Yes they still do play baseball in this town believe it or not. They are even building a big beautiful new stadium just for baseball across the street from the much-maligned Vet. However I can’t seem to shake the feeling that the majority of sports fans in this town just don’t care about the fortunes of their baseball club, and I can’t seem to blame them. The Phillies haven’t been truly competitive for almost ten years, even though the club would have you believe otherwise. In those intervening years they have said that they are on the brink, just one more player or two and they would be in the hunt for a playoff spot, maybe even a title. Of course when it came time to sign that great hitter, that dominating pitcher, the Phillies have come up small. We are stuck watching the dregs of the free agent ranks slog it out to the field, or the mound of our Fightin’s year in, and year out with little or no success.

I say the time is now for this ballclub to step up and show us they are committed to us, and winning a few ballgames maybe. They think that the solution to all of their problems will be a new stadium so all of us can sit in pastoral splendor and watch our team and the money will just come pouring in, and all be well in Phillies land. What the ownership of this team is failing to realize is that a new stadium and monetary success do not necessarily go hand in hand. Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Milwaukee are finding this out the hard way. We can only hope that this organization will be able to sort things out, and get this city excited about baseball again.

In closing I want to thank you for visiting Phillypage2. I hope you will stop back from time to time to check us, and my column out. You may not always agree with the opinions you read here, but we hope you have fun, and who knows, like Bill Cosby said before the Cosby Kids, “you might even learn a little something before it's done.”

"Silent" Bob Delcamp

1 October, 2002

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