WHAT CAN YOU SAY?

If you are in the Phillies locker room after last nights 2-1 extra inning loss what do you the position player say to Cole Hamels? Is a plain "sorry" enough - does it make up for the fact that Hamels gave up one hit and one run in eight innings - and didn't get a win? If you are Superstar who struck out three times against pitchers that most fans have never heard of what can you say to the guy who not only pitched brilliantly but also went 2-3 at the plate?

The answer of course is that there is nothing any of the position players can say except that "we sucked." Does sorry make up for the fact that the heart of the line-up went a collective 0-13, with only Superstar getting on base because he got hit by a pitch?

And what should Charlie say after yet another heartbreaking loss to a team that hasn't finished above .500 in nearly twenty years. Perhaps the Phillies ought to hire Fat Andrew to handle the post game press conferences. The large one would of course tell us that he has to take responsibility for the loss, and that we have to do better. Frankly, there isn't much Charlie can say about his team of underachievers and over-the-hill infield. Their lack of hitting says it all.

Last year, when the team was struggling, the big move was to fire hitting coach Milt Thompson and replace him with Greg Gross. If it was Thompson's fault last year, should Gross be reading the help wanted ads this year? Firing Gross might be a meaningless gesture since there may not be a hitting coach anywhere who could help Superstar stop swinging at and striking out on pitches low and outside. I do not believe it is the hitting coach that is the problem.

What Phillies fans are watching may be the same thing that Phillies fans were seeing in the mid '90's. You might remember that after the Phillies won the 1993 NL pennant the team rewarded guys like Daulton, Dykstra, and others new contracts with lots of zero's. We loved those miscreants, but were also saddled with aging overpaid players who could no longer get the job done. The team went into a downward spiral after the loss to the Blue Jays in the '93 series and didn't start to recover until the current crop of aging underachieving players came of age during the beginning of the Charlie Manuel era. You might remember that after signing his new deal, Dykstra basically spent the rest of his time here on the DL making more headlines with his off the field antics than he did on the field. I'm not suggesting that your Phillies have a slug like Dykstra on the roster, but at what point does Utley have to start hitting now that he is back in the line-up? And what about Utley's defense? Last night the game winning hit had Utley sprawled on the field like he was a crab on a play that once upon a time ago he would have made. I doubt that I am the only observer who saw the same Utley pull Howard nearly off the bag with a shitty throw in the eleventh inning.

The LSF knows that it is a long season, and that things could get better for your Phillies. Even a three game losing streak to two teams that should be in the International League may not be cause for panic but, as someone who played ball, and has watched ball games for nearly sixty years, I know that losing breeds more losing and winning breeds more winning. If your Phillies get swept by my beloved Pirates then limp home to play the Dodgers and lose that series, the downward spiral might look like an ME-109 falling from the sky after an encounter with a P-51. It could get very ugly here in the greatest city in the world.

Yes, Virginia, the Phillies are still in first place but, unless somebody starts hitting, the team won't be in first place much longer. The odds of them being in first place on my birth day are getting longer with each passing day. Given that my day is June 15th, the reckoning is rushing at this team and its loyal fan base who continue to fill the Bank. Hell, if the Marlins and Braves get hot, your Phillies might even drop to third place by Fathers Day which this year falls on June 19th. I know that this team came from seven games back last year to win the division, but I don't see this team being able to pull that miracle off again. Do you?

All is not lost yet as there are still two games left against the Pirates, and one would expect the candystripers to still pull out the series. But what if they don't? What if the Bucs find a way to win today, a possibility given that Kendrick is scheduled to pitch for the Sillies. And what if Halliday pitches a Hamels like gem on Sunday and doesn't win? Will that be enough to satisfy the gods of baseball or do they have some more mischief to play on the candystripers? We'll find out soon enough.