ESPN.com has a new blog called "TrueHoop", where the writer posts links to, and quotes lengthy passages from, articles about the NBA written by other people. That's pretty much it. He doesn't write much himself, just links to other things. He gets paid to do this, one assumes. Hey, that reminds me: I really hate blogs.

For a while I was reading a certain Phillies message board, but I stopped back in August or so and haven't looked back. I never posted myself, but Andrew and our friend Jay were regulars, and I read it rather often for a time (just like in real life, I maintain my "observer" persona online as well). I will admit that it was a step above the usual unreadable Internet chatter, "written" by idiots who have roughly the same grasp on spelling and grammar as a kindergartener. The guys on this board all seemed pretty intelligent, often very funny, and they did not share the usual inane Philly opinions (i.e., Abreu was a lazy bum, Rowand is a hero and the all-time greatest Phillie for breaking his nose like a madman). They backed up their opinions with stats, and had a true passion for the game. The one drawback, sadly, was the one trait they shared with Philly fans of every stripe: relentless, irrational, mind-numbing, occasionally over-the-top pessimism.

It came to a head for me last August when, following their awful first half and the Abreu trade, the team unexpectedly started to contend for the wild card again. As you undoubtedly remember, they looked pretty good in August and September, and were really fun to watch for a while. I myself genuinely believed that they were going to do it: I could really see the wild card, floating before me like a vision - yea verily, I could taste it on my tongue. The wild card! Us! The Phillies! It was fun to dream.

But then I went on the board one day in mid-August and someone had posted the following diatribe: He was so disgusted by the Abreu trade, the team's general history of rampant mediocrity, and his belief that the team's owners were more interested in turning a profit than fielding a winner, that he was rooting for the Phillies to miss the playoffs; making the playoffs, this poster posited, would only validate the direction the owners had taken the team, dooming us fans to many coming years of similar badness.

Thankfully, this post had few, if any, supporters. The many replies outlined the following points, many of which I had thought myself when I read the post in slack-jawed disbelief:

1. Making the playoffs is a good thing, right? Why would making the playoffs signify that the team is going in the wrong direction? Baseball isn't like the NBA or NFL, where losing gets you a draft pick that might help your team immediately. Baseball draft picks might not make the team for five years, if at all.
2. There is no evidence that the owners have any interest in selling, win or lose. They didn't sell in 1993 when the team made the World Series. They didn't sell in 2001 when they missed the postseason by two games, or in 2005 when they were eliminated on the final day. They didn't sell in 1997 or 2000 when the team was atrocious. In short, these are the owners, love them or hate them. They're not selling.
3. Who says the team's not moving in the right direction? They've had winning records five out of the last six seasons. In many ways, this is the team's second golden age. Sure, there's been poor pitching, occasionally poor hitting, questionable in-game management, dumb trades, ill-advised free agent signings... but I put it to you that the team's lack of a playoff berth in all that time can just as easily be attributed to astonishingly bad luck - i.e., the team played in a time when they were surrounded by numerous teams that were just simply better, or at least knew how to capitalize on the Phils' weaknesses at the right times. If this were the NBA or NHL, where just about everybody makes the playoffs, the Phils would have been right in there every time. (I'm not advocating such a system, I'm just saying.) And contrary to popular opinion, the Phillies' owners have been spending money. Certainly more than teams like the Marlins and A's, who have found their way into the playoffs recently. At some point, it has to be the Phils' time, right? (And really, if a mediocre team like the 2006 Cardinals can win the World Series, there's hope for us all.)
4. The 2006 team was filled with likable players: Howard, Utley, Hamels, Rollins, Victorino... hell, even that crazy idiot Rowand. Why root for Ryan Howard to spend his October not hitting home runs in the playoffs just because you hate the Phillies' owners? I'll never understand that.
5. Most importantly, baseball is just a game, a pleasant diversion that helps us forget, for a few hours a day, the hideous realities of our strange, ridiculous world. I'm not going to drive myself to depression hating my favorite team. And anyway, they were in a playoff race! Actual meaningful baseball, every night on my TV! I knew then that in February and March, I would long for a meaningful baseball game, and that in fact has been the case. I'm glad I enjoyed last season when I had the chance, unlike that guy. Furthermore, it is literally impossible for me to root against the Phillies - I honestly have no idea how.

So, I'm not sure why I'm bitching about a post written by a stranger many months ago on a board I no longer read. I think my main point is that there was a time in my life (I call it "2004") when I allowed myself to be governed by pessimism and cynicism and straight-up hatred, but no more. Those days are over. The Phillies, my friends, win or lose, now and forever.

I know that a few days ago I said I wasn't worried about the Phillies' bullpen, but I think I'm changing my mind. They've all been pretty much terrible this spring. Maybe that means nothing, because spring stats don't mean anything and are often deceptive, and of course not every reliever on the team is going to be horrible, that just doesn't happen, but really, none of them have stepped up and impressed me or anyone else. They've all been awful, every one of them, and not just the journeymen and the minor leaguers fighting for jobs, no, the guys who are considered "locks" for the bullpen have been awful too. I should probably have numbers to show you to prove my point, but I don't, so go to the Phillies site and look at all the box scores. Rampant horribleness! So, yes, I've talked myself into being worried. Yeah, that sounds like something I would do.

I wrote a letter to the Inquirer sports page this morning. The gist of it was that Stephen A. Smith is a mean, crazy idiot. They won't print it, but I had to get it off my chest. I mean, his basic point (that last night's Sixers game, in which they lost by 50 points, is an appalling, embarrassing indictment of the franchise) is totally true, but I can't stomach his angry, shrill horribleness. I definitely felt better after writing it, even if he'll never see it, or give the slightest damn what I think if he ever does. There really might be something to this whole "writing" concept!

(Many) dumb things Bill Simmons said

I won't bother getting into a point-by-point berating of Bill Simmons' NCAA Tournament running diary. I'll just direct you to read the thing sometime when you have a spare two or three hours to plow through it. It indeed proves Sartre's classic observation, "Hell is an eternity spent with Bill Simmons and his idiot friends." Nonstop Borat references, the same dumb jokes over and over, the lecherous ogling of 19 year old Mormon cheerleaders - how long could you spend in a room with these guys before chewing off your own arm? I mean, Simmons, seriously: if you're going to say that one of your buddies is "on a roll", and then recount some of his "funny" lines, make sure they're funny. This is a crucial point.

On the other hand, unlike me, these guys probably have wives and girlfriends, so maybe I should just shut up and start chugging Smithwick's at 9:30 am.

Time for some actual baseball talk, I think. Spring Training is going, well, normal I guess. Right now we're in the "interminable" phase of Spring Training. The first week is "exciting", the second is "wearing thin", next week will be "irritating", the final week has no name but you will find me stabbing people. I have no problem with Spring Training in theory - anything that results in the Phillies becoming better Phillies is fine by me - but after a while you can't read any more box scores featuring random nonroster guys who hit home runs in the 8th against the Devil Rays' scrub pitchers. The Phils don't have an impressive record so far this spring, but I literally don't care. As long as the pitchers aren't completely horrendous, everyone gets their at bats, and nobody gets maimed, the spring is a success. Last year, the Phils won the Grapefruit League, then pulled the off switch upon their return to PA and started off 1-7 or something grotesque like that. I mean, whatever. It means nothing.

The big talk is how the pitching staff is shaping up. The Phils have six legitimate starters, and are debating whether to keep them all, or trade Lieber for a reliever. (Or perhaps Rowand for a reliever?) I wonder if they've considered just having a six man rotation? I suppose some old school baseball guys would tell me that's a ridiculous idea, and I guess maybe that's slightly more rest than pitchers usually like. But think about it: your pitchers stay fresh, enough so that they go a little longer, and you wouldn't need to use the bullpen as much. The very fact that not a single person in the Phillies organization has even dared to suggest this makes me suspect I have no idea what I'm talking about. I'd just rather see them keep Lieber for insurance in case of injury instead of dealing him for some journeyman reliever.

I decided last year that bullpens are usually not that good, or are at least pretty good, but are rarely incredibly, memorably great. Not like lineups or rotations. Relievers are literally everywhere, and if the guys we have don't work out, we can probably find more of them somewhere. I hate to sound cold, because they're human beings, but really, relief pitchers are such a crapshoot. One year they're awful, the next they're unhittable. It makes no sense, you can't predict or control it, you just kind of hope you're sending a guy out there on the right day. That's why, though the bullpen seems to be the '07 Phils' weakness, I refuse, thus far, to worry about them. They will, to coin a phrase, be just fine.

A brief shout out to the NYU women's basketball team, which is in the Div. III Final Four, and takes on Washington-St. Louis tonight! GO VIOLETS!!!

Win it for Vuke

R.I.P. John Vukovich 1947-2007

Meanwhile, here's this week's advice: when you're on the StairMaster at the gym, don't let your iPod suddenly hurl itself off said StairMaster. It will break and you will have to buy a new one. That's free advice from me to you.

In a few moments I'll be heading over to the Troc to see Of Montreal. Very excited. This is the first in a staggering number of concerts I'll be attending in the coming weeks and months, including: Ted Leo/Love of Diagrams (3/28; I like Ted Leo but I'm mostly going for LoD, whose EP I enjoy tremendously), Sondre Lerche (4/4), Spoon (4/22; yes!!!), Cornelius (5/11; YES!!!), and finally, the triumphant and unbelievable return of GENESIS on September 18. Which reminds me, does anyone want to see Genesis with me? The cheapest seat is $57. Come on, it's worth every penny. When are you ever going to get to see Genesis again?

Plus there's one other show still to be announced... and when these guys, moreso than anyone else in the world, tell you to "CLICK HERE", you damn well click there.