Road To 10,000 Losses: Best Stretch So Far

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th Loss, coming sometime later this year. With a 9-6 loss to the Astros Friday and an 8-5 win Saturday, the Phillies stand at 9963 losses, only 37 away from 10,000.

Thanks to Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and the weather, this was the Phillies’ best weekend so far in the 2007 season. Why, you ask? Well, over a three-day stretch, the Fightins only lost one game. So far this season, the Phillies have lost an average of 10 games per three-day stretch (somehow). Okay, so the Phils’ blew a 3-0 lead Friday night and Sunday’s game was rained out. But still: The Phillies split a home series! For now!

First, the good: Sunday was Jackie Robinson Day all across baseball, but Mother Nature remembered how the Phillies treated Jackie Robinson and rained the game out. Saturday, the Phillies actually rallied from a 4-1 deficit, Jimmy Rollins hit his NL-leading sixth homer and Chase Utley didn’t screw up too much and the Phils won, 8-5.

Friday night, though, was not so kind to the local nine. The Phillies scored three in the first inning off Roy Oswalt, but the Astros came back thanks to three Carlos Lee home runs, one of ‘em a grand slam. The Phils had about 50 chances to come back from a deficit that was as much as 8-3, but blew every single one.

Friday night’s game, which dropped the Phillies to 2-8, was too much to bear for Jason Weitzel, of Beerleaguer, to bear. He was one of those who predicted the Phils would make the playoffs this year, and unlike eternal pessimists like myself, he put himself in a position to be let down.

I’m writing out of a sense of duty to the site today. Fortunately, this isn’t my livelihood. I can step away whenever I want. The Phillies are pushing me in that direction. Losing is not only boring, it’s depressing.

Brett Myers’ latest excuse is he’s “pitching scared.” Like a scared dog is what he said. Nope. Just the dog part, champ. Oh how the Astros laughed after Carlos Lee smashed your middle-in attempt at revenge into the seats. You’re not pitching scared, Brett. You’re pitching like a moron.

Pat Gillick’s blueprint for building a championship is to give major league contracts to ex-players like Jayson Werth, who, by all accounts, is a garden variety Triple-A corner outfielder. He looks like he should be able to play: tall; athletic; even handsome. Werth even has a baseball pedigree. That’s good enough for Gillick, a man with more jurisdiction over stone-cold stiffs than a coroner.

Finally, we’ve run the gammit from management to performance this season, but we haven’t touched on intellect, which went missing again last night. Answering whether stupid decisions, like sending Shane Victorino with no outs from third base, will ever change, wise old poster, Nat, had this to say:

This is one thing I don’t expect to change. Some of the other problems may get corrected, but the stupidity will remain. You can break out of a slump. You can recover from injury. Your luck can change. But if you are stupid, you pretty much stay that way.

Oddly enough, with the rate the Phillies are taking pitches and walking this year, I’m really not as pessimistic as everyone else anymore. But on the plus side, I’m gonna be able to finish this 10,000-loss countdown before my impending doom.

Hunky-dory Phillies say ‘It’s just a matter of time’ [Beerleaguer]

Road To 10,000 Losses: 160-Pound Man Blasts Two Homers, Phils Lose Anyway

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th Loss, coming sometime later this year. With a 5-3 loss to the Mets yesterday, the Phillies stand at 9962 losses, only 38 away from 10,000.

When your 160-pound leadoff man, who came into the season with 84 career home runs, cracks two homers in the first two innings of your game against a division rival, you think your team would have a pretty decent shot at winning.

Oh, the team’s the Phillies. Right. Yes, Jimmy Rollins hit a pair of homers last night, raising his season total to 5 — second in the major leagues. But after Rollins’ homer in the second inning last night gave the Phillies a 3-1 lead, the Fightins went just 3-for-22 from there on out.

Fireballer Billy Wagner, an ex-Phillies closer, is a successful closer because of his near 100 mile per hour fastball. And last night he was topping out at 94. Only Ryan Howard got a hit off of him. Chase Utley and Pat Burrell only took one pitch each and flew out.

The Phillies are now 2-7 this year, and look to get to 10,000 losses sooner rather than later. But, hey, the Phillies are still on pace to set a major league record for walks in a season! See: This year’s local nine might do something special after all.

Phils squander Rollins homers[Inquirer]
Walkie No-Talkie [Mike's Baseball Rants]

Road To 10,000 Losses: Phillies Get Flushed

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th Loss, coming sometime later this year. With an 11-5 loss to the Mets yesterday, the Phillies stand at 9961 losses, only 39 away from 10,000.

Oh, now yesterday was fun, wasn’t it? The Phillies, playing the Mets in their home opener at Shea Stadium, didn’t just get blown out. No, the Phillies lost in horrific fashion, as two relievers combined to give up seven runs in the bottom of the 8th inning. Jimmy Rollins, booed mercilessly due to comments saying the Phils were the team to beat in the NL East, grounded out with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth. Another strong start by Cole Hamels was wasted.

Ryan Howard did hit his first home run of the season, a three-run shot that gave the Phillies a 5-3 lead in the sixth inning. Earlier, though, Howard managed to collide with third baseman Abraham Nuñez while going for a pop-up. Howard, as you know, plays first base. Yes, the Phillies are now even finding a way to allow their first baseman to truck their third baseman. Expect the catcher to collide with the right fielder by season’s end.

Charlie Manuel continues to not understand how to do the double switch — he’s simply not capable of it — and might not be the manager for much longer. The Phillies, meanwhile, are looking likely to be the first baseball team to go 1-161 in a season.

A note: My original totals were one off by one game. The Phils are only 39 away. Thanks to Jim Sweetman for his assistance. His website, Broad & Pattison, has a ton of fun Phillies stats and info.

Road To 10,000 Losses: Phillies Make Fans Look Good

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th Loss, coming sometime later this year. Currently, the Phillies stand at 9960 losses, only 40 away from 10,000.

It’s no doubt the Phillies are one of the worst teams in professional sports history. But what if they deserve it?

The Inquirer is running a series on Jackie Robinson’s 60th birthday; today Frank Fitzpatrick recounts the treatment the Phillies game Robinson on his first trip to the City of Brotherly Love. Sadly — but naturally — people chanted racial slurs at the rookie, but it wasn’t the fans. It was the players, goaded on by the manager.

Racist manager Ben Chapman decided the best way to welcome Robinson to Philadelphia would be to make it as unpleasant to him as possible. And so, when Robinson came up to bat, Jonathan Eig said, “[h]is accounts in later years, and accounts by others who were there, say the Phillies mentioned Robinson’s thick lips, thick skull, and sores and diseases his teammates and their wives would likely contract by associating with him.” (Sadly enough, Robinson also wasn’t allowed to stay at the hotel the rest of the Brooklyn Dodgers stayed at.)

Here’s how bad it was:

This time, the vitriol from the Phils was so intensely unrelenting that several fans seated near their dugout wrote commissioner Happy Chandler to complain.

The racism from the manager and the players was so bad even Philadelphia sports fans were pissed. To this day, Ben Chapman remains the only man to make us look good.

Part 2: Phils hurled insults at the ‘noble experiment’ [Inquirer]

Road To 10,000 Losses: Lonely On The Basepaths

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th Loss, coming sometime later this year. With an 8-5 loss to the Marlins yesterday and a 6-4 loss today, the Phillies stand at 9960 losses, only 40 away from 10,000.

Although the Phillies won their first game of the season Friday night, the Fightins returned to their losing ways over the rest of the weekend, dropping a pair of winnable games to the Marlins. The Phils have now begun the season 1-5 for the second straight year. (Last year the Phils were 1-6, then won 8 of 13 — a near-record clip! — to improve to 9-11.)

It’s actually fairly appropriate the Phillies will hit the 10,000-loss mark this season, as this year’s local nine has shown a commitment to losing in new and exciting ways each and every game. Saturday, the Phils erased a 1-0 deficit when a misplay in center field turned a Jimmy Rollins RBI single into an inside-the-park home run and a 3-1 lead. Rollins is actually tied for the league lead in homers with three; Ryan Howard, who had 58 last year, has yet to hit one.

In the bottom frame after Rollins’ homer, Phillies pitcher Brett Myers gave three runs right back and the Phillies never led again. Today, the Marlins walked 10 batters, but only two scored; the Phillies stranded 14 runners on base, including leaving the bases loaded to end the inning twice. Phils took a 3-0 lead in the first inning as Ryan Howard hit a two-run double. It was his first extra-base hit and his first two RBI of the year.

In the second inning, though, rookie pitcher Zack Segovia, up for a start spot, gave up four runs. It wasn’t all his fault: Right fielder Jayson Werth misplayed two balls in the inning. Another Phillies special: With a rookie pitcher on the mound, Charlie Manuel decided to sit the better defensive player.

I came across two Phillies-related items I really enjoyed, and I felt I’d share:

• From Beerleaguer Jason Weitzel, a description of Aaron Rowand: “The best player on the softball team.”
• The always excellent Mike Carminati at Mike’s Baseball Rants points out a history-making back-to-back from Ryan Madson. The reliever was only the second player on record to lose the first two games of the season. The Phillies are only the eighth team ever to lose their first two games in extra innings.

Thanks for the Easter present, Phils.

Beer Nuts: Zack Segovia tries to save series [Beerleaguer]
Madson Makes History (But Not the Good Kind) [Mike's Baseball Rants]
Double Your Displeasure, Double Your Phunk [Mike's Baseball Rants]

Road To 10,000 Losses: 42 To Go!

The Philadelphia Phillies were founded in 1883. (On a drunken dare.) The Phils have had their ups and downs… oh, who am I kidding. The Phillies have been all down.

Coming into this season, the Fightins had lost an impressive 9,956 games (according to Wikipedia). To put this in perspective, the Washington Generals, the team who used to play the Harlem Globetrotters, lost roughly 13,000 games. Yes, a team founded simply to lose games didn’t lose that many more games than the Phillies. The Phils will certainly pass them sometime in the next few decades.

After starting the season an impressive 0-3, the Phillies are now only 41 losses away from that magical 10,000 number. Ten thousand losses. It’s simply an incredible number. If you add up all the games the Eagles have lost, all the games the 76ers have lost, all the games the Flyers have lost, all the games the Soul, the Kixx, the Phantoms and all the college basketball teams in the city have lost, you still wouldn’t be anywhere near the number of games the Phillies have lost over their 124 years.

Sure, there are more baseball games in a season (162) than in any other sport. But looking at other old baseball franchises, neither the Pittsburgh Pirates nor the Cincinnati Reds came into the season a thousand losses within the magical five-digit number. Even if both of those teams lose 100 games a year over the next 10 years, they’d still reach the 10,000-loss mark 10 years later than the Phillies. Plus, those teams occasionally score runners in scoring position.

Over the next few months — or, at this rate, though May — I’ll be charting the countdown to 10,000 losses, recounting some of the more memorable losses and losers in Phillies history and continuing to be disappointed by the worst franchise in sports history. Go Phils!

Road to 10,000 Losses is a countdown to the Phillies’ 10,000th loss, coming sometime later this year. With an 8-4 loss to the Braves yesterday, the Phillies stand at 9958 losses, only 42 away from 10,000.

Philadelphia Phillies [Wikipedia]
Braves drop the Phils to 0-3 [Inquirer]