Philly Sports Bracket of Pain: Phillies Region
There’s losing and then there’s the Phillies. No franchise knows how to lose better than the team formerly known as the Philadelphia Quakers. While Connie Mack’s Athletics were the class of baseball in the early 20th century the Phillies were . . . losing. Despite established in 1883, the Phils did almost nothing for their first eighty years. If they were an expansion team like the Astros and Mets in 1962 and their entire history before that was deleted, nothing about their place in history would change.
But during those extremely rare times when they did matter, the Phils found incredible ways to break hearts. Winning two championships should be something to be proud of, but for the Phillies it feels almost embarrassing that’s all they could muster in over 130 years of existing.
No. 1: 1 Bloody Nil
You know what “1 Bloody Nil” is. In this crucial winner-take-all game in the 2011 National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Phillies gave the ball to Roy Halladay and he delivered. Doc allowed a single run in a complete game performance. The Phillies offense failed miserably in response, and the cool winds of October prevented potential home runs by Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez. The team cracked under the pressure as Chris Carpenter gave the signature performance of his career. The final out saw Ryan Howard tear his achillies as rushed to the bases. The only way that moment could have been more symbolic of both Howard and the Phillies immediate decline is if a Greek chorus appeared on the field and cited a poem declaring that “The Run” was over. 8 years later and the Phillies still haven’t recovered from this game.
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No. 16: Rockies 2007 NLDS
The Phillies first postseason series in 14 years was a frustrating sweep to the red-hot Colorado Rockies. Colorado had an insane run to the World Series that year, winning 21 out of 22 games in the regular season and postseason combined. As bad as this series was, it’s the 16 seed because it was only the beginning of the Phillies great run and set up the stage for 2008.
No. 2: Joe Carter
You’ve seen the home run. Even if you weren’t born yet you’ve been shown this home run over and over again throughout the years. Joe Carter’s home run in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series is one of only two World Series winning walk-off homers in it’s entire history (the other being Bill Mazeroski in 1960.) The Phillies didn’t get back to the playoffs for another fourteen years, and even the 2008 World Series championship hasn’t fully healed the wounds for a generation of fans.
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No. 15: 1983 World Series
The 1983 Wheeze Kids Phillies are somewhat forgotten in history. They had members of both the Cincinnati Big Red Machine of the 1970s and key cogs of the 1980 World Champions. The team still managed to defeat the LA Dodgers in the NLCS and won Game 1 of the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. After Game 1 however, age finally caught up to them and Baltimore won four straight to win the series.
No. 3: Cody Ross and the 2010 NLCS
Coming off the high of Doc Halladay’s No-Hitter in the NLDS, the Phils looked destined to make a third straight World Series trip. That was until Game 1 of the NLCS Cody Ross turned into Willie Mays and got two homers off Halladay to give San Francisco the edge 4-3. That set the tone for the Giants to take a 3-1 lead in the series including a walk-off sacrifice fly in Game 4. The Phillies managed to take the series to a sixth game and held the Giants steady at 2-2 in the top of 8th inning. That was until Juan Uribe homered off Ryan Madson for a 3-2 lead. Closer Brian Wilson struck out Ryan Howard and San Francisco celebrated the upset win and went onto to win three of the next five World Series.
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No. 14: JD Drew
J.D. Drew was the 2nd overall pick by the Phillies in the 1997 MLB draft. However Drew refused to sign for the Phils for anything less than $10 million. A certain agent by the name of Scott Boras had a hand in that and the Phils saw their top draft pick walk away. Drew would endure a wrath of boos whenever he entered Philadelphia for the next decade.
No. 4: Black Friday (1977 NLCS)
Picture this: Your team is up by 2 runs with 1 out to go in the bottom of the 9th and on the verge of going up 2-1 in a best of five series. And then your team cannot record a single out and gives up three runs to lose the game and the series. That is exactly what happened to the Phillies in Game 3 of the 1977 NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers. This game lived on as Black Friday and is one of the biggest single game chokes in baseball history. The Phillies did earn redemption in 1980, but was that enough to forget out this?
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No. 13: Trading Cliff Lee to Seattle
In 2009 Cliff Lee won two World Series games. The following offseason they acquired Roy Halladay. So they have both right? Wrong. In an extremely frustrating move, Ruben Amaro Jr. traded Lee to Seattle for prospects and none of them became good MLB players. While they did acquire Roy Oswalt that season to fill in for Lee’s absence, he would have been an improvement in the NLCS agains the Giants. At least they managed to re-sign Lee that offseason and fixed the mistake, leading to another moment in this bracket . . .
No. 5: 1964 Collapse
12 games to go. A 6 and 1/2 game lead in the National League pennant race (there was no NLCS until 1969.) All the Phillies had to do was hang on they’d be in the World Series. Instead they lose 10 in a row and the pennant to the St. Louis Cardinals. That epic choke set the tone for five decades of bitter Philadelphia sports fans.
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No. 12: 1978 NLCS Walk-off
The Dodgers were a pain in the ass to the Phillies in the ’70s. A year after Black Friday, the Phillies faced the Dodgers again in the 1978 NLCS. With the score tied 3-3 in the bottom of the 10th inning the Phillies had to win to force a Game 5. Ron Cey of the Dodgers walked with two outs and got to second after an error. The next batter Bill Russell (not that Bill Russell) hit a line drive and drove in Cey for the series winning run. At least L.A. got pounced by the crazy New York Yankees teams in the 1977 and 1978 World Series.
No. 6: Pedro Feliz Blunder in 2009 World Series
No blunder sums up the 2009 World Series than Pedro Feliz letting Johnny Damon steal two bases in Game 4. I don’t even feel like going into more detail this play just sucks.
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No. 11: Scott Rolen Fallout
Scott Rolen looked like the savior for the Phillies when he arrived in 1996 and won the 1997 Rookie of the Year. He had remarkable talent at the 3rd base position not seen since Schmidt. But by 2002 Rolen was disgruntled with the organization, accusing them of not doing enough to win and constantly feuding with manager Larry Bowa. Role was traded to Cardinals and continued a near-Hall of Fame career until 2012, winning a World Series with St. Louis in 2006. 3rd base was always a weak spot of that great Phillies infield during “The Run”, if things worked out with Rolen maybe the team would have been even better.
No. 7: Cliff Lee Blows Game 2 of 2011 NLDS
Bringing Cliff Lee back in 2011 and forming the Four Aces was awesome. Blowing a 4 run lead in the 2011 NLDS with a chance to go 2-0 in the series is not. While the batters in Game 5 are blamed for losing the series, the real culprit was Lee failing to hang onto the lead in Game 2. Lee’s Phillies legacy went from near-perfect to nearly destroyed. It also doesn’t help that he pretty much disappeared after this.
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No. 10: 2005 Astros Series
The Phillies had a crucial four game series against the Houston Astros (back when they were in the NL and not cheating) with a chance to take the Wild Card spot. They lost all four games, highlighted by Billy Wagner blowing a save by giving up a home run to Craig Biggio.
Biggio!
No. 8: Hideki Matsui Dominates World Series Clincher
Hideko Matsui was a good player for the Yankees in the mid-2000s. But in the 2009 World Series he was Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio and Mantle combined. He pretty much ended the series with a 6 RBI performance in Game 6, deservedly earning World Series MVP.
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No. 9: Gabe Kapler Era
While some still defend him, Gabe Kapler was supposed to be the charismatic and unconventional manager who’d bring the Philies back to relevance. His teams played well early, but it felt like his bizarre motivation tactics grew thin in August and September as the Phils fell apart in both of his seasons. Kapler was fired after 2019 and spared Philly from reading more stories about he licked and spat out ice cream and took the skin off chicken nuggets.