Well That Sure Sucked

This picture is from the end of Game 4, but could have also been taken at the end of Game 3. A soul-crushing way to end an otherwise awesome season. Lots of blame to go around from the obvious two losses (and blown save) by Street, to the lackluster plate performances from starting position players not named Carlos or Yorvit, to the hitless playoff wonder that was Clint Barmes (dude - we would have settled for ONE hit in the bottom of the 8th for the whole series), to the questionable and flat wrong calls by the umps, to the entirely too many damn walks given up by the Rocks. Bottom line is the Phils' starting pitching and offensive stars (1-5 spots beyond scary) were superior to the Rocks'.

The straight-up statistics would indicate this series was a blow out, but the scoreboard indicates it was a highly competitive, white-knuckle affair with the exception of Game 1. In the end, the more talented and experienced team won out, which is hard to feel too bad about. Still, after enduring a snow postponement and freezing to the bone in a one run loss Sun night, to be given hope with 8th inning offensive heroics in Game 4, only to have it smashed to pieces in the top of the 9th is straight-up cruel. It feels like this season deserved a much better ending. But, as the old saying goes: those baseball gods sure are a bunch of cocksuckers.

I ain't over it yet and I won't be able to engage in hot stove talk for at least a couple of more days, but through my disappointment, disillusionment, and raw anger, even I can see there should be a solid future for this team. That was a big question mark going into this season when the magical '07 World Series run was seen through the fecal prism that was the 2008 season. With some smart (read: not totally cheapskate) tinkering of veteran players to go along with the young core of very talented and now more experienced players (Carlos and Tulo have to be the cornerstones), this team should at least be in the playoff mix for the next few years.

Which gets me back to the blame game I love so much. Forget all the factors listed above for why we lost this series. I'm going to take this final opportunity to blame our exit on Clint Hurdle. Yes, Hurdle gets all the credit for this one. Had he not dug the team in such a hole for the first two months of the season, we would have won the West rather easily and hosted the NLDS against the Cards. After sweeping the Cards, we would have gone on to oust the Phils with home field advantage. Thanks a lot Hurdle. Still screwing up my baseball enjoyment 4 months after being released as manager...