The following tale was a popular one in Philadelphia last
summer. A mother takes her three children to Veterans Stadium
for a Phillies game, and the kids get lost. For an hour she
frantically searches for them, and then she hears the P.A.
announcer say, "Will the woman who lost three children please
come to the security desk and pick up her kids. They're beating
the Phillies 8-1."
In only his second season, Rolen is a team
leader for the callow Phils.
(Chuck Solomon)
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It's an old joke, which is precisely what the Phillies had become
when they won a total of four games in June '97. This season
Philadelphia had a 49-46 record at week's end, which doesn't
sound all that impressive until you consider that at this time
last year the team was 38 games under .500. From that pathetic
position the Phils have astounded the experts by putting together
the seventh-best record in the majors since the '97 All-Star
break.
After salvaging a split of a four-game series with the Mets by
coming from behind to win 7-6 in 10 innings on Sunday,
Philadelphia was only three games out of the National League
wild-card spot. When Phillies manager Terry Francona is asked to
explain his team's success in '98, he credits the front office's
off-season decision to make the club younger and more athletic,
pointing specifically to three new additions: outfielders Bob
Abreu and Doug Glanville and shortstop Desi Relaford. Abreu, 24,
is hitting .309, and Glanville, 27, has four hitting streaks of
14 or more games and ranks among the National League's top 10 in
hits, runs and triples. The two are also tied for the league lead
with 11 outfield assists. Relaford, 24, has played solid defense
and become the most consistent number 8 hitter in the league,
with a .279 average. "There haven't been many growing pains for
them," Francona says. "All three have hit the ground running."
Naturally, the Phillies have also leaned heavily on the '97
National League Rookie of the Year, third baseman Scott Rolen,
who through Sunday was batting .306 with 18 homers and 61 RBIs,
and on staff ace Curt Schilling, who led the league in complete
games (nine) and strikeouts (189). Veteran righthander Mark
Leiter has also been invaluable, stepping into the breach to
replace injured closer Ricky Bottalico and getting 20 saves in
his absence.
The Phils don't dazzle anybody with team stats, ranking 13th in
the league in home runs, eighth in runs and 12th in ERA, but the
club has 29 comeback victories this season—third best in the
majors—including a defining victory against the Pirates on June
16, when Philadelphia scored seven runs in the bottom of the
ninth inning to win 8-7. "In recent years when we were behind in
the late innings, we had guys asking, 'Where do you want to go to
dinner?'" veteran outfielder Gregg Jefferies says. "This season
we have stopped accepting defeat. Now we get mad after losses.
Everybody has one goal, and that's to make the playoffs."
Well, not necessarily everybody. Francona and general manager Ed
Wade sound like reluctant pursuers of the wild card. After all,
the Phillies are probably overachieving and over the long haul
don't have enough talent to reach the postseason, so it isn't
part of their long-term rebuilding plan to trade for immediate
help this season. Says Wade, "If it's a situation where we would
have to give up guys we think can help us in the future in order
to acquire a player to put us over the hump this year, we're
still not of a mind to do that."
The Phillies players aren't quite as patient. "We're enjoying
speeding up the evolutionary process," Schilling says. "We've
gone from the Jurassic stage to 20th-century pennant race in one
year."
Wade must decide before the July 31 trading deadline whether or
not to unload veterans such as Leiter and Mark Portugal for
prospects. The average age of the Phillies' every-day lineup is
just 26.2 years old—only the Marlins and the Expos are
younger—and thus the future in Philadelphia is brighter than
anyone could have imagined just one year ago. "Last June we were
the laughingstock of baseball," Jefferies says. "But now a
mention of the Phillies isn't followed by a punch line. No matter
what happens the rest of the year, that's a big step for us."
Issue date: July 27, 1998
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