The Phillies are a truly odd organization. Big-market but small-revenue. Long mired in tragicomic futility but absent from the average fan's imagination.
How did they get this way? Meet the humanoids who own them.
I've been a Phillies fan since before the current ownership group materialized, and the article linked above has informed me of at least 95% of what I know about them. All of them.
These are the people Bill Conlin calls The Teflonics, the faceless, eminently replaceable Pips to Bill Giles' -- and then David Montgomery's -- Gladys Knight. You dig?
The closest thing the Phillies have to a national public image -- and this applies somewhat to all the Philly teams -- is based on the team's fans. Or more specifically, how pathologically negative and cynical we all are.
(Hey, I guess we're kinda famous -- I mean, do Indians fans or Twins fans or Astros fans have an image to uphold?)
Really, though, we'd rather have a spotlight-crowding owner who gives half a terd about winning. We did like Pat Croce, didn't we? Christ, we don't like anyone and we liked Croce.
Anyway, read that article and find out why being a Phillies fan is like semi-voluntarily smashing your head into a wall. Over and over and over again. Forever.
Note: Being a Red Sox fan was like this for decades, but only one person had to die for it to end. The Phils' ownership group is so subterranean, I have no idea how many old weasels -- and their spoiled, clueless progeny -- would have to buy the farm for us to see a decent ownership group fall into place. Eight? Twelve?
------------------------
Since the puck's about to drop on the Finals, allow me to go on record:
Based on what I've seen so far in the playoffs -- which is virtually everything -- these two teams look like an extremely even match. And not only that, but an even match of teams that are playing exceedingly well in all phases of the game.
But...
I have this feeling that some glaring matchup issue is going to become apparent immediately and the series will end up a sweep for one team or the other -- and numbingly boring. And, of course, I have no idea which team that'll be.
So I'm going to hedge: In a game 7 officiated by Brad Watson, Bennett Salvatore, and Don Knotts, Sid The Kid and The Incredible Diving Mealtickets prevail.
.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
(This really deserves its own post, but I don't want to upstage your Phillies post, so I'll do it here and in a much shorter form.)
The only reason the Red Sox have competant ownership is because Bud Selig, in a move that he simply does not get enough credit for in Boston, essentially forced the team on John Henry. If you recall the guy who really wanted to buy the team was Boston Real Estate Developer, current Dodgers owner and indecisive moron, Frank McCourt. Had McCourt, who had the highest bid for the team if I recall, been allowed to purchase the Sox they'd still be chanting "1918" at Yankee Stadium.
And how strange is it that the Red Sox have what is likely the best ownership in baseball now? If, in 2002 when the team was sold, you told me that the Sox would be run by former Marlins owner John Henry and former Padres owner Tom Werner, I probably would've started crying.
Henry owned the Marlins from 1999-2002, during which the team never had a winning record. Werner was the Padres owner from 1990-1994 when the team never finished higher than third place. The crowning moment for Werner in San Diego was when he invited Rosanne Barr to perform the national anthem.
What kind of odds would you get if you said that these two buffoons would combine to purchase a historically inept team, win two world series in four years all while creating the best organization in all of baseball?
Also, Wings in five.
Eight fucking pages!? How pathological.
In other news, I agree on paper that the series looks very even. I am also sick of hearing about the "Red Wings playoff experience." The majority of that team has tasted nothing but playoff failure, while the Pens seem to be too young and naive, and believing in their talent, to give a crap. I think that the depth of scoring talent on the Pens will be the difference. Plus, Osgood is going to shit himself when actually being attacked by waves of forwards who can actually shoot straight. Pens in 6.
Post a Comment