GaryMrMets
08-04-2004, 05:56 PM
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/sports/9313260.htm
Posted on Wed, Aug. 04, 2004
Phil Sheridan | How to fix the Phils: Fire the franchise
By Phil Sheridan
Inquirer Columnist
The Phillies do not have to fire Larry Bowa.
They do not have to fire Ed Wade, either.
There is another, even better way to deal with the state of this baseball team. It's simple, really. All it would take is a little ingenuity from baseball commissioner Bud Selig.
OK, so maybe it's not that simple.
Not to worry, though. The plan will be spelled out here, so all Selig has to do is clip out this column and follow these instructions:
1. Order the Phillies franchise - everyone from the murky ownership group to Dave Montgomery to Wade and Bowa to the players to the batboys - to move into a new ballpark near Washington.
2. Sell the Major League Baseball-owned Montreal Expos franchise to a new owner with the resources and the will to bring a winning program to Philadelphia.
3. Kick back and reflect on a job well done.
It comes down to the fact that firing a manager and a general manager just isn't enough. The Phillies have been playing baseball in this city since Chester Arthur was in the White House and have won precisely one World Series title. One. That's half as many as the Florida Marlins have won in a decade by just showing up every few years.
It's beyond repair. Sure, it would be easier if the Phillies ownership group was willing to do the right thing for the fans and sell the team. But this bunch of bloodless blue bloods held on through decades at Veterans Stadium. There's no way they're getting out now that Citizens Bank Park is open for very lucrative business.
So fine. Let the shadowy figures who own the Phillies stay in baseball. Just put them somewhere else.
Please.
Listen to reason, Bud. Consider, if you will, the lowly rat. It has a brain the size of one of those sunflower seeds the players like to chomp on during games. And yet, if you give a rat a chance and some cheese, it will learn from its mistakes. It will stop banging its pointy little head on the wall of the maze and find its way to daylight.
Now consider the Phillies. It is August. The team is on a season-killing road trip. Key players have fallen into profound, mind-boggling slumps. Other players are grousing about the atmosphere Bowa creates. Wade spent a bunch of money on airfare so he and his brain trust could hole up in Clearwater, Fla., and wave at the trade deadline as it went by.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves are taking control of the division and those pesky Marlins have loaded up to make a run at the postseason.
Is it 2004 or 2003 or 2002? Does it matter? Not to the Phillies. They are like a computer stuck in an endless loop, doomed to repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and - OK, you get the idea - until someone reboots it.
The Phillies had every chance to get out of that loop this season. But no. They have the same manager, who thinks not smashing a water cooler after every game makes him statesmanlike. They have the same GM, who mistakes stubbornness for loyalty. And they have the same ownership that let its investment stagnate while singing the small-market blues for too long.
So they make the same mistakes over and over. The rats are chuckling.
A baseball team can't be rebooted. However, it can be booted. The Expos situation provides the perfect opportunity to do just that.
Now a critic of this plan would point out that the Expos haven't won a championship since being added to the major leagues in 1969. But the franchise has long been hampered by playing in Montreal, where it has been forced to unload young stars before they can demand really big salaries.
Vladimir Guerrero. Moises Alou. Orlando Cabrera. Javier Vazquez. Clearly, with the Expos' scouting and development system, a real owner could field a contending team every year.
For that role, let's nominate Brian Roberts.
He's a Philadelphia guy who has built Comcast into a frighteningly enormous company. With the city doing what it can to accommodate Comcast's wishes for a new office tower, Roberts can show his appreciation by rescuing the city's baseball tradition.
Meanwhile, the current Phillies regime can set up shop in the proposed new park near (fittingly enough) Dulles Airport. Montgomery won't have to fire anyone, at least not until a whole new batch of fans and media catch on.
One thing: We get to keep the name Phillies. They can have Expos or, if they want to customize it a little, they can go by Exposed.
It's a perfect solution. As it said on a T-shirt that was popular in Clearwater a few months back: Now is the time.
Posted on Wed, Aug. 04, 2004
Phil Sheridan | How to fix the Phils: Fire the franchise
By Phil Sheridan
Inquirer Columnist
The Phillies do not have to fire Larry Bowa.
They do not have to fire Ed Wade, either.
There is another, even better way to deal with the state of this baseball team. It's simple, really. All it would take is a little ingenuity from baseball commissioner Bud Selig.
OK, so maybe it's not that simple.
Not to worry, though. The plan will be spelled out here, so all Selig has to do is clip out this column and follow these instructions:
1. Order the Phillies franchise - everyone from the murky ownership group to Dave Montgomery to Wade and Bowa to the players to the batboys - to move into a new ballpark near Washington.
2. Sell the Major League Baseball-owned Montreal Expos franchise to a new owner with the resources and the will to bring a winning program to Philadelphia.
3. Kick back and reflect on a job well done.
It comes down to the fact that firing a manager and a general manager just isn't enough. The Phillies have been playing baseball in this city since Chester Arthur was in the White House and have won precisely one World Series title. One. That's half as many as the Florida Marlins have won in a decade by just showing up every few years.
It's beyond repair. Sure, it would be easier if the Phillies ownership group was willing to do the right thing for the fans and sell the team. But this bunch of bloodless blue bloods held on through decades at Veterans Stadium. There's no way they're getting out now that Citizens Bank Park is open for very lucrative business.
So fine. Let the shadowy figures who own the Phillies stay in baseball. Just put them somewhere else.
Please.
Listen to reason, Bud. Consider, if you will, the lowly rat. It has a brain the size of one of those sunflower seeds the players like to chomp on during games. And yet, if you give a rat a chance and some cheese, it will learn from its mistakes. It will stop banging its pointy little head on the wall of the maze and find its way to daylight.
Now consider the Phillies. It is August. The team is on a season-killing road trip. Key players have fallen into profound, mind-boggling slumps. Other players are grousing about the atmosphere Bowa creates. Wade spent a bunch of money on airfare so he and his brain trust could hole up in Clearwater, Fla., and wave at the trade deadline as it went by.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves are taking control of the division and those pesky Marlins have loaded up to make a run at the postseason.
Is it 2004 or 2003 or 2002? Does it matter? Not to the Phillies. They are like a computer stuck in an endless loop, doomed to repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat and - OK, you get the idea - until someone reboots it.
The Phillies had every chance to get out of that loop this season. But no. They have the same manager, who thinks not smashing a water cooler after every game makes him statesmanlike. They have the same GM, who mistakes stubbornness for loyalty. And they have the same ownership that let its investment stagnate while singing the small-market blues for too long.
So they make the same mistakes over and over. The rats are chuckling.
A baseball team can't be rebooted. However, it can be booted. The Expos situation provides the perfect opportunity to do just that.
Now a critic of this plan would point out that the Expos haven't won a championship since being added to the major leagues in 1969. But the franchise has long been hampered by playing in Montreal, where it has been forced to unload young stars before they can demand really big salaries.
Vladimir Guerrero. Moises Alou. Orlando Cabrera. Javier Vazquez. Clearly, with the Expos' scouting and development system, a real owner could field a contending team every year.
For that role, let's nominate Brian Roberts.
He's a Philadelphia guy who has built Comcast into a frighteningly enormous company. With the city doing what it can to accommodate Comcast's wishes for a new office tower, Roberts can show his appreciation by rescuing the city's baseball tradition.
Meanwhile, the current Phillies regime can set up shop in the proposed new park near (fittingly enough) Dulles Airport. Montgomery won't have to fire anyone, at least not until a whole new batch of fans and media catch on.
One thing: We get to keep the name Phillies. They can have Expos or, if they want to customize it a little, they can go by Exposed.
It's a perfect solution. As it said on a T-shirt that was popular in Clearwater a few months back: Now is the time.