Well, gang, it’s just about time to start waiting till next year. Only the Phillies can blow a 3 run lead in the 7th and not have that be the bad news. Yep, Chase Utley’s hand is broken, though the Phillies say it’s not that bad. Not bad. Kind of like Freddie Garcia’s arm, Brett Myers arm, Flash Gordon’s arm, etc, etc, etc. He’s done for at least a month. Our #2 starter has an ERA of almost 6, and if you asked our bullpen to prevent Lindsay Lohan from joining a convent, they would probably blow it. At this point, you trade Rowand for some decent young arms that you can season for next year; you trade Barajas for a Slim Jim and a bottle of Banker’s Club Gin; and you hire out our entire bullpen to dress up as clowns for kid’s parties. Anybody else got any ideas or wanna commiserate?

…could somebody remind me why Michael Vick is the worst person to ever walk the planet and horse racing gets off scott free? Much to her horror, Deibel learned that each year tens of thousands of healthy horses, including thoroughbreds that didn’t fare well on the track like Maddie, 0-for-3 with career earnings of $120 racing as Secret Haughway, are bought for a few hundred dollars and slaughtered for meat for human consumption in countries such as France, Belgium, Italy and Japan. Again, I am not standing up for Michael Vick, but I do find it interesting that one type of animal that depends on humans can get killed for not performing and it’s no problem, but if another type gets killed, it is a national outrage. It couldn’t be the difference in the types of people raising, betting on, and killing the animals. Could it?
RELATED: Thousands of horses killed when they don’t run fast enough.

I was at the historic game and it was, well, really not that fun. I mean, baseball games are always fun in a certain sense, because they are a good excuse to spend a little QT with your peoples. But the action on the field was terrible, and it was humid enough that the crowd didn’t really seem to get excited about the 10,000 losses And to be honest, it was one of the most pathetic performances I’ve ever seen this team give on the field. It was the first time I’ve ever left a baseball game before the final out. With it 10-0 in the 7th, after the Cards 6th home run, I couldn’t stomach anymore. However, I do think it’s worth noting that the following people were part of the 10,000th loss: Jose Mesa, who pitched a perfect inning. Scott Rolen, who still gets booed loudly every time he bats. And home plate umpire Jim Wolf, who is Randy Wolf’s brother, called balls and strikes for the 10,000th. And for the first time probably ever, a used Phillies ticket will be worth something on ebay. Final little fun fact: The Phillies 10,000th loss was the first Phillies loss in Lucia Marie’s life. It’s been reported that she cried and cried all night long after the loss.
RELATED: My column in the Metro about 10,000.

A thrilling race in my native Nassawadox (population 572) on the morning of July 4th. I had a little much to drink the night before, and didn’t get much sleep, but that’s when I race my best. The bets were as follows: $20 on whether I could do the 2.5 mile race in under 21 minutes, and $5 each on the two girls (above, with my gambling buddies dad). I started slow, but that’s how I always start. With just over a half mile to run, I made my move, and found myself catching my buddy Gerald, a small forward on my high school b-ball team. We turned the corner neck and neck and headed down the homestretch. With about 100 yards to go, I tried to put it in overdrive. Bad move. Gerald was a track star in high school, and looks exactly the same now as he did then. He blew by me and beat me by about fifteen feet. However, that little burst at the end brought me in at 20:50, and I won the $30, though my buddy Frank says he needs to make some phone calls before he gives me the money.And the postscript: I am gonna be on Ibuprofrin for th erest of the day. I can barely move.

I made a remark on Beerleaguer a few days ago that watching Ryan Howard was like watching The Natural: every at bat is either a home run or a strikeout. Well, the stats bear me out, though he does mix in a walk every now and again. In the past year, Howard has had three games in which he had four strikeouts and a home run. No player in the last 50 years has had three games like that in a career.

For some reason, Pat Gillick has it in for Chris Coste. The real life Rocky who gave the Phillies amazing at bats in their late season run last year was brushed aside so that the Phillies could pay $2 million on a catcher who is, without question, the worst at his position in baseball. Then, Coste came up a couple of months ago when Ryan Howard went down. He gave the Phillies some solid at bats, then was unceremoniously dumped to Reading. So what will happen now that Werth is on the DL and Coste has been called up? He will probably hit .333, throw out a few runners, and then be sent back to Reading so that Barajas can hit .209, not throw anybody out, and have runners slide through his legs. It makes perfect sense.

Lots of Phillies stuff to talk about. Our dreadful bullpen blew it again last night. I am no longer on the Charlie-hater bandwagon. I have decided to devote all of my energy to the Pat Gillick hater bandwagon. For him to pretend like we didn’t need bullpen help desperately, and instead spend his extra money on the worst catcher in baseball and the worst 3rd baseman in baseball is absolutely pathetic. I don’t get mad at Charlie most of the time when it comes to pulling pitchers anymore b/c he is always facing a double edged sword: tired starter or dreadful bullpen? And that is entirely Gillick’s fault. And he refuses to actually work to find a young guy with potential in somebodies pen and make a trade. Why bother, when you can just pick up Jose Mesa?

*Bill Conlin today says Charlie is to be commended for the job he’s done thus far.

*My man D-Mac has a cover story about 10,000 losses. Good article, especially the opening.

*Sports Illustrated gives us the lovable loser treatment in their handling of the 10,000 losses. You have to read some of the great Phillie quotes over the years. Hilarious.

Apparently that crazed bus passenger was unable to convince me to stay away from the businessman special. To make it even more obvious that they’re gonna lose big, they are throwing out a pitcher with a 4-7 record…in AA ball. Oh, and just to top it all off, the Phils have lost by a combined score of 21-3 at the last two games I’ve attended. This should be good. Oh well, at least I can get a Schmitter.
RELATED: Follow game with Beerleaguer.

By now, many of you have probably already seen the NY Times piece about the hapless Phils. It is a rehashing of a story everyone has heard 1,000 times about how bad the organization is and has been. But the “first pro sports team to 10,000” mark, while fun to celebrate, is completely meaningless. Baseball plays 10 times as many games in a season as football, and twice as many as the NHL and NBA. Not to mention that the NBA, NFL, and NHL were all started at least 40 years after Major League baseball kicked off. So the only teams you can compare them to are the teams that came into the league around the same time as they did (1883). The Braves (1876) are second in losses with 9,668. But they have 17 pennants, compared to our five. The hapless Cubs came in the league seven years earlier than us and still have a lot less losses, with 9,416. Fighting for 4th losingest of all time are the Pirates (1882) with 9,328 losses and the Reds (1882) with 9,325. Pretty fascinating that two teams that came into the league in the same year have essentially the same number of losses. Strangely, the Reds have 43 more wins. (All time records courtesy of baseball-reference.com)

And least we have a World Series win. That’s something that fans of the Rockies, Astros, Padres, Mariners, Devils Rays, Rangers, and Expos/Nationals can’t say. And there are other teams who, by a more fair measure, are less succesfull. The Rangers (.467), the Rockies (.466), the Padres (.462), and the Devil Rays (.400) all have lower winning percentages than us.
RELATED: Fascinating facts about Phillie futility.

Don’t feel bad. Pat Burrell is a really tough out, and teams have struggled all year to hit Adam Eaton. Braw-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
RELATED: Phils sweep Mets, will now lose 2 of 3 to the Royals, the 2nd worst team in baseball. Come on, you know they will. Damn this team!