Chase Utley - The Keystone Difference

Well, as I had predicted, it was the Phillies, but easier than I had thought, the Phils prevailing in five, not seven, games. But it couldn't have been more exciting. And today, as callers to the FAN's Mike Francesa discussed who the MVP of the Series should have been, nobody mentioned Chase Utley. And that's just plain wrong.

Just to recap, Cole Hamels was voted the MVP. He won Game 1 and was the starting pitcher in Game 5, that the Phils went on to win. But, as Francesa pointed out, he was really just 1-0 for the Series. And, as he reviewed the batting stats for Phillies in the Series, he basically said, "well, there really was nobody else".

Spoken like a Yankee fan. Yankee fans are all about home runs. That's all they know, except perhaps for batting average. Those were the categories Francesa reviewed. And I had to wonder whether he even watched the Series. He mentioned Carlos Ruiz, the Phils catcher, and he mentioned Howard's production in Game 4. He pointed out a few others and totally ignored Chase Utley, except to point out that he did make an excellent play in Game 5 when he faked a throw to first and threw a runner out at home.

What he neglected to point out was that that play kept the score tied. Utley had made the game-changing play and Francesa missed it totally. Fielding doesn't count to Yankees fans. Nor does running for that matter. And they love the designated hitter. Idiots.

I probably shouldn't let this bother me so much. After all, Utley was only 3 for 18 in the Series. But let's review. Utley scored five runs, walked five times, stole 3 bases and made the game-deciding fielding play in the final.
His 4 rbi's won two games, Game 1 and Game 3, which were both won by just one run. Of the four Phillies victories, I figure Utley was the key player in three of them. In the 10-2 laugher in Game 4, Utley really didn't do that much. But then, he didn't really have to.

In Game 1, the opener in Tampa Bay, when a tone needed to be set, if ever there was to be a tone, Utley stepped up to the plate in the first inning against the Rays top pitcher, Scott Kazmir and promptly smacked a two-run homer. Those two runs held up for the entire game until Ruiz plated the winning run on a ground ball late in the game.

In the pivotal Game 3, back in Philadelphia, Utley set the tone once again. He drove in Jimmy Rollins in the first inning and then he and Ryan Howard hit back to back solo homers in the bottom of the 6th to extend a 2-1 lead to 4-1. Those runs prevented the Rays from ever taking the lead when they came back in the 7th and 8th to tie the game.

Game 4 was the laugher, of course, the Phils winning it 10-2. But, before it was a laugher, Utley scored the run that extended a 1-0 lead to 2-0 in the third. And he was on base for Howard's drive in the Phillies 8th that ensured the Phillies win.

In the all-important Game 5, a game that had to be won lest the Series go back to Tampa, Utley followed Werth's walk in the first inning by getting hit with a pitch. He was therefore on base when Victorino singled both him and Werth home to take the critical 2-0 lead, once again in the first inning, once again helping to break the Rays back before things really even got started. The Rays would finally tie the game in the top of the sixth to make it 2-2, which, of course, allowed the game to be suspended, setting up its dramatic resumption.

Of course, in the resumed game, Jenkins and Werth put the Phils immediately ahead in the bottom of the sixth, and Utley struck out in that inning against the tough Rays lefty J.P. Howell. Things looked bad in the 7th after Baldelli's homer tied the game, only to be followed by still another Rays hit and a sacrifice that put the winning run on 2nd base in the person of the pesky Rays shortstop James Bartlett.

If Utley had been looking for an opportunity to change the momentum, he found it almost immediately. His counterpart at second base for the Rays, Akinori Iwamura, whose misplay of Werth's Texas Leaguer had put the Phils ahead an inning earlier, hit a hard ground ball to Utley's right. Utley, sensing that he had no play on the speedy Iwamura at first, nevertheless faked the throw to first, inducing Bartlett to break hard for home. Utley then made a very nice throw to Ruiz to nail the runner and end the inning still tied at 3-3.

Pat Burrell's double and then Pedro Feliz's single later put the Phillies ahead again, of course, and the Phillies wouldn't relinquish that lead. J.C. Romero and Brad Lidge made sure of that with some fine pitching.

But Utley tried his utmost to extend that Phillies lead once again in the eighth, drawing a walk off the tough Rays lefty reliever Price with two outs. Utley then stole second base to put himself in scoring position for Howard once again. That Howard struck out isn’t really the point. Utley put himself in position to make sure the Phillies would prevail.

There's no doubt in my mind that Utley played a key role in this Series. As did Ruiz and Werth and Howard and Feliz, and all those tough Phillies pitchers. But all those momentum swingers by Utley were hard to miss. Not to mention all those double plays that more often than not cut down the Rays tough B.J. Upton.
Second base is called the keystone for good reason. Chase Utley drove home that point. It was the keystone difference in this 2008 World Series.

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Red Hot Phillies May Only Need Five

Wow. What can you say? The Phillies continued their drive towards the World Championship last night by embarrassing the stumblin' bumblin' Rays in Game 4 by a score of 10-2 to take a 3-1 lead in the Series. After eking out just a 1-run victory in Game 3, it seemed the guys in the home reds might just finish these hotshot Rays in five games.

Over the weekend, the Phils hurlers Moyer and Blanton outdueled the Rays Garza and Sonnanstine while a little-known guy named Carlos Ruiz showed why he can be added to the list of nobodies to star in a World Series. And Ryan Howard showed everybody why he's Ryan Howard.

But last night it was all about Joe Blanton. He was friggin' magnificent. It's so good to see a guy come up big in the World Series. He not only pitches great, he hits a home run too. Now, this shouldn't have come as so much a surprise as it was. Joe had actually helped win 9 of the 13 games he pitched for the Phils since he was acquired from the A's in July. And any fantasy player knew how good he was.

But Joe was lost in the whoop-de-doo over the Rays starters and the Phils ace, Cole Hamels. And he was only the fourth starter behind Hamels and Myers and Jamie Moyer, who is about a hundred and three years old. So big Joe looked like he meant business last night as he pitched 6 strong innings for the NL Champs, surrendering just two solo home runs. Oh, and he cranked a low fastball over the fence in the bottom of the fifth to make it 6-2 Phillies. The place became electric.

This self-proclaimed pundit thought it would be the Phillies in seven when this whole thing started. But I didn't count on Jamie Moyer coming up quite so large in Game 3. I figured that game for the Rays. And I thought either Myers or Blanton could come up big. But it seems like everything is going the Phillies way.

The Rays are having some trouble in the field as of late. When had that last happened to the sure-handed Rays? When they do make a play, the umpires miss it. But between Longoria and Iwamura, they've produced adventure to rival some Indiana Jones movie. And then Ryan Howard came to life with two dingers, and Jayson Werth came back to life too.

And then there's a guy like Carlos Ruiz behind the plate for the Phillies. Ruiz just took over a large part of this Series from Game 2 on. Just when the Rays have finished with the likes of Rollins, Utley, Werth and Howard, here comes Carlos Ruiz. It's really been kind of comical. The Phils catcher got the game-winning ground ball the other night and has been just a real pest since Game 2.

But, here's the funny part about baseball. The worm could turn at any time. Now the Rays are up against the wall. And the Phillies have been riding high. And , while the Phils have their ace Hamels going one more time, the Rays Scott Kazmir ain't exactly chopped liver. And, if the Rays get Game 5, it's back to that monstrosity of a ball field in Florida for Games Six and Seven. The Rays would like that.

Would they ever. Then it would be just a matter of winning two straight at home. With Shields and Garza on the mound. They would have to like their chances.

So the real key is tonight. If the Phils can't win this one tonight, they might have to wait another twenty years or so to win a World Series. Not that they can't beat Shields and Garza in Tampa but can guys like Moyer and Myers do it again? I don't even want to think about it.

But it would make this Series one for the ages rather than just a footnote in Red Sox history. In five games, it’ll just be the year the Rays shocked the world but fell apart against a veteran Phillies team. In seven games, it’s something else entirely, and maybe guys like Longoria and Upton and Pena make more of a mark on this Series.
<>If the Phillies really are a smart veteran team, they’ll realize that Game 5 might be the now or never game. They’re hot now and have the Rays on the run. Let the team that beat the Red Sox live one more day at their peril. <>

I’d still like the Phillies to win this thing, even if they do lose tonight. I sense that they’re a team that’s ready now. The Rays have too many excuses for a breakdown with that much youth on their squad, no matter who’s on the mound. And the Phillies do have Utley and Rolo and big Ryan Howard. And that little sparkplug of a Victorino whose “I Got It I Got IT I Got It” is the loudest in either league. <>

But for a New York fan, even a rabid National League and Mets fan, who’d like nothing better than a World Series victory for the team that knocked off his team, yesterday wasn’t all about the baseball. There was a whole lot of football being played in Pittsburgh by the defending champion Giants. And the Jets managed to play a bit more football than the lowly Chiefs.

As well as the Giants played down the stretch, I did see the single ugliest play I’ve ever seen by a secondary man in safety James Butler’s horrible coverage on Roethlisberger’s long pass to Nate Washington. Not only did he appear to just let his man run by him, but when he caught up, he pirouetted away from his man.
<>The Jets are just awful. But not as awful as a Herman Edwards team that ran three into the line when they desperately needed a first down. Count your blessings, Jets fans.

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Phillies (and Determination) In Seven!

Life must go on. Despite America having been sold, despite billions and billions of dollars that we don't have bailing out a few cheating, incompetent, greedy financial companies (and campaign contributors to both Presidential candidates), despite all those homes in foreclosure remaining closed to the foolish families that bought them with money they didn't have and couldn't hope to have. Despite the macabre choice that faces all Americans on November 4th, life will go on, at least for a short time. And a large part of life for any real sports fan is the World Series.

This is an event that remains unsullied. Best four out of seven . Sure, the games may start a little later than in the past, but what the heck, it's still the two best teams in baseball facing off for the World Championship. And this should be a great World Series. Both teams have pitching and defense and both teams are undeniably tough.

The NL Champion Phillies were tough enough to outlast my Mets for the NL East Division and tough enough to make short work of the Brewers and Dodgers, the latter a team that had beaten the best team in the National League for the entire regular season. The upstart Rays only beat out the Red Sox and Yankees for the AL East lead, then redefined "tough" by outlasting the Red Sox in seven games.

The oversimplifications surrounding this Series have been amazing. The Rays have the best starting pitching so they'll win it all. Tampa Bay teams have beaten Philadelphia teams in hockey and football playoffs so Tampa Bay will win it all. Tampa Bay beat the best teams in baseball so they'll win it all. The Phillies have the better lineup so they'll win it all. The Phillies have the best relief staff so they'll win it all.

But that's okay, I love all the speculation, even the stupid stuff, for isn't that part and parcel of a World Series? Hasn't it been part of every World Series that I can remember, never mind those Series before my time? It'll still be the World Series. Sure, there'll be a designated hitter this year, and that's quite different from back in 1954, the first Series that I can really recall. And the Rays will get the home field advantage because the American League once again won the All-Star Game. But it's still fundamentally the same game of baseball, the same series of games, even the same format of two-three-two.

The Rays seem to be favored by most pundits and probably in Vegas, although I have too little respect for Vegas to even check the actual odds there. And for good reason, I suppose, with that corps (and core) of starting pitchers. Kazmir, Shields, Garza, Sonnenstein, geez! Except for the Phils Cole Hamels, who might be the best pitcher of them all, the Rays would seem to have the advantage there.

But there's so much more to baseball than just the starting pitching. These Phillies seem to be able to hit good pitching. Didn't the Mets have good pitching, at least starting pitching? Didn't the Brewers have good pitching? the Dodgers? What a lineup these Phillies have! Rollins, Utley, Burrell and Howard come first to mind, but there's also guys like Jayson Werth, who only seem to kill the opponents at the most critical junctures. I don't care to search for the stats with runners in scoring position but I just know what I've seen all season from these Phillies.

And, most frightening of all, maybe, is that if the Phillies take a lead late into the game, that lead ain't going nowhere. And if they hold the lead going into the ninth, they've been unbeatable. But, in the final analysis, baseball is more than all of these things too. It's the pesky guys, like Victorino, the Phils centerfielder, who just seems to run everything down and steal a base at the most opportune moments. It's the moves made by the manager, Charlie Manuel, who seems to have his finger on the very pulse of his charges.

Of course, the Rays are no slouches either. And they seem to be playing better in the post-season than they did during the regular season, a very scary proposition indeed. Their centerfielder, B.J. Upton, didn't really hit for power during the regular season, but he's really turned his game up a notch now. Carlos Pena can drive them a long way too. And then there's Longoria and Baldelli and Crawford. And their own set of pests in that shortstop Bartlett and that quicker than a bunny kid from New Jersey and Columbia University.
So what makes me think the Phillies can really win this thing? Experience, particularly the experience of having lost in the post-season before, particularly the experience of losing to the Colorado Rockies just a year ago. Determination, the resolve to win it all.

That can mean a lot, and I think it will spell the difference in this World Series. <>For determination plays itself out in all aspects of the game, at the plate, in the field and on the mound. In my heart of hearts, I don’t see the same determination in the Rays. Didn’t they seem awfully happy to have survived that Red Sox Series?

Make no mistake about it, the pressure will be squarely on the Rays right now. For the first time really this year. They’ve handled whatever pressure there has been, of course, the pressure of playing without Longoria and Crawford and Baldelli for long periods of time, the pressure of having lost a seven-run lead to the Red Sox in Game 5 and having to win it in that fateful Game 7.

But I think the Rays have been locked in all along on winning the AL pennant. On beating the all-powerful Yankees and Red Sox, on making it to the biggest stage of them all, the World Series.

Did their dreams extend beyond this point? I don’t think so.

Phillies in Seven.

America Has Been Sold

Of what should I write exactly....in this hour of infinite sadness....when America has been sold. The America I knew, or thought I knew, is gone. The President and his minions have sold it to the corporations. That his minions now seem to include the Democratic Party hurts me deeply. Pelosi has been sold. Lautenberg has been sold. A Majority of the U.S. Senate has been sold.

Seven hundred billion dollars. Does anyone even know what that means anymore? One million is a thousand thousands. One billion is a thousand millions. Our legislators, without even bothering to ask what its constituencies may think, they don't want to know, have been chomping at the bit to give away seven hundred thousand thousand thousand dollars. To our friends, the multi-national corporations. The money-changers in the temple had nothing on these guys.

I am angry to my core.

Let me give you another example. I am in the process of repairing my side patio. It consists of two by fours and two by sixes and four by fours for lumber. There is a roof consisting of about 4 4x8 sheets of plywood. There are four bundles of shingles. There are two or three tubes of a tar-like goop and a roll of felt paper. There are nails of many varieties. Total material cost for this delightful addition is less than 500 dollars. If I were to add the cost of concrete and some stones for the floor, which were in place and not in need of repair, the material cost for one patio would be about one thousand dollars.

That means I could build 700 million patios for 700 billion dollars. There are less than 300 million people living in the entire United States. Let's assume there are four people per household. That would make just 75 million houses in the United States. So I would have 625 million patios left over. I would have to go to Europe and probably half of Asia to build the remaining 625 million patios.

But wait, let me give you another example. Everybody worries about employment. Let's assume that a family of four can live comfortably on 100,000 dollars per year. Ten people could be employed for just one million dollars. Ten thousand people could be employed for just one billion dollars. Seven million people could be employed for one year for seven hundred billion dollars.

There are about 8 million people living in New Jersey. Of that number, there are probably about two million heads of household, that could live on that $100,000 per year. That means the entire state of New Jersey could live quite comfortably for FOUR YEARS with 700 billion dollars.

Enough already. You get the idea. It's a ridiculous amount of money. We are told by our money-changers and crooked false representatives that our economy will fold if we don't do this. The bill will amount to six thousand dollars per person in the United States, but that would be approaching 25 thousand dollars per household. How much do you, kind reader, make, after taxes?

And that's just the federal bite. Living in New Jersey under the crooked Corzine, we are now told we need to keep the construction people working. It doesn't matter that you may not have a job, or if you DO have a job, it may be at some menial job paying no more than 20 to 50 thousand dollars per year. It doesn't matter, Corzine and his minions, or is he THEIR minion, think we should DOUBLE the tolls on our Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike to help these construction workers.

I feel sorry for anybody without a job. Why should I particularly care about construction workers? They've made a LOT of money for a LOT of years. They should have saved some of it. I've tried to save all my life. I'm building my patio because I can't afford a construction worker. But the State of New Jersey thinks IT can support the entire construction industry.

I care for the financial industry too. But who was responsible for making all those ridiculous loans? Who wrote millions of mortgages at hundreds of thousands of dollars each to families making less than $100,000 per year? Banks will fail? Good! Whose fault is it that so many thousands of houses are in foreclosure? Whose fault is it exactly that the FDIC can’t cover more than about 500 billion dollars for a liability that may be a trillion or more?

Whose fault is it that nobody can even figure out what these financial giants really may owe, that scientists and mathematicians have to be hired to figure it out? I have a feeling it’s our legislators, our legislators who have been sold over and over for so many years now.

Am I watching the Red Sox beat the Angels? Yes. Am I sad that the Mets couldn’t hit their way out of a paper bag in the latter part of September? Absolutely. And I’ll soon probably return to my coverage of the lovable Yankees too, and the Giants and the Jets.

But they’re in our pockets too. Higher ticket prices isn’t even the end of it. We now have to pay thousands of dollars for the opportunity to buy a ticket. They are all rotten to the core, maybe not as rotten as our President and Senators, but rotten enough. Rotten enough to hide the steroids in their sports for about ten years, rotten enough to cast dirt on Jose Canseco forever, to arrange a “Mitchell report” headed by an executive for the Red Sox, and now to try to hide the fact that they’re notifying minor league clubs in advance of drug tests.
My heart’s not really in this sportswriting anymore. I’m very sorry. I love the games. But isn’t it time to be more vigilant? Isn’t it time to start fighting back? Isn’t it time to start calling your so-called representatives? They’re giving our very lives away.

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