THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
Not that long ago, people were concerned. Now they're confident. Things change quickly around here.
It's been barely three weeks since the Phillies completed that dreadful 1-8 homestand. Maybe you remember. Or perhaps you've been trying to forget. They won one game against the Red Sox, got swept by the Blue Jays and Orioles, then limped out of Citizens Bank Park, bruised and battered.
They were a crew of walking wounded back then, and their struggles made a lot of us worry about the club's collective health. Seems like forever ago, doesn't it?
Yesterday, the Fightin's wrapped up an impressive 9-1 homestand with heads held high and a corrected gait. They're striding into the all-star break with a nice lead in the NL East and confirmation that they are still one of the best teams in the league. Even the home record, once shamefully uneven, has been almost entirely straightened out. (They're just one game under .500 at the Bank now.)
The Phils are whole again. Everyone's happy.
Time is a terrific panacea, isn't it?
Of course, all the grumbling and grousing, all the fretting, all the panicked talk about whether the Phils would recover - in the press box and in the stands - could have been easily avoided if our collective memories were a little bit longer. When the team you follow is in the thick of a race and things aren't going all that well, it's sometimes difficult to remind yourself that baseball is always a hellish grind. It's even tougher to recall that the Fightin's have become experts at riding the game's ups and downs and twists and turns without losing their lunch and making a mess of the standings.
"Almost every team, during a season, if you stay with it, you're going to hit a streak where you go real good," Charlie Manuel said. "Also, you're going to have some down periods. We hit kind of a bad streak. At the same time, our record on the road helped us to get through it. Then we came back home here and had a good homestand."
Last year, the Phils went 12-14 in June. This year, the Phils were 11-15 in June. Last year, they had to bench the shortstop twice for lollygagging. This year, they benched him once for underperforming. Last year, the Phils sent the opening-day starter to the minors. This year, that same guy, Brett Myers, was lost because of a hip injury.
Point is, the Phils don't do things the easy way. They never have. Sometimes they struggle. It happens - even to world champions.
Before reaching the playoffs the last two seasons, the Phils took quick detours and scared everyone stiff by careening around corners and nearly plunging headlong off cliffs. It's who they are. We'd all do well to ease up on the white-knuckle grips and backseat driving and relax a little - trust that they've gotten pretty good at driving this caravan to the postseason and just go with it.
"Probably the last two or three years, we never quit," Manuel said. "We always keep coming at you. That's a good sign."
True enough. And don't forget: They were 31/2 games back of the Mets on Sept. 10 last year, and things still worked out in the end. The next time they stumble - and there will be a next time - we should remember that and give them a moment to pick themselves up.
There's a great scene from a classic episode of The West Wing that better explains the idea. Martin Sheen's character is unsure that he has what it takes to be president, so his soon-to-be chief of staff steps in and delivers a fateful pep talk.
"Act as if ye have faith, and faith shall be given to you," John Spencer's character tells him. "Put another way: 'Fake it till you make it.' "
Nice to have Entourage back. . . . Just saw City of Nutterly Love: Funny as Bell! It's a joint comedy/improv production put on by the Philadelphia Theater Company and Chicago's famed Second City (which launched the careers of Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mike Myers, Bill Murray and others). The show includes some painfully funny skits about the Mummers, Philly sports fans, and, my favorite, the city's "bipolar love affair with Donovan McNabb." It's playing at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre through July 26. I highly recommend it. . . . Tonight's Home Run Derby will feature something ESPN is calling "ball track technology." The World Wide Leader will use Doppler radar to follow the ball off the bat and provide the flight path and real-time distance the ball is traveling. That's the fun part. The not-so-fun part: The ball will change color in midflight to indicate whether it's likely to be a home run or not. Isn't some of the event's allure rooted in guessing whether the ball will clear the wall? . . . Before yesterday's game, Ryan Howard said he was excited to participate in tonight's Home Run Derby in St. Louis, his hometown. Then he played coy. "Wanna know the secret?" Howard asked rhetorically. "Don't get a zero. That way you can go out and say, 'I didn't get blanked. I'm good.' " Lowering expectations is a classic political ploy. I'm betting Howard hits more than zero. Just a hunch.
Contact columnist John Gonzalez at 215-854-2813 or gonzalez@phillynews.com.
