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The Phightin Phils
All but lost in last night's Cole Hamels domination/Reds sweeping/Oswalt troll-facing in the Phils NLDS-clinching 2-0 win was TBS announcer Brian Anderson using the most baffling idiom we'd ever heard. In the fourth inning, after Scott Rolen broke his 0-for-the series with a single, Anderson said:
"Rolen gets the skunk out of the box."
It is, honestly, a befuddling thing to say. Our drunken smartphone Googling produced unsatisfactory results, a bunch of stuff related to literally getting a skunk out of a humane trap. While I can imagine that finding oneself with a boxed skunk would indeed be an unpleasant situation, this struck me as far too on-the-nose an explanation for such a colorful euphemism. More extensive Google research today (adding quotes, expanding the search to "got the skunk out of the box") reveals that the saying gets heavy (but not exclusive, witness this account of the poor Lomira, Wis.,high school girls volleyball team whose victory over Omro was described as such by the Fond du Lac Reporter) usage on fishing message boards(!?). Which makes no sense to us (we don't fish).
Can anyone, anyone at all, help us with the etymology behind "got the skunk out of the box"? What on earth does it mean?
If "the box" is a desirable place to be, then presumably one would not want to share it with a skunk. In other words, the once the skunk is out of the box, it will still stink like a skunk but at least it can start to air out a bit. In other words, breaking the 0-for with a single won't fix Rolen's average, but at least he's not 0-for anymore. In fishing, maybe sportsmen use this idiom as a way to blame a faulty tacklebox for their lack of fish. Their bait, in other words, stinks. This is 100% conjecture.
i like your thinking, Ambiguator. I hadn't really considered that Rolen was in the box with the skunk. The "literature" such as it is on this and with regards to the humane traps suggests that a skunk cannot spray unless it's standing on its hind legs. However, a box that could accommodate both a skunk and a human would obviously be big enough for the skunk to stand and spray, making it indeed unpleasant for, in this case, Scott Rolen.
The fact that the phrase was used on fishing message boards made me think of my co-worker, call him Lyle, who dabbles in the semi-pro fishing circuit. He was away on his honeymoon during the series, but he returned to the office today and told me all about the phrase. According to Lyle, if you've been out in your boat for hours, it's getting late, and you haven't caught anything, you're, "getting skunked." A boat that is getting skunked can also be said to be, "flying a skunk flag." Clearly, nobody wants to get skunked. But, if at the end of a long, fishless day, you finally catch your first one, you have, "gotten the skunk out of the boat." You no longer have to worry about getting skunked - you can concentrate on just catching some fish. So, credit where it's due: TBS announcer Brian Anderson used the phrase well. As BH noted, Scott Rolen hadn't gotten a hit in the series before the at-bat in question, in which he finally got that elusive first hit. But, while the phrase was used appropriately, Anderson may have overestimated the percentage of the audience that would recognize the phrase. According to Lyle, the phrase is a fishing thing and kind of a southern thing. So, if you live in a place where the Civil War is referred to as something other than The War of Northern Aggression and you're not a serious fisherman, you probably didn't know what the hell Anderson was talking about, either. References: http://3.ly/C2tM http://3.ly/ws5V
This is my favorite skunk-related blogpost of all time.
[...] NLDS: About âÂÂgetting the skunk out of the boxâ :: The Clog :: Blog … In fishing, maybe sportsmen use this idiom as a way to blame a faulty tacklebox for their lack of fish. Their bait, in other words, stinks. This is 100% conjecture. by ambiguator on October 12th, 2010 at 11:36 am ÷ Reply To This Comment … Jan 01, 1970 12:00am [...]
We tend to leave the meme spotting to the trained experts, but we just had to share this riff on the Cole Hamels fist-pump meme that 's sweeping the philsblogosphere.
horrible
AWESOME!
definitely, awesome!
Thumbs Up, whoever said horrible must be one of those pesky mets fans
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Editor's note: This is the time of year that CP sports columnist E. James Beale lives for. He'll be posting maniacally on the Clog about the Phils' World Series run from now until the parade. Enjoy.
Growing up, the Beale nuclear family consisted of my mother, my father, my sister, and me. Two of us — my dad and I â were 25-games-a-year baseball fans, die-hards who could tell you the Colorado Rockies farm system before it existed (side note: Derrick Gibson was going to be NICE). Two of us — my sister and my mom — were not.
For me, the main difference between the Philadelphia Phillies regular- and postseason campaigns is the type of questions non-fans ask me about the team. During the season, my sister may check-in to verify/chime in on something she read in the style section (âWhy is Cole adopting an African baby?! He needs to get out now — tell him not be a Brad!â) and my mother may worry about their well-being (âJimmy looks tired: Tell him to sleep more. We kind-of-know his wife, you know.â) but more or less, when the conversation turns to the Home Team, they shrug and move on. In the postseason, though? Different story. They're superfans. Both of them.
Which means that right about now, for me as a commentator, they're my most valuable assets. This time of year, if I want to talk Phils with someone who knows what they're looking at, I'm having a 45 minute conversation about the merits of Ross Gload vs. Mike Sweeney pinch hitting in the 7th, or where Cholly should place Jimmy Rollins in the lineup. It's the type of stuff that fascinates me — your classic insider baseball — but doesn't exactly resonate with the cocktail-party set. The stuff from the fam? That can be gold. Case in point, an e-mail from the mother:
⦠also, I skimmed the morning sports. In my first wave of paying semi-attention, I found out that the Reds were the Big Red Machine (did I get that right?) — [and that in the 1970s] they were definitely the overdogs. Do people in other cities see the Phillies that way? Can Philadelphians ever?
A lifelong Philadelphian, my mother simply couldn't conceive that someone might believe the Phillies were actually good. It's absolutely true — for years, the psyche of an entire city of sports fans was built on the premise that they were going to lose, a pendulum that has now swung — but nothing someone in the thick of following a team could ever see.
Fans have been so focused on the lineup changes and the merits of Charlie Manuel's bullpen strategy that we've all missed the tree farm for the pine needles: Philadelphia is a powerhouse, the type of team that Queens can only dream of having, and who both of Atlanta's fans hate from afar. After years of imaging themselves lovable, Phillies fans may need to embrace a whole new identity — the enemy.
The 81 Percent Theory
Back in the early 1990s, Jimmy Frazier and Eldon Synder published a paper entitled "The Underdog Concept in Sport." The crux of the paper was a simple hypothetical they posed to college students: Two teams, A and B, were meeting in a best-of-seven playoff series, and team A is âhighly favored.â Who are you pulling for? 81% took the dog.
While I don't have any hard numbers on the general public's rooting interest in the Phils' now-complete NLDS sweep over the Cincinnati Reds and their formally fearsome offense, I imagine that it wasn't exactly favorable to our Home Team. Next round, when the Phillies casually dispatch the Giants/Braves winner, it'll probably be the same. It makes sense — armed with Roy, Roy and ColeRoy, the NLDS-record 11 hits allowed was hardly a fluke — but it still comes as a shock: The Phillies, literally the losingest franchise in the history of professional sports, are, in fact, âthe overdog.â People see the Phils as the bad guys â— not just because their fans are famous assholes who openly threaten to pour beer on your children for the sin of wearing the wrong colors, but now also because our city is actually nice at sports.
It's a new world, sports fans, get used to it.
Couple more notes
There is a second side to this âheavy favorite' angle, and I'm backing this one up with a study too. Back in January of this year two separate researchers — Nathan Pettit and Robert Lount — asked a separate group of undergrads a simple cognitive question: How many uses can you think of for a knife? Pettit and Lount told half their students that the scores would be compared with those of a more prestigious university, and the other were told they'd be compared to one generally considered worse. The first half outperformed the second, and the results weren't particularly close. If the students thought they were smarter, then functionally, they were — and the exact same effect happened in reverse. If you're a fan of a team that everyone in the world believes in, this would be good news.
Turned on WIP this morning, thinking that the Phils might finally have won the station's and its callers' hearts. Nope — they were bashing the Birds for not beating San Franciso badly enough. Oh, WIP.
Now that I'm done bashing WIP let me praise one of their employees I'm a fan of: Before Game 2 I was talking with Paul Jolovitz about the Phils' aces, and he brought up a good point: There isn't going to be one game this postseason where the Phils are expected to lose, save maybe a Lincecum game in San Fran (and if he's facing Halladay I have a hard time not believing that is a push). Does that guarantee them a championship? Of course not; baseball's short series lend themselves to bizarre outcomes, but lest we get it confused, this Phillies team is the favorite. (FWIW, the gambling odds bear this one out. According to Sportsbook the Phillies are currently even money to win the chip, and those odds were up before last night's win.)
I know all things Hamels are going to be beat to submission by the dailies today, so I'll just say this: When he's on and effective, he's really fun to watch. Not bad either.
the use of the phrase "roy, roy, and coleroy" elicited a louder chuckle than "overdogs". great piece.
Speaking of Mike Sweeney (that was the key point here, right?) He WILL strike a big blow in this post season. He will climb to the status of folk here in this town - just 2 tiers down from Matt Stairs. Book it. Speaking of Derrick Gibson (that is the sub-plot here, right?) He DID bat .429 in 1998. Shocking that he never stole a big league base ... Speaking of your sister & your mom - they ARE cuties
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The Best and Worst of Philadelphia fans were on display last night.
The Good:
The fans were a huge part of this game. They distracted the away team with hankies, catcalls and boos that even Tyson Gillies would hear. They take genuine pride in getting in pitchers' heads, they understand and rise to a moment, and they really do care about wins and losses.
Also, they can be hilarious. In the bottom of the 7th inning Jay Bruce missed an easy fly ball, allowing two Phillies to score and turning the game around forever. In the top of the 8th Phillies fans started chanting âThank You, Jay Bruce,â loudly.
Bad:
That said, what a short memory they have. Utley's second errors draws a round of âthis fucking guy"â from the Phillies' âfaithful.â We may be the best, but I've said it before and I'd be an asshole not to say it again: We're the worst too.
[...] NLDS Game 2: Best/Worst of Philadelphia Fans :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: Staff Blog :: Philadelph... [...]
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All the way back in October of 2007 the Philadelphia Phillies were a young, up-and-coming team with league-best power and an MVP first basemen. They had an exciting year, won the division from a hated rival, and then marched forward to the playoffs. There they threw two young starters (Cole Hamels and Kyle Kendrick) and a wily vet (Moyer), and were totally outclassed. They made stupid mistakes (caught stealing in every game) were unable to advance the few runners they got on base, and went home licking their wounds three short games later. Then, just one year later, they won one World Series, went to second, and appear well on their way to a third.
All of which is to say, don't fret young Reds. Sure you stunk this year (and don't get it confused, past tense is appropriate, this series is over), but not being ready for prime time happens, quite literally, to the best of us. It also happened to you.
Game Two: We Were There, Here Are 12 Things We Saw
1. Joe Morgan was in the house, either being a huge homer or doing actual homework in preparation for Fox's NLCS coverage. I'd be SHOCKED if it's the latter.
2. Re: all the early game âUtley's back at it againâ quips, I'd check a couple World Series' stat sheets before poo-poo ing Chase's 2009 postseason.
3. Chooch should and does get a ton of credit for calling excellent games, but he deserves to get some heat for last night's. Roy Oswalt's fastball had a ton of movement, and his slider looked bad.
4. I don't know if our pee cycles are perfectly aligned or if he's just got the bladder of a 4-year-old girl, but I could swear that Wheels is in the bathroom every time I go.
5. At this point in his career, Jimmy Rollins is a fine 7-hole hitter.
6. There were some faint âMVPâ chants for Ruiz after he limped to first after his HBP in the 6th. I know it sounds bizarre, but if you're the type of asshole who won't vote a pitcher MVP, they kinda make sense. This was his 22nd straight postseason game in which he reached safely.
7. Two points on Utley's phantom HBP. 1. You don't bail on a 101 MPH fastball up and in? You deserve first. 2. Kudos to Utley. Baserunners matter, and he was the tying run. His gamesmanship helped get in the heads of a team whose heads could obviously be gotten in.
8. One more on Utley: Postgame, Charlie talked about Utley's two errors, after non-answering for a couple minutes and mumbling something about how no one works harder Cholly got to the point, âI'm not benching him,â he said to laughs, then explained his motives, âI'm too old to fight.â
9. Come playoff time, CBP stays packed. After games are over, fans mill around, waiting for Harry to sing and taking in the scene. I don't think anyone expects something to happen, I just think they'd all rather be there.
10. Fun fact about Franciso's beaning (he took one off the dome): It didn't actually hit him, it drilled the brim of his helmet. Still, it was hard enough that his ears were ringing on the basepaths.
11. Dusty Baker on his team: âin my mind we outplayed them.â Dusty Baker's mind (#dustybakersmind) sounds like a hilarious internet meme.
12. J.C. Romero's eyebrows are something serious for the postseason. Dude looks like he went to the eyebrow waxer and told them to make him look like an evil anime character.
Not sure that (3) is fair. Oswalt, ulike most Phils pitchers, was shaking off Chooch's signs a lot. Maybe Oswalt will look at the box score from last night and figure out that he'd be better off just throwing whatever Chooch puts down.
Scooter, The point that Oswalt was shaking off Chooch is well taken, but per both fangraphs (http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=571&position=P#pitchtype) and the eye test his slider has been his worst pitch all year, and he was clearly struggling to locate it. Unless Oswalt literally shook off Ruiz three straight times on several occasions, I have to put some of the blame on the guy dialing it up. For what it's worth, this isn't 20/20 hindsight either, I tweeted about the pitch two innings before the Bruce HR. Look, Chooch has been amazing all year - point #6 recognizes that - but if we're going to put the spotlight on his gamecalling, well, lets put the spotlight on his gamecalling.
The quality of Oswalt's slider this season and the quality of Oswalt's slider during Game 2 are not in dispute, making the Fangraphs point unnecessary. Likewise, your baseball prognostication skills are not in question. Look, I'm a baseball stathead, so making arguments about interpersonal stuff isn't exactly my wheelhouse. Still, it doesn't seem to me like there's much a catcher can do when a pitcher shakes off the first 2-3 signs, especially when that pitcher is as notoriously stubborn as Oswalt. Here's something testable. On any given pitch, the last sign given should correspond to the pitch thrown. If the number of signs was higher on sliders than on other pitches, then that could be considered evidence that Chooch was less enamored with the slider than Oswalt. If the number of signs was lower or the same on sliders compared to other pitches, then that could be considered evidence that Chooch and Oswalt were equally enamored with the slider. Granted, there's a lot of problems with this approach -- small sample size, of course, since the 76 pitchers Owalt threw don't exactly constitute a robust sample size. And if the Phils were worried about the Reds stealing signs, they may have gone with some sort of "Throw whatever the second sign is, no matter how many signs are put down" rule. And, perhaps most importantly, I'm just not going to sit down and track each pitch from this game, noting the number of signs put down and the type of pitch for all 76 pitches Oswalt threw. Still, and as a baseball stathead it pains me to say something like this, it just seems like common sense to assume that when a catcher isn't getting shaken off most of the time, then the catcher is the one selecting most of the pitches, and by the same token, that when a catcher is being shaken off as much as much as Chooch was during Game 2, that the pitcher is the one selecting most of the pitches -- the catcher's selections are being vetoed. And with a guy as stubborn as Oswalt doing the shaking off, I don't think you can blame Chooch for failing to get through to Oswalt or manipulate Oswalt into going along with his game plan. Most pitchers, yes. The legendarily hard-headed Oswalt? No. I guess I could be wrong about how often Oswalt shook Chooch off, too. I certainly got that impression during the game, but I wasn't counting. The shaking off stood out to me, but maybe it shouldn't have, or maybe it was something like Oswalt shook Chooch off 20 times when the normal number of times that a Phils starter shakes off Chooch would have been 10. It might have been twice as frequent as usual, but still leaving a large majority of pitches being determined by the first sign that Chooch put down. I think it's just impossible to evaluate a catcher's game-calling when he gets shaken off frequently, because the game being thrown is different than the game being called. I also don't think one should blame Chooch for being unable to get Oswalt to put his pitch selection in Chooch's hands because of Oswalt's all-star-quality obstinacy. Blanton, sure. Oswalt, no. After the amount of time it took to write this, I probably could have watched every pitch Oswalt threw in Game 2 and tracked all the data points I was looking for. OK, back to work.
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The last time you saw your 2010 Philadelphia Phillies, they were jumping together in a heap in the middle of Citizen's Bank Park, exuberantly tackling their star pitcher, smiling Christmas-morning grins. They'd just been part of the greatest postseason pitching performance in National League history (a claim that stood for all of 28 hours ⦠thanks, Tim Lincecum) and having notched the first of what everyone seems to believe will 11 wins this postseason; the home team was happier than A.J. Daulerio with a Croc pic. Maybe everyone was just excited for their sweet new watches, but it was still genuinely captivating to see a team this star-studded so obviously thrilled. For them, Game 1 of the NLDS was the high point of the season.
Conversely, the last time you saw the Reds they were sadly walking back to their clubhouse, their heads uniformly pointed towards their cleats. They spent an entire game waving uselessly at every pitch in Halladay's arsenal, unable to even manage one well-struck ball. Watching them try to hit against Doc was like watching Adrian Greenier act opposite anyone: They had just been JV'd by the Phils' Varsity, and they all knew it. After a season in which their young stars had come into their own, they had been manhandled by the yardstick they had to hold themselves up to. For the Reds, Game 1 was the low point of their season.
That means, of course, that for the Phils there is no place to go but down, and for the Reds nowhere to go but up. That isn't a particularly insightful observation â the entire world knows it. Coming into the series the Reds were a prohibitive underdog in the series â every single ESPN analyst picked them to lose, and both SI and the Sporting News predicted a Phillies sweep â and now, would-be experts everywhere have all but written them off completely: âIt's hard to see how anyone can be optimistic about the Reds' chances,â opined Cliff Corcoran. Right now, you have to lay $600 just to have the privilege of winning $100 on a Phillies' series win.
And, on paper, everyone is right: Game two shouldn't be close. The Phillies are starting Roy Oswalt, best known for sub-2 ERA since joining the Phils, his five Top-5 finishes in the Cy Young race, and his NLCS MVP, against the Reds' Bronson Arroyo, best known for his hair"styles," his cover band, and his failed drug test. That isn't the only mismatch: The Phils finished 24 games over .500 at home, compared to the Reds' 3 over record on the road, and much of the young Cincinnati lineup has never had to do it when it matters. This disparity obviously played out Monday, when likely league MVP Joey Votto and his teammates combined for a total of no hits against Doc.
However, the real world doesn't exist in popular opinion, games are still won and lost outside of a spreadsheet, and short five-game series can lend themselves to flukes. Tonight, the Reds, a team who will have bettered their previous performance the first time a seeing-eye single squirts through the infield, face a team that just celebrated — literally had champagne brought into the clubhouse (not that Halladay had any that night ⦠he probably had stairs to run or something). The Reds have nothing to lose.
If the Phils win, so what? They were supposed to win. Not only are they prohibitive favorites, but if we are to believe the old adage, a series doesn't start until the road team wins a game, they'll have simply held serve. If the Reds win? Well, then the unbeatable Phillies just lost home field advantage, the egg-on-their-face Reds can play loose, and those Midwesterners out in whatever Podunk little state Cincinnati is in can put on their best Phillies-fan imitation and actually make an away game something to fret about.
So look, I'm not saying that if the Phillies drop game two suddenly they can't win — they can, and probably will — I'm just saying that if the Home Team wants to keep that unbeatable aura about them and stay out of a dogfight, well, early tonight is probably the time to do it.
Headed down to CBP now. Twitter during the game, game notes after â¦
[...] ReportDrama on tap as NL takes center stage on Day 3 MLB.comGame of the Night Toronto Sports MediaPhiladelphia Citypaper (blog) -BetUs.com -betEDall 18 news articles » Oct 04, 2010 [...]
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| alyssa grenning |
So this afternoon, Friend of the Clog Jesse Delaney e-mailed us with this tantalizing idea: Take the Public Enemy silhouette-in-crosshairs logo, insert Mr. Red, and slap "Bring Tha Roys!" a nod to P.E.'s "Bring Tha Noize," underneath.
And through the photoshop magic of CP's Alyssa Grenning, voila!
According to J.D.: "I'm blowing it up to poster size and carrying it to the game tomorrow."
Got an idea for a killer Phils logo? E-mail bhoward [at] citypaper [dot] net.
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Last night, around the sixth inning of the first win of the Phillies/Reds National League Division Series, it became evidently and obviously clear to the 46,411 fans in attendance (and the 680,046 who will one day claim they were there) that Roy Halladay would not be allowing a hit to the National League's best offense. Unlike your typical no-hitter, Halladay wasn't relying on game-saving catches, escaping from warning-track threats or encountering any real moments of panic. As fans waved their towels in the stands, media types broke rules by snapping pictures from the press box and DVRs across the nation changed their setting to âsave until I delete,â Halladay calmly walked to and from the mound, reached back, and notched his 27 outs — eight Ks, three infield pops, 12 grounders and just four balls that left the infield — in just 2 hours and 34 minutes. He threw one more ball (25) in nine innings than Edison Volquez, the Reds' starter, did in less than two. He out-hit, out-scored, and out-RBI'd the Reds all by himself. He is now — clearly and without hyperbole — the game's preeminent starter, the most talented righthander ever to play in this town, and the Phillies' best and most valuable player.
Below, thanks to the magic of the Interwebs (and the obsessive coverage of the dailies, which seem to double in size come playoff time), we'll find the best (and worst) recounting of the newest top-5 moment in Philadelphia sports history. You'll see exactly how dominant Doc was, hear him be compared to a lot of former stars, and read many, many words attempting to find his place in history.
Without further ado â¦
The gamers:
David Murphy talks about the sounds (or lack thereof) of the game
Matt Gelb tries to capture Halladay in the moment
Randy Miller goes inside the clubhouse
Ryan Lawrence credits the hard work
Jim Salisbury talks to everyone you want to hear from
Zolecki and Maadi have almost exactly the same lede
Read:
The Author: Paul Hagen
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: You think we should catch up with the umpires?
The Author: Rich Hofmann
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: What about Chooch? Love that guy.
Fun Fact: Yogi Berra said a lot of interesting things, bet you didn't know that.
The Author: Sam Donnellon
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: Let's talk to Doc's fam.
Fun Fact: Brandy Halladay is really endearing
The Author: Jayson Stark
The Source: ESPN
The Pitch: Roy Halladay was built for this
Fun Fact: About 15 weeks ago Halladay gave up 13 hits to this Reds team.
The Author: John Finger
The Source: CSN
The Pitch: I'm going to go check in on the Reds
Fun Fact: John Finger always gets good stuff from Scott Rolen
The Author: Jack McCaffery
The Source: Delco Times
The Pitch: Roy Halladay is a baller
Fun Fact: Halladay's undershirt is getting Fed-Ex'd to the Hall of Fame this morning.
Skip:
The Author: Bill Conlin, back in the saddle.
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: Please, Conlin doesn't pitch, Conlin writes about whatever he pleases.
Fun Fact: 1Chair makes vampire jokes and tells a story about taking a piss with Chris Wheeler & Dave Montgomery
The Author: Mike Jenson
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: I'm going to go talk to Chooch and write it up
Fun Fact: Chooch gave good stuff in his group interview, Jenson wrote it all up.
The Author: John Gonzalez
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: The Phillies are pretty good, huh?
Fun Fact: Despite talking like he was in the house, I didn't see Gonzo once last night.
The Author: Frank Fitzpatrick
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: What was the no-no like for the rest of the team?
Fun Fact: Ryan Madson had to pee, and Ryan Howard wasn't trying to party
The Author: Frank Fitzpatrick
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: I wonder if Charlie Manuel was impressed by that
Fun Fact: Charlie Manuel was impressed by that
The Author: Kevin Cooney
The Source: Bucks County Courier Times
The Pitch: We should check in with the other clubhouse
Fun Fact: You could hear the Phillies celebrate from the Reds locker room.
The Author: Phil Sheridan
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: Roy Halladay wasn't thinking about throwing a no-hitter. Weird, no?
Fun Fact: Sheridan is a better writer than this.
The Author: Marcus Hayes
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: Don't you think the Flying Hawaiian needs a nickname?
Fun Fact: Victorino broke Schmidt's club record for career playoff hits. It isn't a cheap record either: Vic actually passed Michael Jack with three games to spare.
The Author: Bob Ford
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: That Halladay character is a pretty serious guy.
Fun Fact: This column has an unintentionally hilarious headline.
The Author: Ray Parrillo
The Source: Philly.com
The Pitch: âMy question is to the Reds offense, you guys got owned tonight. Thoughts?â
Fun Fact: Orlando Cabrera thinks it was John Hirschbeck who shut them down
The Author: Randy Miller
The Source: Bucks County Courier Times
The Pitch: Polanco missed out on Halladay's perfect game, too, didn't he?
Fun Fact: Polanco missed out on Halladay's perfect game, too
The Author: Kevin Cooney
The Source: Bucks County Courier Times
The Pitch: Numbers!
Fun Fact: Something, something Rick Wise!
The Author: Ryan Lawrence and Rob Parent
The Source: Delco Times
The Pitch: Victorino passed Schmidt in postseason hits
Fun Fact: Polanco is playing Friday.
The Author: John Kopp
The Source: Delco Times
The Pitch: Do sports bar do better when local teams win?
Fun Fact: Spoiler alert: They do
The Author: Laura Wiseley
The Source: Delco Times
The Pitch: Do you think local fans are happy that Halladay threw a no-hitter?
Fun Fact: Spoiler alert: They are
The Author: Tim Logue
The Source: Delco Times
The Pitch: Do baseball fans enjoy going to baseball games?
Fun Fact: Spoiler alert: they do.
The Author: Jack McCaffery
The Source: Delco Times
The Pitch: Chooch! We gotta talk about Chooch!
Fun Fact: â[cliché],â Ruiz said. â[Cliché.] [cliché, cliché]â
The Author: Phil Heron
The Source: Delco Times
The Pitch: I watched part of a baseball game!
Fun Fact: Phil Heron is the type of guy who will write âHisto-Royâ in print.
The Author: Lee Russakoff
The Source: Comcast.net
The Pitch: You know who I love? ZooWithRoy
Fun Fact: That ZWR fella has a bolg of his own, just read that.
The Author: Hal Bodley
The Source: MLB.com
The Pitch: How close is a no-hitter to a perfect game? We should explore.
Fun Fact: Pretty close.
The Author: Rob Neyer
The Source: ESPN
The Pitch: That matchup isn't fair.
Fun Fact: In 1952, Virgil Trucks lost 19 games and won only five ... but two of those were no-hitters.
The Author: Jon Heyman
The Source: SI
The Pitch: The Reds aren't to blame for this one
Fun Fact: Heyman wrote this entire column in like 15 minutes.
The Author: Cliff Corcoran
The Source: SI
The Pitch: You know who was a punk? That fluky Don Larsen
Fun Fact: Cliff Corcoran seems to believe Don Larsen was a fluke
[...] from: SPORTS COMPLEX: Morning Rounds, We Like Roy Edition :: The Clog … Categories: Uncategorized tags: find-the-best, magic, newest, obsessive, obsessive-coverage, [...]
[...] from: SPORTS COMPLEX: Morning Rounds, We Like Roy Edition :: The Clog … Tags: and-worst, best, find-the-best, interwebs, magic, obsessive-coverage, philadelphia, [...]
[...] more: SPORTS COMPLEX: Morning Rounds, We Like Roy Edition :: The Clog … Tags: and-the, and-worst, best, find-the, find-the-best, interwebs, newest, obsessive, [...]
[...] SPORTS COMPLEX: Morning Rounds, Wе Lіkе Roy Edition :: Tһе Clog :: Blog Arc... [...]
Editor's note: This is the time of year that CP sports columnist E. James Beale lives for. He'll be posting maniacally on the Clog about the Phils' World Series run from now until the parade. Enjoy.
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Yesterday, on the subway down to Citizen's Bank Park, I ran into a friend who splits a season ticket package with eight of his friends. This group had managed to procure one set of playoff tickets for them all, and as the most equitable solution they could think of, had agreed to have a draft to determine who among them should go to what game.
âThe first-pick guy couldn't go during the World Seriesâ my friend explained, âso he got stuck with this weekend.â The second in line snatched Game 6 of the Fall Classic, and the third locked up the first. All of this left our friend, picking forth, game tickets to Game 2 of the 2010 World Series.
âI wanted to see them close it out,â he deadpanned, shrugging. âOh well.â
I never figured out which unfortunate soul was saddled with seeing the first no-hitter in National League playoff history, and I doubt they were cursing their luck when the single finest righthander ever to pitch in Philadelphia was no-noing a team that led the NL in average (.272), homers (188) and runs (790). Still, the fact that the second season's kickoff was relegated to a second-tier event may have had as much say about the state of Philadelphia baseball as anything he witnessed on the field. We grew up in a town that was shocked when the Phils were competitive, and all of a sudden we're living in one where parades are all but assumed.
Four years ago, when Charlie Manuel trotted Jimmy, Shane, Chase and Ryan out for their first of four (plus?) playoff runs as the Phils' 1-4 hitters, fans felt like they had won their World Series already (7 in 17, for those with memories forged in the Twitter generation (@ejamesbeale). The next year, our city put the challenge on the shoulders of the fans, turning playoff games into bunkers as they tried to rattle opposing pitchers, and leaving the stadium more relieved than elated. Even last year, with a WFC in the pocket, the playoff run was less about flexing muscles and more about the hope our city wasn't a fluke, but rather belonged in the winners' circle. This year? Fans are literally planning trips to American League cities they believe might host games 3-4-5 of the Championship round.
In a sports town long marked — heartbreakingly and accurately — as doomed to failure, the 2010 Phils have somehow instilled in our city the sincere belief that the NLDS is just the unavoidable scenic-route drive to the inevitable championship.
Part of that is justified: The Phils' Game 1 starter — the guy who just pitched the best playoff game in the history of the senior circuit — was their third-best starter in the second half (third-best ERA, WHIP and BAA after the All Star break). Thanks to Doctober, Oswalt, Cole âRoyâ Hamels, and a lineup wherein you could win the argument that their current worst-hitting regular has an MVP on his mantle, they should be considered the favorites for the Commissioner's Trophy. But still ⦠when Polanco missed the game with a sore back, fans weren't worried, they joked that their team was basically telling the world they're so good that they can rest players in the playoffs. Pregame conversation fodder used to be the opposing starters' off-speed stuff, now it's in which city the Phils will play games 3, 4, and 5 of the World Series. Philadelphia has a swagger it hasn't seen since Ben Franklin was sleeping with half of France.
Five years ago, this confidence might be a cause of worry. Today? Too busy planning that parade.
Game notes on their way â¦
[...] more here: SPORTS COMPLEX: Doctoberfest :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: Staff … Categories: Uncategorized tags: beale, clog, james-beale, phils, the-time, time, world, [...]
about time we saw more of beal again, smart writer. (dont be TOO smart though, we may be a few years into this winning thing but still into the thrill)
[...] this article: SPORTS COMPLEX: Doctoberfest :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: Staff … Tags: beale, clog, maniacally-on-the, run-from, the-parade-, the-time, time, until-the-parade, [...]
I attended my first Phils game circa 1959 at my Dad's side - night game, dazzled by the emerald field under the lights of Connie Mack. They played the Reds that night. Vada Pinson played center. NOBODY in my world was named Vada or Pinson or could run like that ... this was a fantastic new world. I've been along for the ride since - and I have never seen anything like this. Sure we were good in the late 70's - and sure we won a World Series - but the "Machines" and the "Dynasties" were out of town phenomenon. So this IS fun. For me, yet another fantastic new world. Go Phils
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A no-hitter. One walk from a perfect game. Against the team with the best batting average in the National League. Holy crap, Roy Halladay.
CP sports guru E. James Beale was at the game — you're welcome for those credentials, Beale — and will have more for everyone tomorrow. In the meantime, if you guys look in the paper that hits the streets tomorrow, you'll see that, in his editor's letter (which, I should mention, went to press Tuesday night), Brian Howard predicted that Doc would throw a perfecto.
He was about two inches off.
With one byline since July that has to be the luckiest credential in history. Will there at least be some writing to go along with it? It's only been about 12 hours since the real writers filed their stories.
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