Let’s see if chemistry gets the Phillies past the Dodgers in the NLCS again this year, or past the AL representative (whom we all assume won’t be the Yankees, right?) in the World Series this year.

I believe in chemistry to a small degree (in that it’s very hard to win without it…even teams like the fightin’ A’s of the 70′s and the Bronx Zoo Yanks were finally able to put all their internal bullspit aside and produce some chemistry on the field), but it’s funny how chemistry disappears so mysteriously from year to year, as in, the White Sox had chemistry in 2005. Where’d it go? The Cards and Tigers had it in 2006; where’d it go?

It’s way premature to take down the 2007 Sox and 2008 Rays over their “lost” chemistry, but you get the drift.

Its nice that Jimmy Rollins believes in “chemistry” but I still think it’s a bunch of bullshit.

Steve Lombardi wrote:

Raf wrote:
Reggie?
I think 3 HRs in a ring winning game qualifies as once “getting it right.”

pfft, he was clearly padding his stats; the Yanks had the lead when he hit 2 of them, and he was lucky on the first

Raf wrote:

Steve, if you liked that book, you may want to check out, “You Can’t Lose ‘Em All: The Year the Phillies Finally Won the World Series” by Frank Fitzpatrick. It seems to have been written in a similar style. It doesn’t go as in depth with the game by game, but it does go into how the team was constructed. Also documents the Phils’ phailures (yeah, I had to do it… lol) from 76-78

Thanks Raf. For the record, Stark also gets into the details on the losing history for the Phils…and what a history that is!

Raf wrote:

Reggie?

I think 3 HRs in a ring winning game qualifies as once “getting it right.”

Steve, if you liked that book, you may want to check out, “You Can’t Lose ‘Em All: The Year the Phillies Finally Won the World Series” by Frank Fitzpatrick. It seems to have been written in a similar style. It doesn’t go as in depth with the game by game, but it does go into how the team was constructed. Also documents the Phils’ phailures (yeah, I had to do it… lol) from 76-78

…[players] preoccupied with their own numbers, their own paychecks, their own rationales for never quite getting it right…

It does sound like 1 person..and I stress 1 person. This team as a whole has embodied everything posted above about a TEAM. The vaunts to poolhalls, CC taking teammates to basketball games, and the overall chemistry. If this team manages to win it all this year, books will be written about this new team chemistry..not about 1 player supposedly “playing for a paycheck.”

Sound like anyone on the Yankees that we know?
————-
Reggie?