Reading Phillies Still Pulling Away Despite Claiming they Love Phillies

Eric Hartline-US PRESSWIRE

It’s hard to believe someone when they keep backing away slowly, but the Reading Phillies are doing just that.

First they love us and they want to be with us, then they want to be with us but they want to be with us differently, and now they want to change who they are entirely while still maintaining the same relationship.  “I’m just so confused right now,” they said through a curtain of tears.

It’s a confusing situation all right, mostly because the R-Phils have been the R-Phils for decades, and will be sporting a new logo, team name, and colors for the first time in their history.  Also confusing is why people keep making the “What if they changed their name to the Reading Rainbows” joke because it was good for a chuckle the first time but not really worth trying to turn into a whole internet thing.

Outside of pure Twitter speculation, there isn’t a lot more to learn about this situation.

"“We want to be able to celebrate our association with the Philadelphia Phillies, yet at the same time give our fans their own name so that they can wave their flag even more proudly as fans of the Reading franchise.”–R-Phils GM Jeff Hunsicker"

Hunsicker, who took home the 2012 Eastern League Executive of the Year award, seems ready to use the Phillies’ recent success and his own franchise’s standalone stability to vault into the world of Double-A franchising.  He’s not wrong; both Reading and Triple-A affiliate Lehigh Valley are two of the most celebrated and attended organizations in all of minor league baseball.

Obviously, a respect for tradition and a fear of change have turned the suburban Central PA masses into a horde of confused, furious people.  For them, we can gratefully offer the internet as an outlet for any terror or frustration.  November 17, when the AFL championship game is being played, the Reading Phillies will cease to exist.  The big announcement will be made within two weeks–a period purposefully built into the process to allow everyone the chance to get all these hissyfits out of their system–during which fans will organize polls and voting efforts in a highly misled campaign to decide the new name of the team.  Sadly, Reading has neither desired nor solicited our opinions on the matter, and in all likelihood has everything all set up.