What a long, strange trip it's been

As I do my best to make the hours between now and NLCS game 2 pass quickly, I'm finding it very hard not to think about where these Phillies have been to get in this position. I've read stories about these teams from every angle except for the one that Phillies fans have lived for the last decade. There are stories about Black Friday, and stories about 1993, and a fucking boatload of stories about Manny and Torre and their date with destiny and the Red Sox...who haven't even played ALCS game 1 yet! But I've never seen a story about the journey these Phils have gone on together. Whereas the Dodgers, replete with young talent as they may be, are the picture of building a team with cold hard cash, the Phils are as home grown a team as you'll find in baseball.

Jimmy Rollins
Chase Utley
Ryan Howard
Pat Burrell
Cole Hamels
Brett Myers
Ryan Madson
Carlos Ruiz
JA Happ
Chris Coste

That's nearly half of the Phillies' NLCS roster, and every one of them came through the Phillies' minor league system. It's also the team's 4 best position players, top 2 starting pitchers primary setup man. Shane Victorino was a rule 5 draft pick from the Dodgers, but didn't even get his 73 non-Phils Major League at bats with L.A., he got them with San Diego in 2003 when they made him a rule 5 pick. So Shane-o is essentially a career Phillie. Jayson Werth was signed off the scrap heap after a promising rookie year and two seasons lost to injury with the Dodgers. He, like Shane, came to the Phils unproven and earned his pinstripes. The team's only true major acquisitions from the outside are Jamie Moyer and Brad Lidge...Moyer, who they got after the trade deadline in 2006, having dealt away Bobby Abreu and immediately vindicating all those who said his malaise had been even more damaging than Larry Bowa's fits of rage. Is Jamie Moyer an important acquisition? No doubt about it. Watch a Cole or Brett start and count how many shots you get in the dugout of Jamie Moyer teaching. Immeasurable. And I don't even need to speak of Brad Lidge's importance to this team. But even his acquisition, having been riddled by injuries and banished to the 8th inning in Houston, came at the cost of two of the team's highest rated prospects in Michael Bourn and Mike Costanzo.

The next biggest acquisition on the roster? It's a toss up between Greg Dobbs, Pedro Feliz, and JC Romero. So it's no exaggeration to say the vast majority of this team's important players learned to win together, as a team. They came up together, struggled together, stood up for each other when they got into ridiculous media battles with departed closers (see ya in 2010, Billy.) That's the story I want to read. The one about how Pat Burrell was branded the savior when the Phils drafted him in 1998 to replace JD Drew who had been branded the savior and never signed the year before. And how he got rushed to the majors and it almost worked but then the league figured out he had never learned how to hit and started pitching around his swing. I want to read about how Jimmy Rollins had to answer questions about being a "leadoff hitter" the way Donovan McNabb had to answer questions about being a "pocket quarterback" and went on to win an MVP batting leadoff and hitting .290. Whatever. Few more wins and Joe Buck's not gonna have Hollywood to adore anymore.


...To anyone who might ask, this just felt more appropriate here than on examiner. Plus I wanted to say fuckin boatload.