Fire Tom McCarthy

Three things I thought after watching that fantastic game:

1 - There were many stories (Chris Coste going 4-4 off the bench, Shane Victorino's leadoff triple in the 13th, the bullpen, and Brett Myers' pinch hit at-bat), but the biggest was Jimmy Rollins. It's only two games, but it's nice to have ol' Jimmy-Legs back. If he can play like the 2007 version of Jimmy Rollins for the next five to eight weeks, the Phillies can go deep in the playoffs. If he can't, they may not make the playoffs.

2 - I hate Tom McCarthy. I'm tired of him offering those annoying mid-inning "reports" from the stands that ramble on endlessly while all I really want to do is hear Harry call the game. I've had enough of him encouraging Gary Matthews - who should also be fired - to continue with his mind-numbing comments that we are supposed to think is analysis. I really just want him to shut up. I felt my blood pressure rise when he kept referring to bad outings Scott Schoeneweis has had "here at Shea Stadium." Did he forget he was in Philly? Then I thought I felt blood coming out of my ears when he kept repeating with escalating alarm and certainty that Kyle Kendrick would be unable to start Wednesday's game because he "got all stretched out and warmed up in the bullpen." Yeah, the starting pitcher who averages about 90 pitches a game will be all worn out from that side work that he'll have to skip a start. If he had said that the extra work might limit how long he can go in his start, I would have agreed, but that's not what he said. He said Kendrick wouldn't start Wednesday because he warmed up in the bullpen. If Kendrick doesn't start, I will add an update to this post and publicly apologize to Tom McCarthy, provided that if Kendrick does start, then the Phillies agree to fire Tom McCarthy for making such a stupid comment.

3 - I hate the CW 15 (WLYH). For the second time in the past few weeks, they were not airing the Phillies game. Fortunately, tonight, it was on Channel 249 and, fortunately, that channel is included in my cable subscription. But seriously, fuck the heck CW 15, it's Phillies/Mets... in August... with first place on the line... They should be ashamed of themselves for denying those without access to that obscure channel the opportunity to watch this important game. They should be embarrassed that they haven't bothered to update their "Phillies 2008 Schedule" on their website since April 13th. And they should know that I now plan to make a note of all the local advertisers during the next Phillies broadcast and notify them that I will go out of my way to avoid giving them any of my money - and I'll be sure to tell them why.

Mrs. tmmullen says I should loosen up and just enjoy the fact that the Phillies are in first place. I should listen. She's wicked smart.

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Phillies @ Reds: Live blogging

2:14 p.m.: Adam Eaton is proving that even I could get by as a Major-League pitcher. His pitches look horrible; notwithstanding, he has only given up two runs in four innings. Mark my words: he will implode in the next two innings.

I also think the Phils have been the beneficiaries of at least three blown calls so far, including Brandon Phillips being caught stealing in the fourth frame.

Special thanks to Sarge for his lecture on the history of the Underground Tunnel, where the trains of the Underground Railroad ran.

2:31 p.m.: Chase Utley is amazing. He is now hitting .438.

Congratulations to the IronPigs, who just blew their first lead.

2:35 p.m.: Pat the Bat!

2:38 p.m.: "I like that Dick Pole"... heheheh...

2:45 p.m.: I should make bold predictions about Phillies' failures more often... Congratulations to Adam Eaton for amazingly pitching a quality start. Didn't his pitches look like they were just hanging over the plate to anyone else?

Also, Griffey seems determined to get HR #594 this weekend.

Now it's time for me to make my bold managerial decision... I'd say you bring Eaton back for the seventh, but have somebody ready to come in at the first sign of danger.

Looks like Eaton is staying, as he is now up to bat.

2:54 p.m.: Didn't the answer to the Dodge Stump the Fans trivia question feature prominently in a radio spot last season? I think it may have been a Turkey Hill Graham Slam ice cream ad or a Herr's chips ad. I definitely knew the answer because of some radio commercial.

I cannot believe Eaton has pitched seven innings.

Speaking of advertisements, I love that MW Tux commercial.

3:00 p.m.: Ryno!!!

Please, Charlie: No Tom Gordon.

3:02 p.m.: Ugh. A one-run lead is not sufficient to take Pat Burrell out of the game. And I'm not feeling too good about Eaton coming back out for the eighth.

3:06 p.m.: Good God. Now warming in the bullpen: Number 45!

3:13 p.m.: ...

3:17 p.m.: Whew.

3:40 p.m.: You just can't beat a guy wearing high red socks.

Can't really blame Chad Durbin for the loss. He couldn't buy a strike.

Not sure what Rollins was thinking...

I was really hoping the Phils would get above .500, but this isn't a terrible loss. I think it was a definite confidence builder for Eaton and Gordon. Let's hope Myers has a better start tomorrow than he had Monday.

Frustrating loss

The worst kind of loss is a 1-0 loss. When a team has this much potential offense, there is no excuse for zero runs and one hit. On the bright side, great job from the mound tonight... although I don't think Hamels has found his groove yet. If the wind weren't a factor, the margin of defeat would have been larger.

Times Harry referred to Ronnie Belliard as "Rafael": 3

Times Wheels made the same mistake: 1

Excruciating at-bats of Sarge's play-by-play: 1

Fire Gary Matthews

In the future, it is a good bet that my posts will be of similar length to Mike's initial post. But that's the future. In an effort to build an audience (ha!), I'll try to be brief.

When discussion first began about starting a blog, the genesis, for me at least, was equal parts my propensity for offering an opinion (typically unsolicited), my growing frustration with Gary Matthews, Sr., as a Phillies broadcaster, and my discovery and infatuation with this site.

It is always my goal - though I may fail sometimes - to not offer an opinion unless I have put some thought into it. And there are a number of issues about which I couldn't care less. So as far as my contributions to this blog, I guess we'll see how that goes.

As for the name of the blog, I did lobby strongly for Fire Gary Matthews, but acquiesced for several reasons, which included, but was not limited to (in no particular order):

- Appearing lazy by transparently ripping off another site's name (I am lazy, but let's not go around advertising it, right?);

- Failing miserably to be as funny as those fellas at the site whose name was being shamelessly co-opted (seriously, regardless of how you feel about Pat Burrell or Bill Conlin, I dare you not to crack a smile as you read this); and

- There was little, if any, intention of making the blog solely about the shortcomings of Gary Matthews as a broadcaster (although there is plenty of material, including my personal favorite, "Well the problem is that when he runs, he puts all of his weight on his feet.").

So kudos to Hillman for kicking this party off. My real last name, and a more personal introduction, is held up in a Department of Homeland Security checkpoint and will be posted at a later date. Until then, feel free to check out my profile.

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Blog naming is not easy

It seems kind of strange, writing a blog that no one will read for weeks or months -- if ever -- but that is precisely what I'm doing. I hope someday someone will find these postings and appreciate them, but that's not the blog's raison d'être. I guess as my first entry, I will try to explain why, then, I am doing this. And I'll do it with a lot of commas.

I like the Phillies. Like most sports-related opinions, I can't explain it; in fact, it defies logic. I don't live in or immediately near Philadelphia. I never stepped foot in the Vet. As a result, I can't adopt the Philadelphia-sports-inferiority complex as my own and claim years of suffering season after season of heartbreaking defeats. I don't really follow the Sixers or Flyers, and -- wait for it -- I strongly dislike the Eagles. Let me try to explain.

I grew up a football fan. My first sports-related memory is of me watching Lawrence Taylor sacking Joe Montana in the January 1991 NFC Championship Game. Maybe this actually happened, maybe it didn't, but that's how I remember it -- and isn't that the nature of childhood memories? Haven't there been things that you "remembered" for years and years, only to discover that they didn't actually happen? But I digress.

As a result of LT's sack and the subsequent Super Bowl XXV victory of the New York Giants, I became a Giants fan (explains my Eagles feelings). Yeah, I know, front-runner. But, in my defense, I was seven, and I've stuck with the Giants for the 17 miserable years since (so I guess I am a long-suffering fan... just not of the Philadelphia variety).

I played soccer in second and third grades and moved on to football in fourth. I played pigskin in fifth, sixth, and eighth grade (a story for another time). And I quit on day one of high school practice.

My dad wasn't really a sports fan -- and especially not baseball -- so I never got into America's Pastime. And that's despite attending my first (and only, for 12 years) Major League game in 1992 -- an experience that included my uncle and grandfather taking me to see Juniors Griffey and Ripken, scalpers, almost getting hit by a car in the streets of Baltimore, moldy bread, and my cousin falling down flights of Camden Yards stairs, leaving me -- a nine-year-old boy -- unattended for several innings... maybe this explains me keeping my distance from Major League Baseball for so long.

I joined Little League at age 10 because everyone else was doing it. I was horrible -- couldn't hit, couldn't catch, couldn't throw, couldn't run, didn't understand the strategy. Only now, 14 years later, am I starting to discover some tiny nugget of athletic ability in my body -- and my current quarter-life crisis is making me freak out that it's all downhill from here.

I was aware of the 1993 Phillies because I do live in eastern Pennsylvania, even if it's not Philly or the 'burbs. I guess this is as good a place as any to say that I grew up in the Pottsville area, county seat of Schuylkill County and home to America's Oldest Brewery. I went to Elizabethtown College and, after I graduated in 2006, my girlfriend and I moved into an apartment together about a mile from the college where we still live today.

Back to the narrative: The '93 Phils were all over the TV and newspapers. I "watched" some of the games, which I put in quotation marks because I don't consider it watching something unless I really understand it and absorb it. But I knew the names Dykstra, Daulton, Kruk, Morandini, Eisenreich, Incaviglia, Schilling, Andersen, Hollins, and, of course, Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams. Come October, I knew the Phils were in the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, and I knew if they lost game six, it was over. My bed time, strictly enforced by my parents, was 9 p.m., so I didn't get to see much, if any, of the game, but my mom came in to wake me up in the middle of the night and tell me that the Phillies had lost. The next day, SportsCenter showed me all I needed to know about Joe Carter.

It's funny that I mention SportsCenter here, because for the following 10 years, that program was my primary source of baseball information. I didn't attend a Major League game and I only occasionally attempted to watch one on TV.

Then, in 2004, I was invited to go on a bus trip to a Phillies game with my girlfriend's family. That game marked the beginning of my modern Phillies fan-ism. The game was a classic: 16 innings!

So, I'm a late-comer to the Phillies party. I hope you'll welcome me nonetheless.

Getting back to the point (there was one?): much like that very long autobiography was, this blog serves partially as a catharsis. When things go well or poorly with the Phils, this gives me an alternate outlet for venting my rage rather than throwing remote controls or punching durable goods.

But the two primary reasons, I'd say, that I've created this blog are: (1) to serve as an organizational tool for my own thoughts about the Phillies, and (2) to provide a medium for conversation and an exchange of ideas between me and a much more insightful, much more seasoned Phillies fan: Mike M. (I'll let him decide if he wants to divulge his last name.) I hope he posts an introductory message soon so that our legions of future fans can click on "introduction" labels and get to know our stories... not that I expect anyone to care that much.

One more reason for this blog -- and I'm pretty confident I speak on behalf of my friend, semi-colleague, and co-blogger when I say this -- is that we like to think we know more than we do. So this blog is a bit self-serving in that respect, too -- but then again, aren't most blogs?

Speaking of most blogs, I'll address the ostensible "subject" of this particular posting: blog naming. I wanted to start this blog in the middle of last season simply to catalog all the ways in which Gary Matthews annoyed me. The only thing that prevented me from doing it was coming up with a title for the blog. I just wasn't witty enough to come up with a good play on the syllable "Phil." Finally, today, I gave up. I decided to take the easy way out. After rejecting my first idea -- Untitled Phillies Blog -- I settled on ripping off Greenberg and Golic. I'll probably change the title when something better strikes me.

I'm done with the background stuff now. We're here, ready to do business. Welcome, if you exist, and please come back to visit often. It's my hope that we will be able to provide you with some interesting things to ponder: shuffled batting orders, prescriptions to save the Phillies' season, musings on transactions and rumored trades, etc. We're going to aim to provide something profound that you can't get anywhere else, and while I'm sure we'll fall far short of that, we'll at least be serving our own selfish desires.

I don't know when I'll post again, and I won't make any kinds of promises about how frequently we'll be posting. But I do promise that future posts will not be this long and boring.

Ok, I can't promise that either.