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Sam Donnellon | '93 team phanatic about Phillies
Especially given their younger ages.
"I'm looking at this team now as an era,'' said Kruk, an analyst with ESPN. "They're going to be good for a long time. We were already old and broken down in '93.''
GEORGE REYNOLDS/Daily News file photo
Mitch Williams leaps off the mound after the Phillies eliminated the Braves in 1993 NLCS.
Said Morandini: "It's similar only in the way they keep fighting and don't give up. But overall, our pitching staff was better. And we had a good offense. But it's hard to keep up with the numbers these guys are putting up. It's been incredible.''
Said Greene, one of those '93 valuable arms: "I just turned 40 and I'm jealous. Having an opportunity to play in that ballpark must be fun. It's just packed all the time and so beautiful. It takes me back, it really does.''
Drafted here, Morandini spent 10 years in the Phillies' system before he was traded to the Cubs for Doug Glanville. Not surprisingly, he considers himself a Phillie.
What is surprising is that he did not have the same success imports like Eisenreich and Dykstra had in converting his offspring. His 13-year-old, Jordan, became a Mets fan just to bug his dad.
"He was real excited after Saturday's games,'' Morandini said. "He was like, 'You guys are going to blow it.' ''
Instead, the Mets flinched. Big time. To a man, the 2007 Phillies have earned the undying respect of their predecessors for the resilience they showed this season, especially as the injuries to key personnel continued to pile up.
"And what they did over the last 17 games of the season was unbelievable,'' Williams said. "They had every opportunity to curl up and die.''
Kruk admits there was a time - most of the last two decades, in fact - when he felt curl up and die was the team's mantra.
"I couldn't root for the Phillies because of the teams they put on the field,'' he said. Like many fans, Kruk perceived a laid-back attitude among the core group - Bobby Abreu, Randy Wolf, Mike Lieberthal, Scott Rolen and Pat Burrell - that was grating, especially amid losses that seemed listless.
"Now you have a group of red-asses the town can relate to,'' Kruk said. "When they lost last year, or the year before, it didn't bother me. Now it bothers me. Because it bothers them.
"They're more resilient. People can talk all they want about magic in 1993, but there was no magic. We won with pitching. This team did it without pitching for a lot of the season.''
Said Dykstra: "This team is a bunch of grinders, dude. I've noticed that. Which I like.''
It wasn't lost on Kruk that the first person to Brett Myers Sunday afternoon was Burrell - who had been lifted for a pinch-runner in the sixth inning. Just a year ago, Burrell took some heat when a television camera captured him flossing his teeth in the dugout.
Now . . . he's a gamer.
"The transformation of Pat Burrell has been incredible to me,'' Kruk said. "But it took those guys to get out and these guys to come in before the real guy came through. You can see he cares. You can see he tries. And people love Pat Burrell now.
"I mean, besides the 17- to 25-year-old women.''
Returning home after the rally in Chicago, Morandini was on his cell phone, talking enthusiastically about the 5,000 who filled downtown yesterday, and how he was the lone representative of the 1998 Cubs team that reached the playoffs. He was told a similar crowd assembled in Philadelphia.
"Can you imagine if the Phillies play the Cubs next round?'' he asked.
