Shifting into Phillies mode

Hope everyone had a great time at the Eagles parade!

Maybe we’ll get a Phillies parade in November. Hey, you never know. Spring training is here and optimism is in the air.

In the email today:

• ⚾ Harder than usual to shift into Phillies mode?

• 🥇 On Pattison's Super Bowl parade awards

• 🏀 Villanova's postseason hopes dealt another blow at Providence

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

Are you having a harder time than usual turning your attention from the Eagles to the Fightins? If so, you’re not alone. Spring training is underway but the excitement level isn’t quite where it’s been the last few years.

Scientists are attributing this phenomenon to three primary factors:

1) Familiarity breeds contempt

This is a great Phillies team. Barring some kind of disaster, they’ll compete for the NL East title again. Their rotation may the best in baseball. There’s plenty of star power in the lineup. Bryce Harper! Kyle Schwarber! Trea Turner!

But.

These last few postseasons have taken a toll on the fan base. We watched the Phils blow a 2-1 lead in the 2022 World Series against Houston. There was the Diamondbacks debacle in the 2023 NLCS. And wounds from the 2024 NLDS are still fresh.

It’s tough for fans to shake all that off without new faces in the everyday starting nine. We are starting to associate the current squad—as talented as they are—with postseason failure. And, with all due respect to offseason acquisition Max Kepler, it’s hard to believe he’s the solution to the lineup’s problems.

2) The Eagles factor

Baseball, of course, isn’t all about the postseason. It’s best enjoyed as a slow burn, from the breezy days of spring through the warm nights of summer.

But for Phillies fans who are also Eagles fans (probably the overwhelming majority?), there’s a crash from the nonstop adrenaline of playoff football and a Super Bowl championship. And because the Birds won it all, the transition period is unusually short. It just doesn’t feel like time for baseball yet.

We’ll get there. But it may take a little while.

3) The damn Dodgers

Looming over the 2025 season is the sense that another Dodgers NL pennant is inevitable. After winning the 2024 World Series in dominant fashion, LA had an offseason for the ages. Oh, and Shohei Ohtani will return to the mound.

But nothing in baseball is certain. See Phillies, 2011.

And the Phils are one of only a handful of teams that can even hope to compete with LA.

So warm up at your own pace, bask in the Eagles’ glory for as long as you’d like, and shift into Phillies mode when you’re ready. You know you’ll get there. We all will. And the Bank will be rockin’ again soon.

Turning the page is cool, but have you ever handed out snarky Super Bowl parade awards to people you could potentially run into in public? We live dangerously.

And you only get one trip on the big blue marble, so here we go.

The “Deez Nutz” Award: To CJ Gardner-Johnson, who had USA Today positively clutching its pearls at his “vulgar hoodie.” Think of the children!

The “We Actually Don’t Deserve This Guy” Award: To Saquon Barkley, whose selflessness extended to hauling a ball boy over the barriers and into the fray.

The “They Are Who We Thought They Were” Award: To Villanova University, the only “city school” that held all classes on Friday. Right, so much learning was going on as those students watched the parade on YouTube.

The Chase Utley “World F*cking Champions” Award: So many legitimate contenders here — dump buttons on broadcasts got worked on Friday — but we have a winner.

The “Getting Played Off the Stage at the Oscars” Award: To the Honorable Cherelle Parker. Fresh off recently not spelling E-A-G-L-E-S correctly, Our Mayor spoke so long at the parade that the crowd turned on her.

The “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” Award: To the accused person who allegedly shot two parade-goers. No, it doesn’t make it better that a radio host died during the Chiefs’ parade last year.

The “Cut Me, Mick” Award: So we did this to Howie Roseman, but Ruin Tomorrow Junior and Bryan Colangelo continue to live their lives without scars? Explain yourselves.

The “Maybe It’s You That’s Not Taking Parade Viewing Position Seriously Enough” Award: To the fans who camped out on the Parkway the night before the parade. You’re a lot tougher than us. It was cold that night!

The “Hey…YOU Tell That Guy He Can’t Sing” Award: To Jordan Mailata. He can sing a little, though his choice of song was maybe a wee bit on the nose.

And last but not least:

The “We’re Going to Renew Our Vows Right Here after Super Bowl 84!” Award:

Good luck, you crazy lovebirds.

In our send after Villanova upset St. John’s, we wrote the following:

We meant what we said. That was a quality win. All Villanova really needed to do from that point was beat the teams they should beat and steal one or two games against ranked opponents to have a colorable case for an NCAA tournament bid.

Welp.

The Wildcats got jumped in Providence on Saturday. The Friars are not a good basketball team, but any Division I team given as many open looks as Villanova gave up can absolutely shoot 48% from three-point range.

Eric Dixon can be forgiven for hitting the wall. He has been stuck carrying this Villanova team all season. Saturday, he had the quietest 15 points you ever saw. More to the point, he looked exhausted.

Unsaid there is the obvious, which is “if you take Dixon away, we’re probably not a .500 team.”

The Wildcats have no time to sulk, not with a very grumpy UConn team waiting to avenge an earlier loss at the Pavillion this season.

Yeah…good luck with that.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On February 17, 1996, the Phillies signed free agent Terry Mulholland, briefly bringing the pitcher for a second stint with the team. (Mulholland’s first tour of duty with the Phils began in 1989 and ended after 1993.)

The club would trade Mulholland to the Mariners later that season in exchange for 22-year-old Desi Relaford. The lefty played for 11 different teams in his 20-year major league career, which ended in 2006 with Arizona.

📊 Poll

Results from Friday:

🔗 Links

• 🇨🇦 The USA/Canada 4 Nations Face-Off game was an instant classic.

• 📆 LeBron James sat out of the NBA All-Star Game for the first time in two decades.

• ⚖️ Justin Tucker’s run at DeShaun Watson’s accuser total is gaining steam.

• 🗽 Juan Soto was all smiles at Mets camp.

• 🧺 Everyone has one special thing, and dunking a basketball is Mac McClung’s.

📺 Coming Up

No games for the locals until February 20.

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

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