Phillies Nation

ugh, when will the Phillies get respect?

another thing I don’t get, isn’t Philly a major city? so shouldn’t that mean its a big market?

Would the Phillies want it any other way than to be the underdog? I think this whole series sets up well for the Phillies. All the talk will be about the Rays until the Phillies start out and win the first 2 games. Then the whole world will realize just how good this Phillies team is. As of right now the only weak spot the Phillies have is the depth at starting pitching, but they do have the best pitcher in the series. So take that as you want. The Phillies just have to be patient at the plate and have good at bats and I see nothing but a World Series victory in their future.

They all picked the Dodgers to win too.

Caple picks a Rays 4-0 sweep.

I’m happy they don’t pick us. So far, it’s worked to our favor…

Go Blue sounds like a sore loser.

The Orioles will probably be pretty disappointed to find out that you’ve kicked them out of their division. I’m curious why the Red Sox are the “defending champs” but the Dodgers are the “wild card” team.

I said to my buddies… the Phanatic should come out for Game#3 dressed up as Santa Claus, and the crowd will go CRAZY!!

Have a bunch of the groundscrew dressed in Rays gear and chase them around pelting them with snowballs…

just a thought..

Cole Hamels- Yea, awesome quote, I just saw that too

No surprise here:

Gammons: Phils 4-3
Caple: Rays 4-0
Law: Rays 4-2
Kurkjian: Rays 4-3
Neyer: Rays 4-1

LET’S GO PHILS

Wait, wait — Don M, I don’t get this Santa Claus incident that you’re referring to? I mean, I’m only 30 years old so I wouldn’t have much knowledge of anything that happened more than 30 years ago. That would be ridiculous right? The media wouldn’t continue to bring up something that happened, I dunno, say 40 years ago would they?

Go Blue is a typical stupid dodgers fan.

He rips the NL East…when “his” Dodgers won the NL West..THE NL WEST… with 84 wins….
Those “wild card winners” the Brewers…yeah they had a better record than “your Dodgers.”

Those AL Central champion White Sox? had 88 wins… 4 more than “your Dodgers.”
The Yankees? Do you even watch baseball? They are old, and have NO pitching..they never once made a threat to make the playoffs.

The Red Sox, sure, defending champs, who no longer have Manny, you know who he is right, he is the reason you became a Dodger fan…they have no Mike Lowell, David Ortiz didn’t hit, Ellsbury didn’t hit, Josh Beckett has a bum pitching arm.

I wouldn’t talk about the NL East, because the Mets had more wins than “your Dodgers” and the Marlins had the same amount of wins.

Only 2 good offensive players in Utley and Howard…are you serious? Did you watch any of the games? Howard hit about .170 and had 3 rbi’s in the series…
they won because they had solid defense, big hits from the entire lineup, and solid pitching.

Jamie Moyer is pitching game 3, not game 4.

So ‘Go Blue’ if you want to talk about the Phillies, then bring an intelligent argument to the table, because right now you just sound like a sore loser who knows nothing what-so-ever about baseball….

…”nuff said

Go Blue’s Mom is at my house… she said she’s going to yell at him when she gets home!!! Mr’s Blue is actually pretty cool like that!

I expected nothing other than ESPN picking the Rays.

Kruk said this time though, that he thinks this team is better than his ’93 team, and he even said he thinks they are better than the ’80 and ’83 teams. Now THAT is saying something! Let’s hope its true! (btw, this is according to my husband, who stayed up for the post-game hoopla… I passed out right after the last out).

Manny..
if Cole has hie change up working, he is nasty..and a young team like the Rays have, the kind of lineup Moyer eats up. So I think that Moyer can give us a decent start.

Myers and Blanton aren’t question marks in my book.
Myers was great against the Brewers…had an iffy outing against the Dodgers, but, he won

Blanton was great against the Brewers and did his job and kept the Phils in the game in LA

pithcing doesn’t worry me.

wow…never thought I’d say that

@ Go Blue
So what you are saying is both the cleveland indians and New york yankes suck because they lost to a team less that 10 years old? (in ’97 and ’03 to the Marlins, respectively) or the Baltimore orioles for losing the the ’69 mets (around 8 years at that time) I dont get what the time in the league means, if your team had a top 3 pick for the first 10 years of its existence that means you should be good at some point in the near future. So do we suck because of the league we play in or because of the good opponent we are playing.

Also we beat a divisional champion and a wild card team, just like the Rays. We have at least ONE other good player in your know LAST YEAR’S MVP rollins, and a perfect closer (Broxton/Saito can’t say that) And to counter your “inferior league” comment. 2006 Cardinals who won from the “quadruple A” national league according to Bill simmons

Another reason ESPN may be picking the Rays is because of home field advantage.

I see your point, Mike S. But I rather remain cautious and avoid unpleasant surprises. Pitching is the key to winning this and, even though I really like our pitchers, this is the WS..who knows what might happen? I’m very nervous for the first game, especially… Hamels has been getting too much media attention lately.

Phils playing the underdog against a ten-year-old team who’s only winning season is this one? Phils facing a Cinderella team just down the road from her castle?

I like those odds. Go on, continue to underestimate the Phillies. Haven’t gotten any respect all year, why should it start now……

I like the Phanatic/Santa idea, Don!

I emailed MikeMiss and JodyMac at 950ESPN… I’m trying to see if we can get this to happen. It would stick-it to every lazy writer that ever felt the need to type jaded story..

Good idea but doesnt Missanelli hate the Phanatic

It saddens me to see ESPN take this path of journalism, but I am not surprised. Think about how many cubicles, how many offices, and how many break rooms, have been destroyed by the Rays beating the Red Sox. No World Series for them this year. They have no Patriots to cheer for, and basketball season is barely here, and it’s a long one. When they don’t get their dream matchup, and they have to travel to a place that isn’t a top their list, they throw a fit by accusing the upcoming series something not fit for their royal eyeballs. Since they have chosen not to enjoy it from the top of their mountain, they want to tell the rest of the country that it may not be worth watching as well. Although there are some awesome announcers, and wonderful personalities at ESPN that are outstanding in their feild, the vast majority of the employees at that company are terrible. Ultimately, it is becoming more and more clear every year that ESPN will ruin sports, the way that MTV ruined the music industry.

Joe Buck, et al had me fired up. FoxSports, the whole of the media were trying desperately to sell Dodger Blue to the world. When they weren’t doing that, we were sitting there watching the NL Championship Series getting commentary on how great the Red Sox and Manny were, on how great Joe Torre and the Yankees were and how each of these factors somehow made the Dodgers the team to beat. Oh, that’s right, they knocked of the NL’s best record, the Cubs. Or did they? How many errors did Chicago have in those 3 games? Seems to me Chicago imploded under the usual pressure of bearing the load of the most infamous record in sports history. None of this was really discussed. I felt like the Dodgers were constantly being shoved down my throat. I heard myself repeatedly asking Joe Buck, “Hey buddy, who are you trying to convince of the Dodgers’ worthiness?” I happen to realized that Chicago lost those games, that the Dodgers had the worst record of any playoff team and came from the worst division. The idea that this series won’t sellf is nothing more than the bitterness of these fat cat NY loving, Boston loving media dweebs. They wanted desperately to sell us Manny vs Boston, Torre thumbs his nose at NY. Good for us and TB for refusing to give that to them. Also, whoever thinks the AL is the better league is flat wrong. They play a different kind of baseball over there which I believe produces the perception of being better. You can’t say that. You are comparing apples to oranges, both fruits, but not the same. Eventually Selig will get around to fixing this travesty and doing away with the DH. You wanna hit then pick up a glove and get your butt in the field, plain and simple. That’s baseball.

Lets look at who the Rays beat this year shall we?

Yankees – old beat up team with less than half of a proper starting rotation.

Blue Jays – Decent rotation with one of the most deficient lineups in all of MLB

Red Sox – Played for most of the year without either Papi, Manny, or Lowell. Bottom fell out in the playoffs when half the starting lineup went down to injury.

White Sox – struggled down the stretch and had to win a sudden death to even make the postseason.

The Phillies took out two young upstart teams anchored by the best hitter in the game (Manny) and the best pitcher in the game (Sabathia)

They’ll take out yet another squad of young guns.

3-1 Phillies.