Phils ruin Media's Dream Series

Phils ruin Media's Dream Series
10/16/08
By Luke Desiato

If you know me, you probably know that I'm not a big Media fan. The Political agendas, the Biases, Jim Grey, and the list goes on.
That being said, let me congratulate my Fightin' Phils for shutting up Foxsports.com's total bias, Manny Ramirez/Dodgers loving Kevin Kennedy who said that the Dodgers were clearly the better team in picking them to win in six. The media was salivating for a Manny vs. Boston World Series and no one loves that dream being squashed more than yours truly.

For the entire series, we heard Joe Buck and Tim McCarver gushing over Ramirez like lovesick school girls which made it so much more satisfying that we ended it quickly. Don't get me wrong, I think Manny Ramirez is the Best right-handed hitter since Hank Aaron. (Save Albert Pujols, but he has a lot more career ahead of him)
I mean the guy drove in 165 runs in 147 games in 1999. He is a career .315 hitter, with 527 home runs, and 1,725 RBI and 28 postseason homers. By comparison, after 15 seasons, Hank Aaron had 510 HR, and 1,627 RBI. Barry Bonds, 494-1,405, get the picture? This guy is a Hall of Fame lock. A model of consistency. But as far as we are concerned right now, we couldn't stand him.

Manny aside, LA-Boston is apparently a better "story" than Philly-Tampa. What is that crap? What's a better story than the two worst franchises in history going at it. I for one, love it. It's not like it's Kansas City-Pittsburgh, you're getting some of baseball's best young players in Cole Hamels, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard versus Scott Kasmir, Evan Longoria, and Carl Crawford. These guys are anything but second rate. Howard is baseball's premier run producer, Utley is the premier second baseman, Rollins is the reigning NL MVP and probably the best all around shortstop, Hamels is one of the best pitchers, and Brad Lidge is the top closer. On the Tampa side, you have Crawford, who has more stolen bases than anyone since 2003, Longoria is probably Rookie of the Year, and Kasmir is, well Kasmir. The most talked about, yet underachieving pitcher.

In closing, I encourage everyone to enjoy this series, because the Phils finally get a shot at baseball immortality. It's nice to see two teams built on the back of their own farm systems rather than free agent assembled teams go for the title.