That Balls Outta Here » davey lopes

Phil-Literature: “The Fall of the 1977 Phillies”

Justin Klugh — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:24:44 +0000

The Fall of the 1977 Phillies: How a Baseball Team’s Collapse Sank a City’s Spirit

by Mitchell Nathanson

McFarland

We spend a lot of time attacking Mets fans with words, rotten vegetables, and the occasional car part. But for a long time, this seemed what many referred to as “pointless,” “unnecessary,” or “despicable.” ”Pretty dangerous” was a popular term. In 2007, we won the NL East for the first time since 1993, but what’s extra fun to remember is that for us to win it, the Mets had to crumble into one of the most crushing episodes of month-long defeat ever witnessed. After that, our assaults had some backing–an epic collapse is an indefensible action in any argument, whether you’re shouting at a guy who just wants his kids to see David Wright play, or trying to figure out which car is David Wright’s for tire-slashing purposes.

An oft forgotten notion in these times of 21-9, four-ace baseball is that 95% of Phillies history is epic collapses.

This isn’t a baseball retrospective.

Its a ghost story. (more…)

Phillies Getting Intimate with Juan Samuel a Second Time

Justin Klugh — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 19:19:26 +0000

While the Eagles are busy stealing members of the Vikings practice team, the Phillies are flipping through the Rolodex, giving lovelorn, nostalgic glances to names from their storied past.

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Phillies Look to Replace Irreplaceable Davey Lopes

Justin Klugh — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:39:36 +0000

When I played little league ball, the coach would usually stick one of the sad sack reserve playesr with no chance in hell at making contact with the ball as first base coach. It was usually an afterthought, too, like “Whoa, if one of these dweebs actually gets on base, there should be somebody over there to tell them what to do, and I’m going to be too busy screaming myself hoarse with racial slurs aimed at the opposing coach to follow the ball.”

Since then, I’ve seen the value of the position, and when you’ve got a guy like Davey Lopes out there, sending dudes and timing pitchers’ windups and generally just being a dagger in the thigh of pitchers and catchers across the NL, it’s even more valuable. Sadly, the Phillies don’t have a guy out there like Davey Lopes anymore.

If the season started today, like a week after it ended, our first base coach box would be nothing more than half a chalky white rectangle with no gruff former manager of a subpar team to populate it.

So let’s talk a walk through the backgrounds of the possible replacements.

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