After going 7-17 during April, the Phillies broke even through the first two weeks of May (6-6) and were still 10 games below .500 (13-23) heading into this week's series with St. Louis.
There were plenty of encouraging signs until the weekend sweep by the Atlanta Braves. The Phils had taken six of the previous eight games before dropping Friday's game in the last inning and Saturday's contest in extra innings. Hopefully, the 11-2 loss on Sunday won't send the team into another tailspin.
Heading into Sunday's clash, the starting pitchers had a combined ERA of 1.79 over the previous 10 games. Unfortunately, Paul Byrd's three-inning, six-run outing raised that ERA figure to 2.45, which is still respectable. The Phillies also broke out of their offensive funk and raised the team batting average from .232 to .250, as of May 14.
And now the bad news. The loss of Rico Brogna could turn out to be huge. Sure, there are 25 men on a team, and all nine guys on the field must contribute, but the first baseman was such an important spoke in this wheel that his are going to be big shoes to fill.
"(Losing Brogna) has a profound effect, (considering) what he's done for our club over the last three years, both offensively and defensively," said general manager Ed Wade. "It's not going to be easy (to replace him), but we've got some good players."
The troika of Kevin Jordan, Brian Hunter and Chris Pritchett are currently sharing the position, and up-and-coming Pat Burrell is now playing first base at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre if the club decides to move in that direction.
Although Wade said that there's "always the possibility of us doing something," he doesn't see the club trading for another first-sacker.
In his three full seasons in Philadelphia, Brogna has averaged 34 doubles, 21 home runs and 96 RBIs. Defensively, he may be the best first baseman the club has ever had and probably saves the rest of the infield about a half-dozen throwing errors per month.
Several callers have asked how I felt about Mayor John Street's site selection for a new baseball stadium. I don't like it, and apparently, a lot of you don't like it either.
Without rehashing all of the negatives for 12th and Vine streets, it would make more sense at this point to suggest alternatives. A former colleague of mine, who is much more knowledgeable about baseball stadiums, has an interesting proposal — the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
"In my opinion, the Navy Yard is the perfect spot," said Rich Westcott, a co-author of the Phillies Encyclopedia who has also written a book titled Philadelphia's Old Ballparks. "It's in a prime location that's accessible, and it's not close to the residents in the area. Kvaerner (Philadelphia Shipyard) has a relatively small piece of land down there, but there's all of this empty space, and if the city can work with a developer, they can make it into an Inner Harbor type of place, like in Baltimore.
"To me, it's an ideal location. There are as many good reasons to put a stadium (at the Navy Yard) as there are bad reasons to put it at Twelfth and Vine. First of all, (the proposed location) is not accessible to everybody, especially to me in Delaware County and the other six-hundred-thousand people who live here. (The Chinatown area) is congested, and there's no parking.
"They don't want people to drive (to the new stadium), so how are they going to get people to come from the suburbs or from the Northeast? That's where most of the fans come from. If I live in Delaware County and I don't drive, I'm not going to get on the subway to come home at eleven o'clock."
The mayor makes a good point about his selection being close to Center City and the Pennsylvania Convention Center, but it does not justify the exorbitant additional costs or the loss of loyal fans who won't want to deal with the traffic, parking or higher ticket prices. And what's the point of trying to revitalize an area when the residents who will be displaced don't want to leave?
"I don't think it's the responsibility of the owners of a sports team to rebuild a city," said Westcott. "A sports team's objective is to win games, provide entertainment and hopefully win a championship. Who says it's up to a sports team to revitalize a city?"
That's his opinion. Let me know yours, and I'll discuss the issue again in a future column.
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