Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Some talk about the Phils

ESPN has an article about Pat Gillick and the Phillies. Gillick is quoted as saying, "The team we have, we're going to be competitive. Are we going to win the division? No. We have to improve." Uhhh...Pat? You know, the Phillies team you inherited was already competitive, as evidenced by the 88 times they won in 2005. So congratulations on not making them worse over the last two months. That's good work. But I think your mandate was actually to improve the team, thereby making them a contender. I applaud your forthrightness in your assessment of your job performance so far. However, I'd suggest spending a little less time calling press conferences to announce the signing of Ryan Franklin and more time making the Phillies into the contender they not yet are. The good news, though, is the citizens of Philadelphia will be too busy with Ben Franklin's 300 birthday celebration and rehashing the Eagles' season to notice the Phillies. God this city sucks.

Staying with the Phillies, mlb.com has an article about Jimmy Rollins' hit streak. If you recall, Rollins ended the season with a 36 game hit streak, which will be considered active when the 2006 season begins. As the article states, "If Rollins is able to break DiMaggio's record, he would be recognized as the all-time leader, though DiMaggio would retain the record for a single season, unless Rollins managed a hit in 56 straight games this season." Do you think the guy who wrote that article was able to keep a straight face when he wrote that? Jimmy Rollins is working on a 36 game hitting streak. It isn't unlikely enough that he'll hit in 21 more to start the year; let's even raise the possibility that he'll do it in 56 straight this year. It seems very strange that Rollins' streak stays active. Isn't the whole thing behind a streak that you have to go out there and do it every day and not let the grind mess you up? A six month layoff and a new season kind of changes the dynamic of that. And you don't count a team's winning streak since the previous season, so why do it with a hitting streak? I hope Rollins doesn't break the record this way, basically because I'm stupid and can't wrap my mind around the duality of one guy having the longest hitting streak and another guy having the longest hitting streak in a season. I'm not too worried though. Rollins may only need what is in effect a 21 game hitting streak, but 1. That's plenty long enough and 2. The pressure has he passes the mid-40s will be just as intense as if he were doing it all in one season, if not greater because of the seeming illegitimacy of the record.

2 Comments:

Blogger Av said...

How can you not be rooting for Rollins to hit in 21 straight to open the season? Rule #1 when your loyalties go out the window: ALWAYS ROOT FOR CHAOS!! This is why you always root for BYU to advance to the round when they refuse to play on Sunday, why you root for Indy to score a TD after the overturned INT and the Bettis fumble, and why you root for an insane situation where one person has the single season hit streak and someone else has the overall record.

12:55 AM  
Blogger If I Ran The World said...

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/004196.html - read and laugh your butt off

6:39 PM  

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