It Was Fun While It Lasted

It's a long season. That hasn't changed. I acknowledge that fact, and that we are only at Memorial Day as I write this, and that they are only five games out of the division lead at this point. But I don't think the Phillies are going to be playing for any championships this year.

Now, I certainly do hope I am wrong. Their recent run of five straight division championships, along with their style of play and the character of the players, has made this Phillies team the most memorable of my lifetime, possibly my favorite baseball team ever, and most probably the best team in Philadelphia Phillies history. But they're scuffling now, and all signs point to a drop off that will be difficult to overcome.

Yes, their best offensive players have been injured all season. Yes, there have been some injuries to the pitching staff. And yes, there was enough shuffling in the off-season that you can make the case that it's just taking a little while for things to gel. But I think there's more going on here than a minor, temporary dip in the team's fortunes. The evidence points to an ending rather than a new beginning.

Cliff Lee was hurt for a while there, but even so he should not be winless for the season. The bats have been mostly mute without Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in the lineup...and that's part of the problem. There doesn't seem to be much faith in anyone in red pinstripes that those two guys are actually going to play this season. Other teams have guys on the DL, but those teams nevertheless carry on without the missing pieces, and do so with confidence that those players will be contributing soon. (Though Boston has been very up and down, they remain a confident team despite the number of key injuries they've suffered.) And now, with Roy Halladay potentially showing breakdown signals, everything points to a siuation that's about to turn from bad to worse.

Of course, it's possible that everything will turn out right in the end. Maybe the ship rights, guys who've been hurt come back on or ahead of schedule, and the machine starts rolling through the NL again. It just doesn't feel like that's going to happen. The current Philllie team feels more like a squad that is under siege, a team where every time something positive happens (taking three out of four from the Cardinals this weekend, or perhaps seeing one of the big bats back in the lineup soon), some new calamity rises up and takes a big chunk out of them for another foreseeable future.

It happens. Good teams, even great teams, often have that one season in the midst of their run where, for whatever reason, nothing goes right and a whole year is lost before they bounce back. The A's of the late '80s-early '90s were like that: three straight league championships, then one oddly off year in '91 before a bounce back season brought another division title in '92. The Yankees and Dodgers back in the '70s met twice in consecutive years in the World Series, then took the next two off before meeting again in '81. I could probably cull through baseball history and come up with more examples, if it weren't so late now.

So how about it? Can't the Phillies do the same thing? Can't they win next year, if not this year? Maybe. I hope they do. But I also know that there are plenty more examples from baseball history of good teams that had their run, and then dissipated once age and player movement took their toll. I fear we're seeing the latter development in South Philly. So I'm bracing myself, and reminding myself whenever I grind my teeth a little too hard over another loss to the goddamn Mets: Appreciate the good times of the last five years. It was fun while it lasted.