February 2023. [photo courtesy of my wife]
My mid-life crisis, hastened by my restlessness and a divorce at 37, manifested itself in a return to religion–the religions of Roman Catholicism, baseball, and a writing practice. Lead back to baseball via my love of sports photography (in the form of baseball cards), I recaptured the romanticism of the game at the same time my marriage unraveled. Two years later I followed the ’93 Phillies as they improbably ran the National League table only to lose a heartbreaker of game and the World Series to the Toronto Blue Jays. (Curse you, Joe Carter.) By then I had been initiated in the superstitions of a very superstitious sport which is why I’ve today laid in a full case of Yuengling beers, official beer of the Phillies. No more feeling a personal responsibility for the team’s abrupt departure from last year’s postseason.
I’ve said it here before, but in truncated form: it’s a travesty that the National Pastime isn’t recognized with a National Holiday on Opening Day. I kinda think it should be a federal requirement to give employees mandatory personal days if they want to watch a deciding game of the World Series, but these days all the games are held in the evening.
Once again the pre-season prognosticators have dissed the Phillies by predicting far fewer wins than last year and a second or third place finish. Last year they predicted the Phillies would finish third, despite having all players back healthy for the entire season, most notably Bryce Harper who opened the season on the Injured List and played only 2.5 months in the field. Here’s how their chances to win (a subjective measurement for sure) changed over the season:
Folks who have followed my baseball posts for a few years will know I get ticked off at the knee-jerk comments made without looking at historical facts and statistics. The chart above is based on historical averages for all teams (I think) and adds in the “strength” of the teams to be played. (The determination of strong versus weak schedules will be another rant for another day.) No one can make more than general predictions on this first day of the season: the White Sox have little chance of making the postseason; the Dodgers would have to suffer multiple injuries to not make the postseason; the Rockies fans should demand a better a team.
Why I love baseball and the Phillies is delineated in a three-part post here.
all the voices in my head 