn't Sunday Night Baseball and he's looking for another gig elsewhere...cause he sure hasn't played much defense the rest of this year. Whatever...they've shown signs of life this w/e and it's great to see better ball from a team very capable of it.
    — PhillySubsMac
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:14 PM, 08/25/2008
    TR - I think you forgot a few guys - Victorino, Myers, and Ruiz are also all top step guys. I'll know we have it won when Rollins comes back to the top step.
    — bird11
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:24 PM, 08/25/2008
    And one more thing....Wes? Get a clue, ok? This is a PHILADELPHIA board, you nimrod, you want to root the Mutts, go their damn board, idiot! Eff off, nimrod!
    — PhillyHockeyBuff
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:25 PM, 08/25/2008
    I have not had good vibes about this team all season (wonder why), but hope I am wrong, and this is it. The two games with the Mets MIGHT tell us more, but then again, how many other times this season did we think they were on the brink of turning it around?
    — dadlaz


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About Rich Hofmann
Rich Hofmann arrived at the Daily News in 1980 for a job whose status was officially designated as "full-time, temporary." A senior at Penn at the time, he was hired to fill in on the copy desk during a staff illness. The notion of him covering the Eagles or being a columnist did not exist in anyone's imagination. It was supposed to be six weeks and out, but he never left. It is only one of the reasons why so many people have concerns about him as a potential house guest. Rich has blogged the postseasons of the Flyers and Eagles. E-mail Rich at hofmanr@phillynews.com

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