Phillies Lose Utley; Playoff Hopes are Dim

Is it just coincidence that a day after the virtual ending of the Phillies season, marked by the loss of Chase Utley to a broken hand, starts the beginning of the Eagles' season?

We can now take our focus away from the guys in red and concentrate on our men in green. Sure we can still check the box score, or watch Comcast sports night to see how far Howard's latest bomb went, or even tune in for the entire game when "The Man" Cole Hamels is pitching... but we won't have to allocate 100% of our passion on the Phils anymore. Their season is done. They've lost their most consistent player in Chase Utley who was putting up MVP type of numbers.

We can now turn our attention the Eagles training camp which starts tomorrow. Tune into my Eagles Blog, to see all of my thoughts on the Birds.

One thing that is going to upset me about Chase Utley's injury... is not the fact that I'm thinking about what could have been. Or not that Chase could have set a record for RBI's as a second basemen, or was on pace for an amazing 60 doubles. But what will upset me the most is now, when the Phillies don't make the playoffs, the Phillies management will use the Chase Utley injury as an excuse. Another excuse as to why the team failed and that our team was good enough. But let's face it. As well as we've been playing lately, and as much as we know in recent years that this is a second half team, we realists can understand the Phillies are a tease and were not going to make the playoffs.

This will now serve as another excuse to leave Charlie Manuel around. Another excuse for Dave Montgomery to use when he's asked about not spending money. And another excuse that Pat Gillick will use about not having the tools to work with.

PS - I don't know what you've heard... and I didn't see the game. But I don't think the kid Hannan was intentionally trying to hit Utley or Howard. He had Utley down 0-2, and was still in a winnable ball game making his major league debut. Howard was hit on the first pitch. But immediately after hitting Utley, why would you then throw at Howard? I can't imagine Ryan Howard showboating after a homerun, or doing anything that would warrant a bean ball. And I can't blame the Nats manager for getting tossed for defending his pitcher. Good work.