I understand too. It's a Philly calling card. And I have no issue with the players using it for motivation. Whatever makes them tick is working. It's more with the fans. You can't be treated like baseball royalty until you act the part. The fanbase needs to take a cue from our fearless leader and start ratcheting up the smug. Until then, the trolls will keep picking at the chip on our collective shoulder.

There's no right way or wrong way to be a fan. If people want to feel doom and gloom about the Phillies that's fine, clearly they find some enjoyment or entertainment out of that.

My way of being a fan has always been optimism with a sense of impending doom. 1964 did this to me. I'm pretty sure a lot of folks my age are like this. It's not a bad way to follow a team. Keeps you from getting too weirded out.

I don't care much about what the experts say. But it's a lot of fun to make fun of it. I think a lot of expert types need to go against the Phils to be different. There's really nothing wrong with that. Otherwise every story about the Phils would be this:

"How about those Phillies?"

"Oh, yeah."

They're really good, huh?

"Yup."

That wouldn't be very edgy now would it? (My use of color in this post is pretty keen, henna?).

As long as we continue to hit .344 with a .400 BABIP, we're golden.

Yeah Buzz Killington above already mentioned it, I wouldn't get too carried away with the O so far. They haven't walked much and haven't hit for much power, have been driven by a lot of timely hitting. There's nothing bad about that at all, I just wouldn't count on this same formula (low walks, average XBH) adding up to close-to-league-lead amount of runs for an indefinite amount of time. Very very nice to get a 7-2 start in the can though, especially with 3 absolute crap starts mixed in there

Yeah, as has been demonstrated on several occasions, I like to keep a good buzz going as long as possible, hence my hyperbole.

My blind optimism is an all-talk game. You don't have to have faith what you're saying but it makes things more fun. It's like talking about banging Jessica Alba. But in this sense, to me a least, it's about trying to enact a culture change in the Philly mindset. You're going to have dumbasses regardless of your demeanor, but shedding the chip on our shoulder and learning to crow our asses off would at least effect some sense of pride in our city, one with a history of lovable losers.

Tbf I thought the post-CLIFF LEE signing attitude was great. If people were like that all the time I think we'd be happier in general about our sports teams.

Barry I agree sentiment expressed in the above post. (Disclaimer: this is a straw man argument as it pertains to 99.99% of the discourse on BSG--at least outside of mocking the "stupid Phils fans" thread--but IMO it still pertains to a prevalent Philly sports fan attitude) what more can a team do than what the Phillies have done 2008-2010 to earn a fanbase's optimism/benefit of the doubt? Win another series would be the smartass response, but seriously, this has been a great goddamn team with core players who have all inspired confidence by having big moments in big games over the years. The neggo attitude has always grated on me....mainly the whole "woe is me" Eagles fan schtick that has been going on since the 02 CG though. Maybe it will take a few more pennants and we'll all transform into the Yankees fans....say what you want about them, but their idiot fans legitimately (and usually incorrectly) believe their team is the best under all circumstances, and that would be an upgrade from the Philly nego tact

Sarge is in San Francisco this weekend and gave Posey his ROY award

So now that the Phillies are on FM HD radio I SO HAPPY. So I bought a portable HD player and went to the gym today. Only the HD feed is 35-40 seconds behind the teevee. (Yeah, the gym has audio jacks on *most* of the equipment, but not my beloved rowing machine).

JFLNYC wrote:As long as we continue to hit .344 with a .400 BABIP, we're golden.

We're 28th in the league in walks. I didn't realize it was that bad. On the other hand we're smoking the ball, it's not just blind luck. That won't continue as pitchers make adjustments and things just generally settle down, but that should open up more opportunities for walks provided the hitters take what's given them. Plus, it's not necessary for the Phils to win every game by five runs.

There will certainly be days of darkness, but I remain optimistic. And we don't have to give any of these wins back.

I don't worry about low walk numbers as long as strikeouts are down too.

I love the Zo Zone headline: "Hamels is good"

WheelsFellOff wrote:I don't worry about low walk numbers as long as strikeouts are down too.

Early season stats are cool. The Phils are next to last in drawing walks but 2nd in OBP with a .38o mark and their .865 OPS is way, way above the .719 league average. When pretty much everyone in the lineup is knocking the crap out of the ball, waiting around for walks isn't the best plan.

The Phils are going to slow down with the bats at some point and we'll see if they start drawing some walks at that point.

Phils' hitters have only drawn 22 walks but their pitchers have only issued 18!!! League average is 30. Yowsa.

J. C. Romero only has one walk though. The Doc has influence.

Maybe you don't get this much in Philly, but while there are sports media people out there talking up the Braves as a challenge to the Phillies (because how many times can you write best starting pitching ever?) there is a much more common "Phillies are the Yankees of the NL" thing going on. Now, that's somewhat disrespectful, I guess, since why isn't anyone saying "the Yankees are the Phillies of the AL" but it is a very different media perception than what you'd have had 5 years ago.

who's the right guy to talk to about getting some updates on tmacsucks.blogspot.com?

I'm a big fan

TenuredVulture wrote:why isn't anyone saying "the Yankees are the Phillies of the AL"

seriously?

Don't they more closely resemble the Red Sox

I think it's more like Detroit are the Phillies of RBI baseball

TenuredVulture wrote:why isn't anyone saying "the Yankees are the Phillies of the AL"

Cuz the Yankees ain't got 4 aces