Despite Playoffs Loss, Baseball Still Wants to Give Phillies Awards
By Justin Klugh
In an award that isn’t the Cy Young, Roy Halladay is up against Ian Kennedy and Clayton Kershaw to decide who is good enough to donate money to the charity of their choice.
Meanwhile, in the Outstanding Rookie heat, Vance Worley fights off other rookies–Freddie Freeman and Craig Kimbrel–from a team that couldn’t even make the playoffs. Which is kind of mean, because in all likelihood, Kimbrel will win, and get a taste of the glory that the Braves couldn’t get him during the regular season. Suddenly embittered after becoming painfully aware of what he missed out on, Kimbrel will undoubtedly embark on a dangerous downward spiral, cutting himself off from his teammates and driving slowly past their houses at night with an increasing temptation to… do something.
Elsewhere, Vance will probably be unlocking Xbox Achievements.
The point is, with their season over, the Phillies are still competing. And in doing so, they may even eliminate the Braves from contention a second time! Hilarious. Also improbable.
What makes these awards different from the ones you’ve actually heard of is that these are the Players Choice Awards, meaning a room full of stuffy writers with inflated senses of purpose don’t get to decide who the winners are. The selection committee is other players, who you’d think probably have a more valuable and credible perspective on the matter than guys who get to sit in a booth several hundred feet above them, make judgements, type quickly, and call it a day.
The difference between them and me being that I don’t have access to that booth. And I can’t type very fast. If you take those two things out of the equation, you get blogs.
The point being that we shouldn’t be surprised how worthy other players find the Phillies, even if they aren’t playing in the World Series for some reason. Or are they? I know there’s a red team in there, but I haven’t been paying too close attention.
What I’m trying to say is, be on the look out for a disheveled-looking Craig Kimbrel motoring eerily about your neighborhood. The guy is probably right on the edge.