Spring of our discontent

It's an odd time for us Phillies fans. The team is injury-depleted and scuffled its way through spring training, never getting much offensive juice. And so far during the regular season, they team is 1-3, has scored once in 2 games, and a total of 6 more runs in the other two. I was at the game on Monday and it just had a weird vibe about it, with the crowd never having the chance to get into the action because there was no action.

All I want to say to everyone getting upset about all of this is, hey folks, chill out. And what I don't mean by that is that everything is going to be okay. I have no idea if everything is going to be okay. It's hard for me to come up with a team that lost its number 3 and 4 hitters and then went on to have a good year. I'm not giving up, but this year may just not work out.

It's an odd time to be a Phillies fan. Last year, aside from its bummer ending, was one long high point, six months of spectacularly good baseball, as good as I've seen in 50 years of following the game. The best record in team history. A gift to the fans. There really was nowhere to go but downhill. And I'm saying this as a fan who wants nothing more than continued success.

But continued success is hard. Notice what a big deal we make out of winning the division 5 straight years? Why is it a big deal? Because it's really really hard to do. Aside from the Braves' amazing 13 year run, the next best in history is 6. And that was done once by the Yankees. So the Phillies are now tied with the Yankees and Oakland A's of the early 70's for the 3rd longest streak of division titles since they first created divisions back in 1969. That's an amazing feat of sustained excellence.

So do I want to see a 6th? You bet. Am I confident it will happen? Not at all. Am I hopeful? Will I continue to go to the park and support them even if this year is disappointing? Will I still be proud to have this team represent this city that I almost but not quite live in? Absolutely. It's baseball. You never know what's going to happen next. And that's why I love it.