The Philadelphia Phillies need to take a page from the New York Yankees handbook. Given a home series with the floundering Florida Marlins, the Phillies proceeded to screw the pooch over the weekend and watched a seven game division lead fade to four after a three game Marlin sweep! Meanwhile, the Yankees strangled their bitter rivals, the Boston Red Sox, taking four from the Sawx with timely hitting and fabulous pitching and taking a firm hold of the division lead. Speaking of pitching, what has become of Phillies Ace Cole Hamels who got lit up again this weekend and fell to 7-7 on the year???
The California Goldenboy who brought back Rocktober to Philadelphia by leading the Phillies to a World Championship last season has been remarkably pedestrian thus far this season. What’s up?!?
Is Hamels satisfied after signing for $20.5 million guaranteed this off-season? Yes, he avoided arbitration and got his money earlier than expected, but one expects his next contract to be a monster as compared to the $6.6M he gets next year and $9.5M in 2011.
Is he pissed off that the Phils signed fellow lefty Cliff Lee to be another horse in the rotation? Hamels was making some progress over the last few games before the Lee signing and went all to Hell ever since. However, one can’t imagine that Hamels minds having another stopper in the rotation to take some of the pressure off?
So what is it? Wife Heidi Strobel has a baby on the way and they just bought a new $2.2M mansion to house the newest Hamels, is that it? Or is it, too much time on the banquet rounds after winning his NLDS and World Series MVP trophies as Cole alluded to earlier in the season. One thing is for sure, if the Phillies can’t get the Cole Hamels of October 2008 back sometime soon, a back to back World Series dream will fade into never never land.
So it appears that Buster Olney of ESPN has his thoughts on why the Philadelphia Phillies need to sign Toronto Bluejay ace pitcher Roy Halladay, effectively trying to steal my thunder. Thankfully, while his opinions are solid they do not quite emulate mine and make my case even better! As ex head coaching great Herm Edwards stated (okay so Edwards was not great as a head coach; he was a fine motivator and defensive expert, but didn’t have a great eye for talent and was too soft on his players, but I digress…) “You play to win the game!” or in this case, the World Series. How would Halladay help the Phillies? Well…
It appears Anaheim has more to crow about than Disneyland and the Mighty Ducks. They can lay claim to one of the finest baseball teams in recent history as the Angels have won three of the last four division titles and look on their way to doing so again. Why all the love for the Angels who haven’t been to a World Series but for their one Championship in 2002? This is a franchise that has had to live in the shadow of the Los Angeles Dodgers since their inception and this year has had to overcome the losses of Mark Texiera and Francisco Rodriguez in free agency and Nick Adenhart in a tragic car accident just days into the 2009 season. 
Hurry back Alex! New York Yankee fans rejoiced today with the breaking news that Alex Rodriguez took his first slide into a base since his March hip surgery. Playing 0.500 ball at a lackluster 13 and 13 record, things in New York are getting desperate. Generally Yankee fans don’t pay attention this early in a season as the Bombers are traditionally slow starters. But missing the playoffs last year and starting the season 0-5 against the Boston Red Sox has started the faithful grumbling into their beers. 
Curt Schilling retired from baseball today, bringing to an end the career of one of the best big game pitchers of all time. Schilling won three World Series titles with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox and also led the Philadelphia Phillies to a National League pennant. Schilling’s career numbers don’t scream hall of fame, but his 11-2 post season career mark certainly puts him up for hall consideration. While Schilling sits on the Cooperstown proverbial “Green Monster” for his on the field play, his mouth will skate right into the hall of fame for mouths.
