Gee Whiz...
For those of you Philly fans out there who are sitting around thinking that never has there been such a humiliation as this, never such disappointment, to have a team with so much excitement and momentum heading into the postseason, a team that clinched its divison on the last day of the season in thrilling fashion, a young vibrant team that seemed for all the world as if it had destiny on its side, only to be ignominiously swept aside like swarming gnats on the neck of Joba Chamberlain... well, my sad sad Philly friends, think again.
On this day 57 years ago, the Yankees completed their sweep of the Phils in the 1950 World Series with a 5-2 victory at Yankee Stadium. The Phils, young and vibrant, the beloved "Whiz Kids" led by 23 year-old Richie Ashburn and 25 year-old Del Ennis, had clinched the National League on the last day of the season, October 1st, with an extra inning win over the Brooklyn Dodgers - Dick Sisler was the hero with a 3-run homer in the tenth at Ebbets Field. It was the second pennant in team history and the first in 35 years. At last, it seemed that Philadelphia's long baseball exile in the desert of mediocrity was coming to a close.Less than a week later, the World Series was history and Philly's hopes were ground into the dirt beneath Joe DiMaggio's spikes. Vic Raschi threw a complete-game shutout for the Yanks in game one to beat the Fightin's 1-0, and then a Joe D homer in the top of the tenth provided the winning run of the Bombers 2-1 victory in game two. Game three was another one-run affair - the Yanks won it 3-2 when a walkoff single from Jerry Coleman off Russ Meyer scored Gene Woodling in the bottom of the ninth.
Game four, October 7th, 1950, was not so close. The Bombers scored two in the first with RBI's from Yogi Berra and DiMaggio, and then added three in the sixth to make it 5-0. The Phils managed two in the ninth off starter Whitey Ford, but Allie Reynolds came in to get the final out and finish the sweep. Philly would not make it back to the postseason again for another 26 years, and when they did, well, they got swept, 3-0, by the Reds in the 1976 NLCS.
2 Comments:
Sorry Large, unfortunately, I expect the Yanks to join the Phils on the sidelines pretty soon. But there is a silver lining in this: MLB would have creamed their pants to have had either the Cubs or Phillies make it to the World Series.
Now, it looks like unless the Yanks go crazy, you will only have 1 marquee franchise in the pennant, in Boston, and a Cleveland team that's likable enough.
One can't help but root for the Rockies, and their improbable run, but unless they win the World Series,it's nothing more than a nice story. The D-bags are just excruciating to watch.
What I'm getting at is that there MUST be some Wildcard winner handicap going into the playoffs. I'd like to see the team with the best record in the League play the widcard, regardless, and have the best record team choose the 4 games they want at home (1-4 at home, 5-7) on the road, or something.
The wildcard is good, but no way wildcard teams should be considered equals come playoff time.
Yeah, I've been annoyed about the wild card for years. Everybody loves it because it gets more teams involved in the stretch run, blah blah blah, but, well, I guess surprisingly I'm a purist. It seems to render the efforts of 162 games largely meaningless and boil it down to who gets hot enough to win 3 out of 5 come October. Anyone can beat anyone 3 out of 5. How can we really think that the current system produces the best team in baseball? Man, to be honest, I wish they could get rid of division play altogether. The finest era of baseball history undoubtedly has passed, the time when a hundred something games stood for something, when you won the pennant and then played the other league's pennant winner best of seven for all the marbles.
Rockies/Indians World Series. Dancing with the Stars will kill that in the ratings. Monk will kill that in the ratings.
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