Nov12 |
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Phillies Still Get No Respect It seems like only a few weeks ago the Phillies won the World Series. Hey, wait, that’s because it was a couple of weeks ago! Despite the baseball playoffs being so frustrating I had to breathe into a paper bag to survive several games, I do miss baseball. I especially miss Fox’s coverage, as I realized when I found a screenshot for the Keys to the Game for game four earlier today. Wow, the key to the game for the Phillies is to win the game. Thanks, Fox. Even though everybody wanted him fired before he even managed a game in Philadelphia, ol’ Cholly (behind the Keys on the right) is a pretty beloved man around town now. And today he finished second in the Manager of the Year voting to Lou Pinella. This year, though, the award is historic for two reasons: 1. The official website for the award has a lime green background. 2. A guy got the award for managing for a week.  Dale Sveum of the Brewers became manager after the Phillies swept Milwaukee in mid-Setember. He managed 12 games. This is 10 times stranger than voting for Manny Ramirez or C.C. Sabathia for MVP or Cy Young. On the plus side, nobody voted for Dusty Baker. Let us now move to noted baseball writing legend Roger Angell’s online New Yorker piece about the Phillies’ World Series win. And let us now nitpick him:
We don’t get a national SI cover when the Phillies win — all we get is a small regional cover for the Northeast, which was actually a cover for a Tom Verducci story about how baseball should have brought up Charlie Manuel’s dad’s suicide more during the World Series. (I swear to God he wrote this.) Now I finally notice the annual awesome Roger Angell story about the baseball season, the thing I look forward to every year, is just three paragraphs long, and online only, and 25 percent of its sentences contain factual inaccuracies. (FYI: Utley’s peg prevented the Rays from going in front, Lidge’s famous blown saves came in the 2005 National League Championship Series.) Man, no respect. No respect at all. |
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You mean Sveum got a VOTE, not an award….
Plus, Utley didn’t “suppress” a throw to first; he faked the throw to first. It was pretty clear he was throwing home all the way and just wanted to sell the play.
you gotta give roger angell a little bit of a break — he’s like 150 years old. he was friends with abner doubleday. it’s no surprise that he gets things a little mixed up now and then…
Want to know why Philadelphia fans are as ornery as they are? Here’s why.
Right after the Phillies won the World Series, the talking heads asked if Philadelphia would finally get the respect it’s been seeking for so long. “Nah, they’ll still hate us,” was the response of a local sports commentator.
Well, I guess he was right.
Brad Lidge has a perfect season, 2 wins, no losses, 41 saves out of 41, with a 1.95 ERA, and is not even given ONE first place vote for the Cy Young Award, coming in 4th, and losing the title to Tim Lincecum who had a 2.62 ERA and did not have a perfect season. Even the players who placed 5th and 6th had at least one first place vote! While Lidge is a closer, a perfect record and a low ERA should trump someone with Lincecum’s record. At the very least, it should have garnered him a few first place votes!
Charlie Manuels took the Phillies to their first World Series in 28 years, and is not considered good enough for Manager of the Year. Why? Because the voting took place before the Series? I am beginning to wonder if that even would have made a difference.
Who are the Baseball Writer’s Association of America to chose the winners of such awards? Wouldn’t it be better if this became the chore of a panel of Hall of Famers? People who had actually PLAYED baseball? And why don’t they wait until after the World Series to make these decisions? After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?
Once again, Philadelphia gets dissed. It’s just never enough for you guys out there, is it? Maybe I’m not so mad at Chase Utley anymore. I want to throw a few four-letter words around myself this week at those “not-good-enough-to-play-so-I’ll-write-about-it” wannabees out there.
Philly has this to say to the Baseball Writer’s Association of America — “Hee yarh.” (Gesture not translatable.)
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1207463/once_again_philadelphia_gets_no_respect.html?cat=14