Utley Howard Hurt
‘Pen started season Qualls’ed
Now No Phils this Fall
I’m not sure how haikus and odes relate to one another. They’re both poetry, right? Where, aside from picsofmeinfrontofstuff.com, do you look for poetry? If ESPN can be the worldwide leader in sports, yet exhaust 80% of their energy on a sport only played regularly in the United States, then I am going to call PoMiFoS the blogger.com leader in Philadelphia Phillies related haikus and/or odes.
Nats win the East easy.
It’s going to be a difficult Autumn without my favorite boys of summer in the playoffs. Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen have been the soundtrack to my summer and fall these past five years, ever since I’ve had enough money to buy the mlb.com radio package, but too much frugality to buy the mlb.com TV package. I splurged and bought the smart phone app this year…and still paid almost $100 less than the cost of the TV package. No one in their right minds should choose listening to the inanity of Sarge and Wheels over the dulcet tones of Franzke and LA. LA may be a big dummy, but at least he knows he’s a big dummy. Listening to them 2008-2011 has provided a soundtrack to fill my summer nights. At 7:05 the Fightin’s were on and it was time to listen to LA complain about the umpires. Clearly, I’m biased and I say outside of Vin Scully there is no one better at calling a baseball game. I’ll give the Mets TV announcers credit because they make for an entertaining broadcast. They are far superior to the crap the Yankees pump out to their deluded masses. Still Keith ‘No Play for Mr. Gray’ Hernandez, Ron Darling, and whoever the 3rd guy is can’t hold a candle to the men in the Phillies radio booth. One positive of the Phillies not making the playoff is not having to listen to Joe Buck call the NL playoffs or World Series.
Franzke and LA
They fill my summers with joy
The season started like it always does in December with the purchase of the annual 6-game pack. The Gang and I have continued our tradition of the Phillies six-pack started back in 2008. We even all went to Baltimore to see the Phillies play the surprisingly good Baltimore Orioles. There was some inkling from the start that this season would not go as well as the previous ones. T-Rev, the steady one in the group, normally procures tickets to 6 Saturday games for all of us to attend. The 2008 tickets included Opening Day. We’ve been to Picture Day at least twice. The first two years featured large volumes of Jaegermeister and Miller Lite and more than our fair share of Bearfights. Opening Day tickets are much harder to get now and the drinking has curtailed in recent years. We’re all in our 30s, half of the male contingent is married and the other half is in some sort of serious relationship so the drinking was bound to slow down. The 2012 edition of The Gang’s adventures did include some inebriation in Baltimore and Towson, MD but not much more. Throw in the requirement of a Friday night game the day before and a midweek game and the opportunities for being ridiculous were severely limited. Even before the Phillies season started they were really killing my buzz.
A Wednesday Game?!
And Happily married too?
My liver’s thankful.
Our ticket season started on a chilly day in April down 4 out of 6 members of the gang. The Official Parents and Baconlb filled as more than suitable replacements.
And the season started off well as the new skinnier Joe Blanton pitched well enough to earn a W and Jonathan Papelbon entered the game to ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ by Metallica and shut the door on the Cubbies. Brian Dawkins even threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Jimmy Rollins following his retirement as an Eagle.
It was a good start to the season that would watch the Phillies come close to eliminating themselves from the playoffs before the All-Star break. I was with The Gang as we watched them lose to the Red Sox, Marlins, and Orioles in the first half of the season. They drifted further and further behind the Nationals. I missed a dismal loss to the Diamondbacks. As a new fan, Baconlb was uncertain she had made a good choice in teams. Even her favorite player as chosen by me, Freddy Galvis was busted for PED use and then fractured his back.
It’s Early August
We’re behind the New York Mets
This season is crap
As they have so often done over the past several years, the Phillies came alive in August and September. Our Wednesday game was a success as Cliff Lee shutdown the Marlins and the bats scored enough runs to seal the game. They’ve been here before I told myself. The beginning of this recent run of success started in 2007 with a trip from 7.5 games with 17 to go behind the Mets. The playoff romp in 2008 was made possible when the Fightin’s came from 3 games back to overtake the Mets again. This was 2012 and the 2nd Wild Card was made for the Phillies. Just sweep the worst team in the majors in Houston and they’re practically in the playoffs. Yeah, except the Phillies have been owned by the Astros since 2004. Whatever the Phillies do when they play Houston, they need to stop because they lost 3 out of 4. That slowed down any playoff talk. A sweep of the Mets including a 15-1 drubbing in Queens and a win versus the Braves helped to quicken the pulse of Phillies’ fans. It set the stage for the 6th and final game of the 2012 6-pack. With Roy Halladay taking the mound, the offense firing on all cylinders in a playoff hunt, and beautiful early fall weather, what more could we ask for? Well, not giving up 7 runs in the first two innings is what we should asked for. The normally reliable Doc Halladay got shelled in the first two innings. It was revealed following the game (or maybe I read it after the game) he had felt spasms behind his shoulder area on Thursday, but was cleared by doctors on Friday.
He doesn’t look so spasmy there…
Spasms hinder Doc
Braves score seven in two innings
Looks like no wildcard
But there was German dancing…
The Phillies highlights were limited. Ryan Howard clobbered a ball into centerfield for his 300th career homerun. Darin Ruf the current single season homerun record holder for the Reading Phillies also hit a sac fly for his first career Major League RBI. And the weather was nice. And that’s it. The Phillies have been so great over the past 5 years it’s tough not to be disappointed with them missing the playoffs. I’ve been spoiled. Not douchebag Yankees fan spoiled, but still spoiled. There are plenty of young Phillies fans who don’t remember when guys like Von Hayes, Juan Samuel, and Tyler Greene lost a lot games in the Vet. There’s a reason they have 10,000 plus losses. So 2012 ended with a whimper for the Gang and Phillies. We will have to look forward to February 2013 when the Phillies head down to Clearwater.
Twenty-twelve’s a bust
The Phillies can’t catch the Cards
Hope’s back in ‘13.
0 comments:
Post a Comment