Beer nuts: Smart money is on offensive renaissance

Should we boo? Cheer? Here’s what we do: Hope for a lead-off homer in the home half of the first to neuter the groundswell of displaced frustration being dumped on Jimmy Rollins.

“They're front-runners.” There it is, gusting along like a storm cloud, gaining strength by accumulating a week’s worth of hype. But tonight, baseball gets in a way of a good story. The first pitch will be thrown and it will blow all that garbage out toward the ocean, just like it always does. Blown out to sea by balls and strikes. Win the game or the next couple, and you’re living in a high-pressure system without a cloud in the sky.

An unscripted lead-off shot in the home half would certainly spice up the ambiguity. J-Roll has already served and the ball’s in our court. “When you're doing good, they're on your side. When you're doing bad, they're completely against you." A lead-off jack would play like a 155 mph ace. If you've been a wet blanket about the situation, there would be no good way to handle it without looking like bad fan or front-runner. 15-0 Rollins.

Odds are that J-Roll does something mundane with his first AB because mundane is the name of the game. No one knows this more than the players and coaches. This is where fans, bloggers and radio hosts get into trouble. There is no artificial game-day, gut-check rally cry like football. No artificial motivation necessary. They're in the hunt and can't fall out of the race. It’s a grind, and the grind is on their side. We’re looking at four below-average seasons from Rollins, Ryan Howard, Geoff Jenkins and Carlos Ruiz, and there’s a terrific chance they’ll turn it around before it's over, whether we boo, cheer or sit on our hands.

Comments

[jhart]

To me the only ones that have met or are exceeding expectations are:

Burrell
Victorino
Feliz (I had low expectations)

Anyone not on this list, in my opinion, has not performed as they are capable of doing. Luckily the pitching has been, for the most part, the polar opposite of this.

[donc]

I'm not a boo bird. Never have been. Never will be. J. D. Drew is just about the only player I can remember actually booing. It's always nice to be a part of some group hatred. So that explains that, but I don't boo opposing players on general principle. I could not possibly despise Jose Reyes more than I do. But I won't boo him. Booing an opposing player is a sign of respect and I won't give him or any other opponent (worhty or not) the satisfaction.
As for booing my own team, well that just seems counterproductive. When they stink I'm sure they know it. I don't boo them for the same reason I don't light up people that work for me when they make mistakes. I have to assume that they know when they've done a bad job. Personally I believe booing says a whole lot more about the booer than the booee.
As for Rollins comments; I don't think he was that far off base. I just hate the timing. That's just what this team needs is another distraction. And I don't want to hear that crap about it being a brilliant ploy to distract attention from the poor play on the field. I think he's having a bad season and hearing about it and he decided to vent. I wouldn't care in the least except that I think it may hurt the team and is therefore selfish.

[phReed]

Tonight is a night where I don't mind Rollins swinging first pitch. Take it deep, MVP.

Unless Cholly does the unthinkable and bumps him from #1 to #2, which might help Jimmy see more fast balls. Let Vic leadoff.

[Andy]

When Rollins finishes the year with 20 triples again, are we fans gonna look silly or what?

[JZ]

Lineup is posted:

Jeltz, SS
Dernier, CF
Ready, 2B
Jordan, 1B
Jeffries, LF
Tartabull, RF
Hayes, 3B
Parrish, C
Roa, P

See? It's not *so* bad in 2008. Granted, it's a hodgepodge lineup, but still.

[Bubba]

Root, root , root for the home team, If they don't win it's a shame...........

[jhart]

I too don't like to comment much on booing. But its going to happen here in Philadelphia until there is a complete 180 degree turn from the sports franchises in this city. The environment would have to change before there is a change in the composition of the fans here in Philadelphia.

We'll just have to keep "front running" until someone actually wins here I guess.

I don't boo either. I just keep my frustrations bottled up inside. So, I suppose I should be due to erupt at some point in time. No?

[The Truth Injection]

JZ: Don't you dare besmirch the good name of Randy Ready by putting him in the same company as some of those guys.

When I was 8 and Ready was with the team my buddies and I got plenty of milage out of him making an error and one of us yelling, "I guess he wasn't Ready."

[d]

JZ: Wow that was quite a catch to find Phillies lineup that included Danny Tartabull. He only appeared in 3 games for the Phils. He was the position player version of Freddy Garcia.

[CJ]

My list of hitters who have met or exceeded expectations so far this year:

Pat Burrell
Jayson Werth
Shane Victorino
Greg Dobbs
Chris Coste

Chase is close... had he not been red hot and then so cold and instead had smaller peaks and valleys, he would likely have made this list as well.

[chaz]

Aaaaa! So many metaphors.

[highlander]

jb - I personally think that the adoption of a song is a superb idea (and "you will never walk alone" a great choice). However, unlike European sporting crowds, American crowds don't tend to sing. It would be a tough one to institute, although nonetheless an admirable cause.

For anyone who might laugh at the idea, try going to see Liverpool or Glasgow Celtic on a European Cup night, and hear 70,000+ fans all singing that particular song in unison, and tell me it doesn't eclipse most other fan experiences they have ever had.

[MG]

If the Phils' fans boo Rollins tonight, they are classless. That simple.

[Bedrosian's Beard]

Highlander: I posted a YouTube link of Celtic fans singing "You Will Never Walk Alone".

Pink Floyd fans: You can hear bits of "You Will Never..." in their song "Fearless"

[donc]

Gillick on 950 with Missanelli at 5:00.

[NEPP]

If they boo Rollins, then they are simply proving him right.

There's about a 90% chance of him being booed vociferously tonight sadly.

[donc]

Chaz: You sound like Chris Wheeler after a balk call against the Phillies.

[Bedrosian's Beard]

(in the last thread I posted the link to the song, sorry, left that out)

[James]

actually, to really confuse the hell out of them, the entire stadium should be cricket-chirping silent, regardless of what happens before or after rollins' 1st at-bat.

[AWH the RBP]

PhillR, I find your comments on the previous thread regarding Larusa very interesting.

I don't know if it's necessarily you, but Charlie Manuel is criticised by some on this board for not "thinking outside the box".

Larusa, OTOH, defies convention with the moves he makes.

[AWH]

NEPP, I think there'll be some cheers too (Go Carson Go - Go Carson Go - Go Carson Go - Go Carson Go!), but I'll be it's about 75/25, and the booing idiots will drown out the cheering koolaid drinkers.

[donc]

Missanelli is totally bogarting Carsons idea without giving him any credit whatsoever. What a wanker.

[Matt]

Want to shock the hell out of them?

Give J-Roll a standing O when he comes up to the plate.

Now the ball's in your court, Jimmy.

[Terry Harmon]

I promised myself I wouldn't post again on the booing issue, but...

...booing Rollins tonight would not prove his point. Everyone booing him for the next two months regardless of his effort and production would.

I'm of the opinion Philadelphia is no more a frontrunner in terms of support than many other sports towns. Winners get more praise than losers. I would even say that, over the decades, we have shown better than average support of mediocre or losing teams.

I dislike that Rollins paints all Philadelphia fans (or even a majority) with such a broad brush. I find it a caricature, vastly overblown as unique to Philadelphia.

At the end of the day, the problems of this team are not caused and won't be rectified by the fans' reaction.

(Ugh. I hate myself for being pulled back into this.)

Go Phils. Let's win a few.

[donc]

Gillick sounded like Ralph Cramden. Haminah, Haminah, Haminah.

[diggitydave]

I don't know if this has been said before, but it's looking more and more like Billy Wagner may be out for a much longer time than initially reported. He will not return from the DL when he is eligible this week, and Yahoo is reporting he may actually miss the rest of the season with Aaron Heilman continuing to step in to fill the role of closer for the time being.

Anything that would mean that Heilman would be pitching more frequently in important situations is a good thing, no??

[TK]

DiggityDave, yes. Aaron Heilman could be MVP of the 2008 Phillies if we win the division.

[CJ]

I noticed on MLB Trade Rumors that the Yanks failed to sign Gerrit Cole. In fact, they never even made him an offer because it was clear he was going to college.

I guess a couple people on the list owe the Phils an apology for ripping the team for not picking the guy instead of Hewitt...

[CJ]

Want some good news regarding our record right now? Since we're worse than the Mets, we can prevent pitchers like Brian Fuentes from being claimed by NY should they get to us!

[Callison]

Phillies fans - and I one of them - have an inferiority complex. It comes from a long history of losing. And like most losing entities there is a tendency to scapegoat. Even in a marathon sport like baseball Phillies fans are quick to turn on their players if they under-perform for short periods of time. Some of the bile that has been sprayed at the likes of Rollins, Howard, Utley (who admittedly are all having seasons or parts of seasons that have left us hoping for more) seems to me to be totally out of proportion. Adam Eaton - that's a whole other story.

I've lived in NYC for a long time and Mets fans are just the same. No - even worse. Their disappointment and disgust always at the ready. Now the Yankees' fans, since they expect to their team win and have a history of winning - get much less bent out of shape at particular players for their ups and downs. A-rod was deeply hated, but that was more of a personality thing.

Anyway, a few years of post season success would cure all of us Phillie fans of that malady.

Oh yeah - right - I forgot - that's not gonna happen.

With this team - barring a miracle - winning the division is their ceiling....

[Chris]

What's wrong with booing? These guys are paid a gazillion bucks, and if they do poorly on the field - and especially off the field by yapping on national television - they deserve to hear about it. That's the nature of the game.

No one forced these guys to become baseball players. And analogies to the work we ordinary people do don't make any sense. Perhaps if I got paid what they do, then yes. But baseball is a very public game, it is a game with a tradition of cheering and booing, of loving and hating your home team. And that's the way it is.

I'm sick of these guys crying about St Louis - whether it is Scott Rolen, Jimmy Rollins, or whomever. We have some of the most passionate fans in all of baseball . . . you gotta take the good with the bad, folks, or get outta town.

[mark k. fretnerkle]

Comcast should be ashamed of their coverage of tonights game. They did a bunch of interviews of fans before the game and 5 of the six people they chose were against booing. Of course that did not reflect the real feelings of the fans. When Rollins was introduced in the first inning Comcast decided (or was told) to run a pre-recorded interview of Rollins talking about the reaction he would get instead of letting us hear the actual reaction! They were obviously told not to broadcast the reaction by Phillies management. They even gave up revenue and stayed on the air between the top and bottom of the inning so they could roll the interview overtop of the reaction, and then had the announcers come on and say..."umm there were some boos but mostly cheers" yeah right...I personally couldn't care less about booing or not booing but the fact that it was purpously covered up is disgusting.