The Philadelphia Phillies - My New Home Team
by
Asher B. Chancey,
BaseballEvolution.com
August 28, 2006
Do you know where you were one year ago today? I do. I was in New Orleans, Louisiana, in what would be my last day as a New Orleans resident.
In the wild year that has been, I have had the privilege of living in Sulpher, Louisiana for a week, Annapolis, Maryland for two months, and Alexandria, Virginia for 9 months. I now have family and friends all over the country, in Baltimore, Dallas, Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., Tucson, Seattle, and, of course, back in New Orleans.
We were among the lucky ones. We never had to swim in the filthy water. We didn't have to wait for days at the Convention Center or the Superdome. We didn't have to be pulled from a rooftop, and we didn't have to get on a bus with no idea where we were going. We didn't own our own home, no one we knew died, and everyone we know is fine.
It doesn't mean it didn't suck.
I woke up this morning in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, my new home. I have actually lived here for nearly a month, but every now and then I have one of those moments - "Holy crap, I'm in Philadelphia."
To tell you the truth, I could not be more pleased. I chose to move to Philadelphia, and I no longer have to live with the knowledge that I only live where I live because I no longer live where I used to live. I
want to live here.
More importantly, living in Philadelphia also means fulfilling a lifelong dream.
I now live in a city
with a baseball team!
Living in Philadelphia as I now do, I would probably feel bound to root for the Phillies even if I didn't want to, I suppose. Truth be told, I am pretty happy with my new home team, as the Phils have never given me reason to dislike them, unlike the Yankees, Red Sox, or Cardinals. I love Mike Schmidt and Chuck Klein and Steve Carlton and Ed Delahanty and Sherry Magee and Von Hayes and Juan Samuel. I am actually quite pleased to be treated to a home team that features Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Jimmy Rollins.
Cleverly, Bobby Abreu was traded to the Yankees the night we moved to Philadelphia. Eric and I were sitting on the curb outside of my new house at midnight, both exhausted from 20 hours of moving, which was 19 and a half more than we wanted to do. Suddently, he looked at me and said, "You know, I bet we could stop someone on the street here and they could tell us if Chase Utley extended his hitting streak." A neat thought, I supposed, so we put it to the test. The first guy we stopped was an old dude. Eric threw out the question – "Hey did Utley stay alive tonight." The older fellow, apparently pleased at our desire to talk, stopped to talk back. He didn't know, but he did know that Abreu had been traded, and he told us all about what he thought about that.
I was really looking forward to rooting for Bobby Abreu, and now of course we won't, because he is a Yankee. But I did run out and snag a five dollar Bobby Abreu t-shirt, knowing full well that they would be marked down since he was traded even though I considered the t-shirt a collector's item, not a throwaway.
But Abreu is part of Phillies past now, and we have the distinction of never having lived in Philadelphia while Abreu was a member of the Phillies.
Did you know Elvis died two weeks before I was born? It's kind of like that.
But if Abreu is part of Phillies past, Phillies present is looking pretty solid, and Phillies future is looking bright. I must admit, I haven't watched the Phillies franchise that closely over the years. I know they had that great team in 1983 that got close but no cigar. I know that they lost in 1992 when Joe Carter took Mitch Williams deep in Game Six. I know about the J.D. Drew fiasco in 1997. And I know that recently they have cast away such superstars as Billy Wagner, Jim Thome, Scott Rolen, and Abreu.
The point of that is to say, for all I know when it comes time, this franchise will not do what it needs to do to keep Howard and Utley happy and get them re-signed, and for all I know this is a team that will never get all the pieces put together.
But it has been fun so far. As I mentioned, Utley was on his streak when we moved in to our house. Meanwhile, Howard has been on fire in the month of August, tying Mike Schmidt's team record with 12 homeruns in a month. Howard is approaching 50 homers as we move into September, and another big month could put him into Babe Ruth/Roger Maris/Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa/Barry Bonds territory.
Howard currently has 47 homeruns, 122 RBI and 79 Runs through 127 games. He is on pace to have 58 homeruns, 152 RBI, and 98 Runs. His 58 HR would obviously lead Philadelphians to compare him to another Philadelphia superstar first baseman, Jimmie Foxx. While Howard's season has been fantastic, this comparison would not be apt. While Howard and Foxx may have similar homerun numbers, Howard's OPS is barely over 1.000, and his K total is embarrassing.
Furthermore, Howard has a surprisingly low 16 doubles this season, which kind of indicates a one-sidedness to his power. To put that in perspective, Howard is on pace to finish with 80 extra base hits this season (58, 16, 1). If he did that, he would be the only player in major league history to finish with 55 or more homeruns and not get more than 80 extra base hits.
Of course, Howard is in his first full major league season this year, at the age of 26, and appears to only be getting better, so it is all very exciting. And the comparison may one day be relevant, but I wouldn't make it quite yet. At this point, he is more of an Adam Dunn clone than anything else, with the exception that he is actual a slick fielder.
As for Rollins and Utley, well, these guys may be too good to be true. Rollins has never been a huge on-base machine, which is obviously frustrating with a lead off guy, but over the course of his career his strikeout to walk ratio has steadily improved, and this season he has already walked more than he did last year in 33 fewer games. He has already scored 100 runs for the third season in a row, and has shown more power this year than he ever has before. He currently sits at 35 doubles, 5 triples, and 19 homeruns, with the chance to go 20/20 for the first time in his career. On the defensive side of the ball, he has already turned more double plays than he did last year in fewer chances, and his fielding percentage is the second highest of his career. Rollins is only 27 despite his six full seasons in the majors, and might still have 15 years of baseball left.
To this point in his career, Utley has met all the expectations. Like Rollins, he is also 27 years old – they were both born in California less than a month apart – but he is only in his second full season. After a 94 game call up in 2004, Utley's on-base percentage has increased in each of the last two years, and his OPS is over .900 for the second straight year. He, too, has already scored over 100 runs, and in 20 fewer games has more base-hits and runs scored than he did a year ago. Not shockingly, Utley has also turned more double plays – 20 more to be precise – than he did last season, and his fielding percentage is also up from last year. Of course everyone knows about his hitting streak earlier this year. In fact, in the last calendar year, Rollins and Utley have posted the two longest hitting streaks in Phillies team history.
Fifteen years from now, I hope to still be living in Philadelphia, and I hope to be reminiscing about Rollins, Utley, and Howard and what great careers they have had in Philadelphia like Astros fans have been talking about Bagwell and Biggio for the last couple of years. If the Phillies can hold on to these guys, it should be an exciting time to be a Phillies fan.
Hell, I'm excited just to be here.
Disagree with something? Got something to add? Wanna bring up something totally new? Asher resides in Philadelphia, PA, and can be reached at asher@baseballevolution.com.
