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March 20, 2007

Hope and Faith

How the Philadelphia Phillies Can Win the World Series

by Steven Goldman

Brad talks with Steven Goldman about the Phillies' chances on Baseball Prospectus Radio. Click to download the mp3.

I am not a devoted Phillies fan, but in the years before I became publicly associated with the Yankees I did expend a decent amount of hope on them—hope that they’d be entertaining. At times, they were the only baseball I could get.

When I was growing up my father was inexplicably hostile to cable television—I finally got the house wired when he was convalescing from multiple bypass surgery and wasn’t in a position to say no—so for years I was limited to watching whatever baseball I could get over the air in central New Jersey.

There was no WGN or TBS for me. My first choice was always the Yankees, but they were moving an increasing number of games over to cable in those years, so on days when MSG exercised their monopoly I was stuck with either the Mets or the Phillies. Being a baseball junkie, when I could I would watch both, or all three, or catch the Yankees on the radio and one of the National League clubs on the tube. In this way I ended up seeing a great deal more of the Phillies than was necessary or even interesting.

At that time, directly after their 1983 “Wheeze Kids” division winners (and, with the exception of 1993, most of the years since), the Phillies were a bland team. From 1984 through 1987 they were, give or take, a .500 club. My main goals in tuning them in were

(1) See some baseball, any baseball;
(2) See a Mike Schmidt home run;
(3) See some interesting players on the visitors’ squad.