We should be more excited!
Opening Day for the Phillies is rolling in this Thursday. Usually, the return of regular season baseball is akin to a friend coming home from college. You haven’t seen him or her in months and once the reunion is here, it’s like that friend never left. Baseball is about to become a regular part of our lives once again for the next several months, a metronome that we can set our days to. Whether or not you watch every game, catch a passing glance during the evening or even partake of the game whenever possible, having that game in your back pocket each evening helps.
So why aren’t more people excited about it?
Usually, I am loathe link to something written by a certain writer from the Philadelphia Inquirer. However, this article caught my eye, particularly this point being made:
The current entitlement of Phillies fans is astonishing, given the history of a team with the most losses in the history not only of baseball, or American sports, but in the history of the world, a notorious tradition they only recently have broken.
Now, some context. The author is writing about the tandem of Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler, arguably the second best duo of Phillies in team history and how the fanbase seems to be taking them for granted. There is a bit of merit there with that point seeing as how some people have seen their interest in the team wane due to lack of postseason success over the past few seasons.
However, anyone who has followed the team through the last 20, 30, 40 years should be relishing the success the team is having. The lean years were torturous to watch, rendering interest in the team to near zero. Now, we’re simply used to seeing them good and get disappointed when they are not. Is that the reason that there seems to be so little interest in the team’s beginning this season? Why are people down on this team, one of the best teams in the game right now?
Is it because of the Eagles? The best team in the city right now, the Eagles have likely spoiled a fanbase that demands postseason excellence when their teams get there. With a Lombardi trophy now in tow, the bar has been set for the Phillies in 2025, at least in the eyes of some fans, for them to achieve the same goal. After all, making the postseason for the Phillies no longer something that we should be hoping for; it is now expected. Their team has been assembled to be one that marches through the regular season with relatively few bumps along the road, storming the October beaches with a fully armed armada. That they have failed to find the ultimate success these past three postseasons has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many fans and with what has been perceived as little outside reinforcement, the chances of that failure occurring yet again seems high right now.
Is it thanks to ring culture? Many in the fanbase here, and across the country at large, have fallen prey to the idea that without a parade down the main part of the city, the season is a failure. If a team does not win a ring, the season should be considered unsuccessful. No longer are teams allowed to simply achieve a certain threshold of success, whatever that threshold may be. No, they have to win. No career can be considered complete, no matter the individual accomplishments, unless that career has certain markers at the top of his Baseball Reference page indicating his team was able to finish the job. The idea that a championship must be attained each season or else has led to many not being able to enjoy a season in which the team has attained so much. In 2024, the Phillies broke quite the long divisional championship drought with a season that should be considered one of the best in team history, yet the meek way in which they were dispatched in October has led to this apathy.
Why?
This is a good team that the fanbase should be excited about taking part of. Their rotation is one of, if not the, best groups in the game right now, creating a template for season long success. The offense still possesses star power to lift an entire group to long runs of productivity during a season that can feel long in the middle third. The bullpen, though likely a group that is a step down, at least has parts to it that can provide a roadmap to being at the very least a capable collective to help shorten games with regularity.
Yes, the division has gotten tougher.
Yes, the National League as a whole has more team capable of hoisting the trophy in October, creating multiple roadblocks for the Phillies.
Yes, there is a superteam assembled that must be vanquished standing in their way.
Yet this is a good team. The season that lies ahead should be one we look forward to each and every day. For most days of the season, the Phillies will be favored to win thanks to the talent put in place by the front office.
We should be looking forward to this season with great anticipation, as one where, if things break right and the true talent is played up to, success should ensue. After all, remember the dark days of the past. They were the ones that we never wish to visit again.
This is a team that will likely not be one to give us those gloomy days each day of the year. There are the usual caveats of health, lower percentile outcomes, blah blah blah, but the Phillies will be good. We should be excited. Let’s get excited for it!