Phillies Win Series, Fans Beat Up Santa

So, the Phillies are your new World Champions.

Betcha didn't see that one coming when the season began. Betcha didn't see that one when the playoffs began, either.

In spite of a not-too-shabby 92-win season, I don't think the Phillies were on the lips of too many World Series predictors, even after they notched those 92 wins.

Nevermind that they had three players with more than 100 runs and three player also with 33 or more home runs (including one with 48, Ryan Howard, who knocked in 146 runs!), and nevermind that they had a closer who saved 48 games out of 48 tries, a pretty remarkable feat. Still, no one saw it coming.

And I'm glad I'm not a Phillie fan, though I should expect this and more if my Cubs ever make it to the promised land - I don't think I have read an article during this postseason where the Phillies have triumphed without a headline or opening lead mentioning their awful past. Is it newsworthy that a loser team has won the World Series? Sure, but at least let the fan get down to the bottom of the story before you remind them what kind of schmucks their team had been.

Regardless, they did it, and Mitch Williams is now off the hook, and Joe Carter can maybe shop or dine comfortably in Philadelphia again. Well, maybe, this is the meanest sports town there is, where Santa Claus was once booed and pelted with snow at an Eagles game.

Regardless, it was kind of a 'whatever' World Series, between a Florida baseball team with about as rich of a heritage as a Rally Monkey, and a Phillies franchise that, for the reasons listed above and more, has just never been that lovable...well, except for the Phils' era of long hair and chew, AKA Lenny Dykstra, Darren Daulton, John Kruk and the aforementioned Mitch Williams. It was hard not to like those guys.

That's what we baseball fans are kind of up against. Season ticket sales and hype are through the roof, but the hype dwindles each season because the playoffs are far too long and have too many teams, and unexpected, undeserving teams are entering each season.

I'm not saying either the Rays or Phils are undeserving.

The baseball execs have pretty much sold their sport out for the sake of TV contracts and ticket sales. I can't even tell you who won the World Series in the last five seasons, and I expect I'm not the only one, just because with SO MUCH PLAYOFFS it all kind of blurs together.

It's nice that more fans can be interested deeper into the season than in the past, but then there is less acclaim placed on making it to the postseason.