WIPblog By Joseph Santoliquito- Beating A Damaged Red Sox Team Means Nothing In June
|
You couldn’t hear yourself talk, the crowd noise was so thunderous standing down there on Citizens Bank Park’s field last October. I never thought Brett Myers’ glove would land, after the good Brett Myers, circa 2007, recorded the final out—igniting a baseball celebration that was 14 years in the waiting.
The Phillies and the city reacted as if they had just won the World Series—pouring champagne over anyone and everything, while all they won and all they’d eventually win was the National League East Division title.
This is a team and a city that should want more—and should get it this year.
Now we have the World Champion Boston Red Sox in town—and the Phillies coming off Monday’s impressive 8-2 victory—and on national TV, no less. It was a good start. It kept the Phils three games ahead of the surprising Florida Marlins in the NL East race, a chase the Phillies should run away with.
But that’s all it meant. A win over a good team that happens to be banged up in June.
Beating Boston—a pretty depleted Boston team—means nothing this time of the year. We’re still in June everyone, as if you need a reminder. The Bosox will trudge through Philly and the Phillies will have the benefit of not seeing Josh Beckett or Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Did I hear more than a few people utter World Series preview?
I think I did.
It reminds me of those hallow giddy days of last October, when everyone thought the Phillies would steamroll the eventual National League champion Colorado Rockies. It didn’t happen. It was a Phillies team—and a fanbase—content on just winning the NL East. Nothing more.
I want more. I think this city’s fanbase deserves more, and on top of that, this Phillies’ team wants more. So sure, beating the World Champion Red Sox can cause a few to hit the giddy button. Make you feel good for a team in mid-June on the brink of hopefully better things.
But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. Let’s put it in perspective. Keep the World Series talk to a minimum. Keep the comparisons between the Phillies and Red Sox to October.
My fear is that the jolted-up Phils of Monday night will throw so much into this Boston series (you could tell the Phils were amped) that they’re vulnerable to suffer a little slide.
Don’t forget, a team that the Phillies could, and in my opinion will, face in the World Series, is coming into town this weekend—the Los Angeles Angels.
The steadiness that Charlie Manuel guides this team with was shaken somewhat Monday night. It’s a team that feeds off of how balanced emotionally it cruises through a season. They need that now.
I remember one time interviewing Emmitt Smith, the future Hall of Fame Cowboys tailback, and recall him telling me about the attitude of those great Dallas Super Bowl teams of the 1990s: “Great teams always expect to win,” he said, “and they do it by not getting too high for any one team, because great teams know they’re the standard. We knew with those Super Bowl teams that anyone we played would have to get up for us. That adrenaline doesn’t last long. We didn’t have to get up for anyone. We knew we were great. We knew we didn’t have to talk it—we acted it on the field by winning.”
It’s an attitude I wish this Phillies team would soon adopt, instead of throwing around ‘World Series’ scenarios in June.
Joseph Santoliquito is an Emmy Award-nominated writer based in the Philadelphia area who can be contacted at Jsantoliquito@yahoo.com.
|
|
|
|
|
