Phillies Walk Back In Time

If you've lived under a rock that last few days then I will briefly update you to the present state of philadelphia sports. After a drawn out and cold series the Phillies are now preparing to play a shell of their former selves in the NLCS the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Phils are sending out Cole Hamels in game one of the series on Thursday and he will face former Philly and Hamels former farm club teammate Randy Wolf. Randy Wolf will be a part of a 4 man rotation in Los Angeles that will feature another former experiment in Broad Street History, Vicente Padilla.

Fandom will remember these two players by some of the most memorable fan sections in all of 700 level history. The Randy Wolf "Wolfpack" and the Vicente Padilla Flortilla Tortilla. Ah the days of the fan section.

Two Players that had short lived and rather dismal careers in philadelphia will face members of the new ball club that in some cases replaced them. Its funny when I hear these names because after the rotations were announced I glanced over at the Dodgers roster just to refresh myself for water cooler fodder and a couple more philly ties stuck in my mind. We all know about the travels of Larry Bowa after he left the phillis bench, a short stint in New York and his departing as a part of Joe Torres changing of the guard but also another name stuck out to me. Phillies fans should remember Mariano Duncan. Duncan who was drafted by the Dodgers in the early 80's spent some of his most successful years with the Phils in the early 90's. Duncan was a strong utility player on the 93 squad that made it to the series.

It will be interesting how the NLCS will go down but hey no matter what we still have baseball in October so in my mind we have a success.I doubt we will be doubting our passing ups of the Padilla and Wolf contracts but hey stranger things have happened. And god knows if it does happen the radio waves will jump ship once again.

Its funny listening to the radio fodder going on in philadelphia right now. Do not get me wrong I love this city and all of its people but either everyone has amnesia or are just dumb. You hear the same fans screaming like we are on the titanic as it was sinking after the phillies game two loss to the Rockies. Its like were in a one and done situation in this city. No one has patience and for some reason we all think we know exactly what the problem is and how they are the only one that knows how to fix it.

I loved the celebrations going on in the city last year but it seems that for every life long phillies fan 50 more have somehow come out of the woodwork as soon as we get some hardware. It must be tough I don't know how much farther the band wagon can go.

But back to the upcoming series. This team is very beatable and could give us a possibility to go for a back to back title. Then again that is the same thing we said about the Rockies two years ago. Never underestimate a hot team. You never know who will show up any night but I have to say that I feel a lot more optimistic about thing with the quality of small ball this team has been playing lately. Last night was the first time that I saw Ryan Howard swing for contact and not and try to knock the ball into the stratosphere.

Game 1 and 2 in L.A. with two former phillies players as opposition and the statistical chance of Cliff Lee, who has been the biggest shining star for the phillies this year and could get Ruben Amaro mentioned for exec of the year, to start 3 games if it comes to it makes me think the Fightins chances are alot better then last year. Phillies fans just remember. We all lived in those years of terrible baseball and we still wore our caps everyday. So be grateful for what we have right now because the mets have had their locker room cleared out for the last two weeks. so all and all this year is a success. Well just have to see how the series goes.

b. chan