Best Ticket in Town

FRIDAY NIGHT BASEBALL IN PHILLY

If you’re only planning to watch one Phillies game this season make it Friday Night.

Phillies. Mets. Citizens Bank Park.

 Cole Hamels. Matt Harvey.

Forecast is for a perfect night.

 

The best pitcher in Phillies recent history versus the best pitcher in all of New York.  This has the makings of a one hour fifty five minute duel for the ages.

Sure, Hamels has had his ups and downs so far this season but against the rival Mets he is sure to bring his A Game. The biggest problem Cole has had this year is losing focus and making the mistake pitch. For those of you who have been watching, his mistakes have been big ones.  When he’s not making mistakes, he looks like a legitimate ace.  For most teams in the league, he is better than their current opening day starter.  His name is mentioned daily on MLB Network Radio as the top available pitcher who will be traded this season.  This week they’re thinking Red Sox or Blue Jays but knowing he can and most likely would decline a trade to Toronto, they are predicting Boston as his landing spot.

Matt Harvey, coming off Tommy John surgery, is 5-0 and has to be considered one of the best pitchers in the game so far this young season. Last week he outdueled the 200 million dollar man from the Nationals. He is legit and a lot of fun to watch. A New York without Derek Jeter is looking for a fan favorite and I predict Harvey will be the newly crowned King of New York Baseball by seasons end.

The best chance either team has to win this game is to take advantage of a mistake and hit the long ball.

Hopefully, the Phillies will realize this and start all their power hitters.  Sure, there haven’t been many long balls this year but Howard is starting to heat up while Ruf and Francouer have the ability to pop one at any time. Utley will be back from his benching and you can rest assured he will get at least one hit. This is a guarantee.

It is going to be a long summer for Philadelphia baseball fans. The opportunity for a great game won’t come around that often which is why this Friday night should be Baseball Night in Philly!!

Let’s Root Root Root for the Phillies!!

On a side note – even though we hate the Mets and hope everything they do turns out poorly they should be commended for their salute to the fallen NYPD officer on Tuesday Night.  Brian Moore, a lifelong Orioles fan (so much cooler than being a lifelong Mets fan) had tickets for the Tuesday game. His family attended for him.  The Mets flew all flags in the stadium and half-mast, wore NYPD hats during batting practice and a moment of silence for Officer Moore took place before the game. Some things are bigger than baseball and good for the Mets for being a class act and honoring a fallen hero.

I will watch the Phillies so you don’t have to!! Even though you should watch the Phillies even if it’s just this one time.

Erik Whitacre   

@erikwhitacre

Pay Day and Bills Due

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad the Phillies signed Cole Hamels. But if they ended up trading him, I’da been ok too.

Six years and 144 million. Man that’s a lot of dough! It’s a long investment too. The first week of July was when I came to grips the Phillies didn’t have it this year so trading Cole looked like a real possibility. The prospects they would get in return could have been the building blocks for the next great run in Phillies history. My first choice was to sign him but last week it came what the offer on the table was. I thought, “God Damn! Dudes gonna get PAID!” But then the more I thought about it, the more I didn’t like it. How come he didn’t sign the contract already? And more importantly, how much loot were the Phillies going tie up in the starting rotation?

Halladay makes 20 Million. Lee 24 and Hamels ultimately gets 24. So basically with a self imposed cap limit just south of the luxury tax, you’ve got $68 million in payroll with sits on the bench 2/5 of the time. Hell, throw in Papelbon’s 13 mil and nearly half your payroll is on the bench more than half the time. No wonder, the bats go weeks without showing up. They’re probably scouting a good intersection on Roosevelt Blvd to panhandle or hock bottles of water. I could care less if the Phillies spent money like the Yankees; plundering the free agent market for their ideal team, but that’s just not the case. Amaro is the MLB equivalent of a college freshman with his first credit card. Get what looks good then worry about the consequences later.  Unfortunately, for him the bill is in the form of me and you and the rest the Phillies Nation that buys tickets. If the team finishes 4^th or 5^th, never making a real run, how many people will drop their season tickets or partial plans? How many tickets will be sold by the first day single games seats go on sale? Last year, the number was 3.1 million! I’ve been on the waiting list for full season tickets for 3 years. My buddy who was going to split it with me has already bailed and with the trouble I had GIVING away tickets for the game yesterday, I might not be far behind.

The reason I gave away the tickets I’ll save for another blog, but it had nothing to do with the team’s play.  But the team’s play and their roster moves and the deadline and during the offseason will influence what I do as far as tickets for next season.

See ya at the ballpark!

Jay Wrizight

jaywrizight@yahoo.com

There’s Nothing To See Here…yet

Hoodwink’d by cj hood

There’s Nothing To See Here…yet

PLEASE DISPERSE…CLIFF LEE ONLY WON 1 GAME.

I wrote a Hoodwink’d on Monday (Seller Dwellars) that was so depressing that I couldn’t even add pictures to it…Wriz did that for me. It’s been a terrible June…yada, yada, yada..you know wassup! Then all of sudden, Howard’s starts hitting in Lehigh Valley (it’s Triple A mind you) & Cliff Lee gets his first win, and fans are acting like it’s 2008 all over again. Y’all acting like you’re part of an Oprah Winfrey live studio audience. Calm the f’ down kids…get a grip! We didn’t even win this series yet (it’s 1-0 us in the top of the 2nd). If we do win it’s a small step in the right direction…if we lose it’s another huge step back.

Fans are bewildered how Cole Hamels could pitch so well in this time of uncertainty. UNCERTAINTY??? He’s on the cusp of a HUGE payday…he’s not going to Afghanistan. There’s no way RAJ will pull a ‘Cliff Lee trade debacle’ again. Hamels WILL be a Phillie . A rich Phillie…with a hot wife, so stop worrying about him.

DB29 wrote an interesting piece about ticket sales and how Pinocchio McCarthy needs to stop it with that ‘consecutive sold out’ noise. Before the season started I dropped a hot dime on 5 tix behind the Phils dugout for Camp Hood (cuz it’d be the only game my kids would see this season, so I wanted to spoil them) for an Aug game when I knew Howard & Utley would be back. Now, I’m questioning that decision. But it doesn’t even matter cuz those 5 tix are now probably worth a fraction of what I paid for them. And I paid face value!!!

Word is Victorino’s gone, but what do we get in return? Who’s going to take his place? Shane seems to be the new King of Pop since MJ’s gone. He’s not playing like a guy in the last year of his contract. Is the devil you know better than the devil you don’t know? I say yes. Low ball him and don’t budge…if we lose him, oh well.

We’re used to being pissed when they didn’t sweep a series…now, we’re going ape sh*t when they win a game. Things done changed! I’m not being Debby Downer, I’m just being honest. Maybe we’ll win this series and women will be throwing their panties on the field like Tom Jones is in the house. But until then, let’s keep our team in check and stay grounded. Let’s get ‘bunted…

PS Congrats to Chooch #finally, Hamels & Pap for being All Stars…well deserved.

PSS I don’t think bringing Howard back this weekend is a good idea. Give him another series at Triple A.

You buyin or sellin?

It’s pretty pathetic when the highlight of your season so far is watching Chad Qualls fall on his ass trying to make a pickoff throw to first. Sad but true. A lot of people have been saying “don’t panic” “it’ll be ok” “Utley and Howard are coming back.” Fuck it, I’m panicking. I know the Phillies were 7 back with 17 to play and still won the division in 2007. But realize this: They had to pass ONE team. Right now they’re 9.5 back and they have to pass the whole fucking division.

But there’s two Wild Cards this year, right? Still 5.5 back and have to pass SEVEN teams. Amaro said they aren’t going to rush to do something either way, which is somewhat understandable. But at some point a decision has to be made. Are the Phillies going to be buyers or sellers? The Phillies haven’t been sellers since they unloaded Bobby Hustle in 2006. In each season since, they have added to their roster before the trade deadline. Some major deals like for Pence and Lee and some minor deals like Blanton and Lohse. If we are to believe RAJ and the Phillies aren’t going over the Luxury Tax, the Phillies can’t make much of a blockbuster move. They can only take on roughly 4 million in salary. So how much can you bolster this team that needs fielding, bullpen and offensive help?

With the additional WC spot, teams probably will wait longer to make moves, holding hope they can make a playoff run. This means help for the Phillies is further away except for injured players returning to the club. And ultimately, in my opinion, the Phillies will be sellers rather than buyers. They have loads of tradable pieces with expiring contracts: Polly, Blanton, Victorino, even Pence who will be arbitration eligible for the final time, and of course, the mother load, Cole Hamels.

I have said time and time again that if Cole wasn’t signed before the team headed north from Clearwater, he was gone. Can the team take a chance that they don’t trade him and get the king’s ransom he will garner and not make the playoffs and he walks? It would be disastrous. Cole has said time and time again he wants to win. This team seems like its trying to force him out of town.

Best case scenario is Amaro sits down with Cole makes his best and final offer, not after the season, not next month, NOW! If Cole rejects it, he’s gotta go. But Amaro should still be up front with Cole and tell him even if they trade him; they still like to see him in a Phillies uniform next year.

I gotta go cry.

Jay Wrizight

jaywrizight@yahoo.com

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Kornhole's Alley: Cadillac Edition

Welcome to another adventure inside the rectum that’s Kornhole’s Alley.

Throughout history, our Philadelphia Phillies were a bad team. Just recently, it finally hit me why this team was so bad for so long. It was all about the ANNOUNCING!

Harry Kallas, Richie Ashburn and Andy Musser would call games in the summer and the team would lose. We had a small stretch of winning in the late 70’s to mid 80’s but it was obviously a fluke.

Say what you want about Sarge, but this team has done nothing but win since he joined the announcers booth: 1 World Series, 3 Division Titles, 2 National League Championships. Thanks Ryan!

This current broadcast team knows how to win.  Just ask Chris Wheeler. Wheels knows everything, and everything includes winning. Charlie Sheen actually has to compensate Wheels every time he uses the word.

Many of our readers think fondly of Harry the K and the boys, but seem to forget this team was awful when those announcers were in their prime. I’ll take a shitty Sarge comment any day if it means winning another World Series. I’ll deal with Wheels getting on my nerves if it means Doc throws another no-no in the playoffs.

Yes, I know Wheels was around in the late 80’s, but cmon’ people you know he wasn’t relevant yet.

An outcry has begun to move Franske and LA to TV. I disagree! We need to have the worst TV commentators in baseball to remain the best team. You people need to remember everything comes back around to announcing.

WEEK 1 – Booing Hamels

I love the idiots who booed Hamels. Isn’t he the only Ace on the staff with a World Series MVP? The guy had a bad night. Relax! The world won’t end. Meanwhile Fat Joe gets rocked the next night and everyone is okay with it.

Booing Hamels shows that Philadelphia is not ready to remove itself from past bigotry. Sure, blacks and whites live together, sure Asians still own all the nail salons but it’s very apparent that Philadelphia is not ready to accept a surfer. You racist scumbags! What is wrong with you?

We all know surfers are good-looking people with hot TV star wives, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings too. It took us a World Series to get over our hate for rednecks and apparently a World Series Ring is still not enough for the Surfers.

I hope after Cole’s 7 shutout innings on Sunday this city gets over its hatred for Surfers.

This week in Phillies Future:

I’m so fed up with “This week in History”. We already know what happened in history. It’s time you people stop living in the past.

So, after realizing I have two small balls, I went out and bought a large crystal one. It makes me feel more of a man.

I look into the ball and I see the Washington Nationals. A terrible team, who signed a dude who has a cool beard, a good arm and allegedly Chase Utley’s pet Vagina. I see that team and its two menacing fans stealing a game and thinking they’re going to over take the Phils as beast of the east.

I see the bigger problem coming from the fish next weekend. Any team that plays in the same town that Tony Montana hailed from is gonna come out firing on all cylinders. The crowd should be heavily behind their Marlins. Do you know how intimidating it is to play in front of 36 people? I hope the Phils can handle the pressure. I think they will. So does the ball of crystals.

Thanks for rearing up my Alley. Email me at kornhole@philliesbunts.com

Boo? F.U.!

I need to preface this week’s article with an important piece of information. I am sitting beside my beautiful bride in a Pennsylvania hospital patiently waiting for our son or daughter to arrive. I need a 'solid' from the great Jay Wrizight, spell check and proof this please as it was composed on my smart phone. I'm sorry if this reads like one long text message but I didn't want to disappoint the Phillies Bunts faithful.

So....Who the hell booed Cole Hamels? Talk about ‘What have you done for me lately?’ There are exactly two people on the planet who have been named World Series MVP while playing for the Fightin' Phils. Michael Jack Schmidt and Cole “Hollywood” Hamels. That's it, over 128 seasons, just two. From 1983 to 2008 Philadelphia won ZERO championships, how quickly people forget. Hamels dominated the playoffs and World Series. We would still be looking for our first championship since 1983 if not for him. How many Phillies Bunts readers were alive in 1983? The man brought a championship starved city to the promised land. What the hell people? One bad start and the fan base turns on the guy? I know he had a rough 2009, but with any run support last year and he'd have been in the Cy Young conversation. Boo anyone who hasn't won a championship. That would be any Flyers player who can't call themselves a Broad Street Bully. Any Sixers player not named Doc, Moses, Cheeks, Toney or Jones. Hell, you can boo anyone who ever played for the Eagles other then Concrete Charlie. Champions are few and far between in this city, they deserve our respect.

I'm out. Gotta go tell the wifey to push.

Keep It Classy Philly!

DB29