By FRANK CORSOE
There should be optimism about this year’s edition of the Phillies. This hasn’t changed for me since the 1960s. Every year was our year. Every year was going to be that moment to cherish for a lifetime. Grab the brass ring, hold on and enjoy the ride.
The season of 1964 came out of a Hitchcock thriller — dramatic highs, depth-defying lows, crushing results. I do not subscribe to Andy MacPhail’s mantra, “If we win, we win, if we don’t, we don’t.” This year, however, smells and feels differently. It’s the smell of a bouquet of roses and not the scent of tanning oil residue. Gabe Kapler, the no-carb guy, is gone. The Phillies finally pulled the plug on Kapler’s two-year tenure, the equivalent of a front-office mulligan. The Phillies went from picking a model from a Planet Fitness catalog to selecting baseball lifer Joe Girardi with serious dugout cred. Advantage, Phillies.
Girardi will inspire his team just by his mere battle-tested presence. There will be no removing ace, Aaron Nola, 68 pitches into the first game of the season against the rival Braves.
There will be no trips to the mound to take out a pitcher and then have no one warming to replace the pitcher. There will be no Ouija board in the dugout in this regime.
Maybe, the stars will be aligned for the Phillies this season.
Frank Corsoe, a lifelong Phillies fan, is a retired journalist and former sports editor. He says he’s never officially booed a Phillies player, but he would publicly like to apologize to Mac Scarce in 1973 for coming awfully close.
photo credit for featured image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chadmiller/311308512
