At Least They're Better Than The Yankees

Bill Conlin takes the opportunity to viciously rip the Phillies. I could not have said it any better...

Pay very close attention, Phillies fans, OK - those of you who have not already turned your loyalties to a more rewarding endeavor than the costly support of an imploding institution administered by aging, myopic men who have honed mediocrity to its dullest possible edge.

Pay attention, because you are not only watching the Ed Wade Era ending in a fog of paranoia and denial, but you are in on something that reaches far beyond that. You are watching the collapse of a franchise that has been struggling to get things right since the Bill Giles group bought the Phillies for $30 million from the bailing-out Carpenter family in 1981. Now it is 2005. Monty and The Teflonics are in debt to crippled .203 hitters for much more money than that. The current payroll is just under three times the cost they paid to acquire Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton and the fading heroes of 1980's lonely World Series title.

They are hemorrhaging attendance again and it will get worse - much worse - before it gets better. They are still in denial that they have become the most reviled professional sports team in this star-crossed town since the Sixers of Harold Katz. They blame the 24/7 yammer of WIP (610-AM) for their negative image and the venom of a few columnists for the perception they are unwanted and unloved. They blame everything and everybody but ignore the cheerless bench and almost zombielike demeanor of everybody not named Billy Wagner or Jimmy Rollins. At least Brett Myers has gone against the laid-back grain to prove he has some fire in his belly to go with his incandescent stuff.

I have to tell Dave Montgomery a harsh truth he should be aware of by now: Last place will no longer play here. It just won't do. And once this ballclub goes into the tank - it has the fourth-oldest roster in baseball - the huge contracts owed to Jim Thome, Pat Burrell, Bobby Abreu, Mike Lieberthal, David Bell, Jon Lieber and Randy Wolf will suck the organization down like quicksand. Oh, and if they don't make Rollins the top-paid shortstop in baseball - or close to it - he will walk. A big season by Myers won't help the 2006 payroll, either.

As Conlin notes, not only does the present stink, but the future will only get worse. Well, that fits in Philly pretty well. Or it used to. Some of our franchises don't tolerate mediocrity. That's why we're waving goodbye to Fred-Ex.

Thatnks for 4th-and-26, Freddie. Try to enjoy Cleveland or wherever you end up.