phillies | The Baseball Zealot

Phillie Phanatic Phingered phor Phear-inducing Phranks

Never trust anyone in a green suit.

Apparently, there was a bomb scare on Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park forcing an evacuation of fans before the game.

The culprit? Foil-wrapped hot dogs duct taped together left by the Phillie Phanatic and his crew. The ballpark dogs were part of a tv commercial featuring the Phillie mascot. The leftovers were left outside the ballpark and somehow looked like an exploding device to somebody therefore causing the ensuing panic. The bomb squad was called in and yes, the hot dogs were indeed blown up.

BIG MAN, BIG BAT

Today I went to Clearwater to see the Yankees play the Phillies. Before the game I observed a big white guy on NY, #17, hitting balls off a tee, into a net, with ARod setting him up. Later in the 1st inning, #17 stepped to the dish with two aboard, and knocked the first pitch over the leftfield wall. It turned out this big guy was none other than Shelley “Slam” Duncan, son of St. Louis Cardinals coach Dave Duncan, and younger brother of outfielder Chris.

Last season when Shelley was called up to the Yanks the end of July, he lined an RBI single in game #1, game #2 saw his first big league homer, he hit three more in his third game, and then hit his 5th in his 4th game in the show. Duncan earned his Slam nickname with his home run swing and his enthusiastic high fives! Joe Torre commented that he didn’t want to be near Duncan when he did something good, because of his powerful high fives.

In September of 2007 Slam signed an autograph for a 10 year old Red Sox fan, in addition to writing his name, he wrote, “Red Sox Suck!”, he later apologized to the youngster.

The 2nd time up in today’s game Shelley ripped a two run double off the leftfield wall, putting the Yankees up 5-0, a fancy slide into 2B got him there safely. ARod launched a long homer over the left-centerfield fence. The Phillies were there too, but I really can’t remember them doing anything.

SAVERY SMOKED

I know it’s only spring training, and only the 2nd game at that, but it was disappointing to watch the Buccos tee off on former Rice Ace Joe Savery. The temperature was the same today as yesterday, 53 degrees, but today the sun was shining, and there was no gusting wind. Still my seat behind home plate was empty as I stationed myself down the leftfield line. Florida oranges floating in Blue Moon beer went down too easily. When the young lefty took the hill, I strolled behind the dish to get a better look. I almost had to turn away from what I was seeing. Savery fell behind Bucco hitters, trying to be too fine, then Josh Wilson lined a two run single up the middle, and then Nate McLouth knocked a three run blast over the rightfield wall, turning a 5-1 lead into a 6-5 deficit.

Before this collapse it was all good for the Phils. The Big Guy Ryan Howard almost reached the highway with his monster shot deep to right, still it wasn’t as far as his preseason drive over the hitting back drop in center last year. Pirate Adam LaRoche also went yard in the ballgame. Speaking of homers, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Michael Jack Schmidt was in the house for the second straight day, coaching firstbase, he’ll be a roving instructor this year for Philadelphia. I went to the souvenir stand to purchase a Schmidty tee shirt, but was told there were none for sale. Am I nuts or am I the only one who knows great player’s jerseys from all franchises would sell like hotcakes? A couple of years ago I was in Pittsburgh at PNC where I could purchase a Pokey Reese tee shirt, but could not buy a Clemente or Stargell, something wrong with this picture.

After watching baseball the last couple of days, while hearing of more snow in Chicago, I booked a last minute trip to watch some Cactus League baseball. I’d originally booked this trip way back when, cancelled, and then rebooked for about $600 more. Still I’m very much looking forward to hooking up with DonS to watch some pre-Easter baseball out west, but still have five more Florida games to see. Life is good.

MVP JROLL SPRINGS INTO ACTION

Even though there’s still snow on the ground throughout much of the USA, Spring officially sprung into action for me watching MVP JRoll & his Phillies take on the Cincinnati Reds in Clearwater, FL today. Although it was only 53 degrees, with wind screaming across the field from left to right, it was time to play some baseball. I grabbed a Yuengling, some cheese pizza, and settled into my primo seats behind home plate. But then the 30 MPH wind reminded me it wasn’t quite spring yet. So I gave up my seats and moved by the thirdbase line. There was enough shelter there to be able to enjoy the National Pastime.

I’m always amazed when I see little Jimmy Rollins playing shortstop, somehow my brain can’t quite grasp the reality that he is the 2007 NL MVP. I can still remember when I first saw Rollins a few years back when the players were working out, before the games began, I was behind the chainlink fence by home plate, and Jimmy was standing next to me, almost eye-to-eye. I stand at 5’2″ and the Phils “short”-stop is listed at 5’8″. It seems like almost yesterday when Tony Gwynn was brought in to get Rollins to shorten his stroke, and take advantage of his speed. Now he is MVP, hitting 30 home runs, Little Big Man, indeed.

Back to the day, Jamie Moyer toed the rubber for Philadelphia, and made leadoff man Ryan Freel look sick swinging at a slow breaking ball for strike three. Then Moyer showed it was no fluke, as he got Ryan in his 2nd AB with the exact same Uncle Charlie. The first hit by the Reds belonged to super-hype prospect rightfielder Jay Bruce. It was impressive to see the big lefthanded hitter go the other way against Jamie with a duck snort single to left.

Ryan Howard fought the wind and the wind won. Still Howard pulled up at second with a two base hit, he hit the ball on the screws. Pedro Feliz looked really good manning the hot corner for the Phils. It’s gotta be nice for this kid coming over from SF to Philadelphia, and a contender. Greg Dobbs mashed a threw run bomb off some meat nameless lefty to put the game on ice for the home team. It was good to see Chris Coste flash some digits, certainly no quitter there, long time minor leaguer, playing in the show.

Dallas Green was sitting ten rows behind home, watching the action. He is very personable, it’s amazing to see the interaction between the fans and the big guy. Green chatted with fans and signed a few autographs.

With Howard’s $10 mil, players batting .167

Fortunately for him, this was no practical joke. Ryan Howard won his arbitration case against the Phillies. The Phils offered Howard $7 million but in arbitration, he was awarded $10 million.

The arbitrators were comparing Howard’s case to Miguel Cabrera’s from last year. Cabrera hit the $7.4 million mark when he was with the Marlins. Apparently, they felt they couldn’t go lower than that figure.

Howard’s victory was the first arbitration win by a player in six tries so far this off-season.

So now, Howard’s price got a lot steeper. Is he worth it? If there is one young slugger out there I would want to get for my MLB team, it would be Howard. Yet, I’m sure the Phillies are also interested in locking some players up for the future not paying big bucks for a one-year contract only to go through this again.

Phillies Phool Kendrick in Pre-season hoax

Second season pitcher Kyle Kendrick was the victim of an elaborate practical joke by his Phillie teammates. The crux of the joke was that he was being traded to Japan for a “Kobayashi Iwamura”.

Kobayashi is a reference to Takeru Kobayashi who long held the record for hot dog eating.

Teammate Brett Myers was the mastermind behind the whole thing but he help from other Phillies teammates, manager Charlie Manuel, and even Kendrick’s agent and sports reporters.

Not only was the whole thing carefully planned, it was even videotaped unbeknownst to Kendrick.

The You Tube video is a must see for a good laugh. Some of the media who were obviously in on it weren’t doing a good job keeping it a secret as they had their notepads up to their mouths to conceal their laughing.

4/21/07 Linescore of the Day: Cole Hamels

Cole Hamels: 9 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 15 K (Win)

The Phils’ Cole Hamels is said to be rather flaky (he broke his pitching hand in a bar fight in 2005) but maybe that’s what fuels outings like these. I went in to my APBA rookie draft planning to draft him with my first pick. I chickened out and ended up taking Nick Markakis instead.

Maybe Hamels would have been a better choice.

By the way, the Phillies dropped Jimmy Rollins to the third spot for this game, the first time he’s hit there since August of last year. Fantasy owners take note.