Stop the data stream for once and enjoy the games

When sports fans started referring to players as "pieces," things were never quite the same.

It has something to do with fans taking a more sophisticated view of the teams they follow. Everyone thinks he or she can do a better job than Ruben Amaro Jr. or Howie Roseman or Paul Holmgren or other general managers. In some cases, everyone may be right. In most cases, probably not.

Somehow, transactions became more interesting to many fans than the actual games: Draftniks and salary cap aficionados and advanced stat advocates and fantasy gurus have elbowed out the guy who just wants to have a beer and watch a ball game.

And that's fine, as far as it goes. It can be enjoyable to follow a team by studying how the "pieces" are assembled and made to fit under salary caps and payroll limitations. But there is a risk of losing something, too.

This comes up now for a couple of reasons. The Phillies just extended their contract with Chase Utley, one of the heroes of their quickly fading championship era. They also brought back many of the heroes from their 1993 World Series team, one of whom, Darren Daulton, is coping with cancer.

The Eagles, meanwhile, just retired the number worn by Donovan McNabb, the quarterback who led them through the best decade in franchise history.

There has been a lot of looking back, fondly and not so fondly, in Philadelphia. The way these players have been received has been revealing.

Nobody knew or cared what the 1993 Phillies' payroll was. Daulton had a WAR value and an OPS and all that stuff, but nobody knew or cared what they were back then. It was enough that he was a hard-nosed catcher who ran the clubhouse like a boss and delivered the occasional clutch hit.

Fans identified with the '93 Phillies as players who were fun to watch, not pieces with contracts that needed to be off-loaded at the first sign of a slump. That team quickly disintegrated because of big contracts for physically declining players such as Daulton and Lenny Dykstra, and because the big piece that was added, Gregg Jefferies, didn't produce.

Those deals would have been endlessly scrutinized today just as Utley's new contract has been. It isn't enough that a favorite player will likely finish his career with the home team. The length of Utley's deal, and the conditions under which it can be extended, have to be weighed against the odds that his knees go bad and the other possible ways to allocate payroll.

That has always been what GMs do, or should do. It is now what even casual fans do.

Unlike Utley, McNabb never won a championship. His reappearance on the local radar screen turned into a debate about whether he belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His stats were trotted out to make both arguments.

That's fine, but what got overlooked was the fact McNabb won two-thirds of the games he started for the Eagles. He won nine postseason games. He played hurt and he played hard. While he was the No. 1 quarterback, the typical Eagles season meant double-digit wins and at least one playoff win.

That's pretty good.

There is this phenomenon I first identified when Ray Rhodes was head coach of the Eagles. When he coveted a player - whether it was an opponent or a free agent or a potential draft pick - he saw only the pluses. The minute he actually acquired the player, he started focusing on his negatives.

I realized that was true of a lot of coaches and GMs. And now it seems to be true of many fans, too. Instead of enjoying what McNabb and Ryan Howard and other stars can do, we obsess over what they can't do. Next thing you know, it's time to move everybody at the trade deadline and add new pieces we still see through Rhodes-colored glasses.

An exaggeration? Think about how quick fans are to advocate tanking to improve their team's position in the next draft. That may be the ultimate example of transactions trumping game action.

Watching McNabb and Daulton and Brad Lidge and others pass by this summer, it really hit home. We should take the time to enjoy what we have a bit more because it's gone before we know it.