The Rotation (45 page)

Disappointed and drained, Halladay lingered in front of his locker and seemed to replay the loss over and over in his mind. He finally took off his uniform, threw on some gym shorts, and met with reporters in the middle of the clubhouse. He had pushed for a trade to Philadelphia because he thought it was the place his World Series dreams would come true. After two seasons and 40 regular-season wins, he was still looking for that ring.

“We came up short,” he said. “Obviously winning the World Series was the ultimate goal for us, so this is tough.

“The hard part is you think about all the work you put in over the year, you think about the game today and how big it was going to be, and then all of a sudden that just kind of dissipates. It's hard to have it end like this. You always want to finish happy. It's hard to finish the season losing.”

And so, nearly eight months after it began on a warm and sunny morning in Clearwater, it all ended on a cool and dark night in Philadelphia.

The 2011 Phillies headed home for the longest winter of their lives.

F
our days after the season ended, the Game 5 line score remained hauntingly frozen on the Citizens Bank Park scoreboard:

In the basement of the ballpark, Ruben Amaro Jr. sat in the same room he had welcomed Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee to the club in the previous two off-seasons. This news conference wasn't nearly as pleasant. Like the city's sports fans, the general manager was still smarting from his team's quick exit. His displeasure with the team's offense was as clear as the goose egg on the scoreboard and he challenged Manager Charlie Manuel and Hitting Coach Greg Gross to rectify the situation in 2012.

“We don't have the same offensive team we had in 2008,” Amaro said. “We don't have nearly as much power. We need to realize that and work with what we have. We need to make adjustments, work counts better, have better two-strike at-bats. We should have more .300 hitters, or close to it. We really should.

“There's no question in my mind this is a championship-caliber lineup. We just have to go about it in a different way. What we've done is not working. It's not worked well enough to get to the World Series and win.”

As if the pain of early elimination wasn't enough, a number of players, including Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels, quickly had surgical procedures to fix injuries.

Meanwhile in St. Louis, the Cardinals, kissed by destiny, continued their late-season romp. They beat the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series and won the World Series in a tense, seven-game battle with the Texas Rangers. It was a difficult series for Phillies fans to watch. One called Mike Missanelli's radio show on FM 97.5 The Fanatic and equated the experience to watching his wife appear in an adult film. “You don't want to watch, but you do because you want to believe the other guy isn't as good as you,” the caller said.

Game 6 of the World Series was a classic, with the Cardinals coming from behind five times to win, 10-9, in 11 innings, and send the series to a seventh game. The Cards were down to their last strike in the ninth and 10
^th
innings. David Freese twice delivered big hits—a game-tying triple in the ninth inning and a game-winning homer in the 11
^th
—on his way to winning MVP honors. Freese and Howard were three years apart at Lafayette High School in suburban St. Louis. During his time in college, Freese became frustrated with the game and Howard was one of the people who helped talk him out of quitting. All these years later, Freese helped slay Howard's favored Phillies and went on to win World Series MVP honors.

And, of course, that Chris Carpenter fellow got the win in Game 7.

While the Phillies were two weeks into hunting and fishing season, the Cardinals rolled through the streets of St. Louis in a victory parade.

The next day,Tony La Russa retired after 33 years as a big-league skipper and three World Series titles.

At 67, La Russa went out on top.

Gradually, the sting of defeat eased on the executive level of Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies declined 2012 contract options on Roy Oswalt and Brad Lidge, making them free agents. Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Madson, and Raul Ibanez also became free agents, maybe to return, maybe to move on.

Before the leaves were completely off the trees, Amaro and his lieutenants completely turned their attention to the season ahead and signed free agent Jim Thome, the man whose arrival nine years earlier had signaled a baseball rebirth in Philadelphia.

All those years later, Thome was still looking for that elusive World Series ring, which gave him a kinship with Halladay and Lee.

Maybe 2012 would bring them what they were looking for.

INDEX

Agostinelli, Sal

Alexander, Grover Cleveland

All-Star break

Amaro, Ruben, Jr.

Amaro, Ruben, Sr.

American League Rookie of the Year

Andersen, Larry

Andersen, Mark

Anthopoulos, Alex

Arbuckle, Mike

Arizona Diamondbacks

Ash, Gord

Ashby, Andy

Atlanta Braves

Aumont, Phillippe

Avery, Steve

Axford, John

Baez, Danys

Bagwell, Jeff

Baines, Harold

Baker, Geoff

Baltimore Orioles

Bamford, Gord

Barajas, Rod

Barger, Carl

Barkann, Michael

Barney, Darwin

Bastardo, Antonio

Bautista, Jose

Beane, Billy

Beckett, Josh

Bedard, Erik

Belcher, Tim

Bell, David

Beltran, Carlos

Berkman, Lance

Berowski, Freddy

Bielecki, Mike

Big John

Billmeyer, Mick

Black, Bud

Blalock, Hank

Blalock, Sam

Blanton, Joe

Bochy, Bruce

Bonds, Barry

Bonifay, Cam

Bonilla, Bobby

Boras, Scott

Borris, Jeff

Boskie, Shawn

Boston Red Sox

Bottenfield, Kent

Bourn, Michael

Bowa, Larry

Bowden, Jim

Bowers, Sean

Bowker, John

Braun, Ryan

Braunecker, Darek

brawls

Brazer, John

Brogan, Jim

Brooklyn Dodgers

Brown, David

Brown, Domonic

Brown, Kevin

Browning, Tom

Bruce, Jay

bullpen

Bumgarner, Madison

Burnett, A. J.

Burrell, Pat

Bush, Guy

Cain, Matt

Cairo, Miguel

Caminiti, Ken

Camiscioli, Kevin

Campbell, Bus

Carapazza, Vic

Cardenas, Adrian

Carpenter, Chris

Carrasco, Carlos

Cashman, Brian

Casterioto, Greg

Castillo, Frank

Castillo, Luis

Castro, Fabio

Castro, Starlin

Charles, Jamaal

Chen, Bruce

Chesney, Kenny

Chicago Cubs

Chicago White Sox

Ciccotti, Matt

Ciccotti, Michael

Cincinnati Reds

Clark, Bonnie

Clark, Dave

Clark, Tony

Clarke, Bobby

Clemens, Roger

Cleveland Indians

Collinson, Rick

Colorado Rockies

Conine, Jeff

Conner, Darrell

Contreras, Jose

Coppenbarger, Frank

Cormier, Rheal

Correa, Heitor

Cosart, Jarred

Costas, Bob

Coste, Chris

Coughlin, Chris

Craig, Allen

Crawford, Carl

Cuddyer, Michael

Cueller, Mike

Cy Young Award

Daal, Omar

Dalton, Harry

Damon, Johnny

Daniels, Charlie

Daniels, Jon

Davis, Ben

Davis, Joey

De Fratus, Justin

De La Rosa, Rubby

Detroit Tigers

Dobbs, Greg

Dobson, Pat

Donald, Jason

Dorfman, Harvey

Doughty, Larry

Drabek, Doug

Drabek, Kyle

Drew, J. D.

Drysdale, Don

Dubee, Rich

Duckworth, Brandon

Dunn, Jay

Dupont, Kenny

Durbin, Chad

Durbin, J. D.

Dykstra, Lenny

Eaton, Adam

Eckersley, Dennis

Edwards, Herm

Egins, Paul

Ennis, John

Erskine, Carl

Erstad, Darin

Espinosa, Danny

False Spring (Jordan)

fantasy football

Feller, Bob

Fielder, Prince

Figgins, Chone

Figueroa, Nelson

Finley, Steve

Florida Marlins

Floyd, Gavin

Forst, David

Foster, Arian

Francis, Jeff

Francisco, Ben

Francoeur, Jeff

Francona, Alyssa

Francona, Terry

Franzke, Scott

Freamon, Lester

Freeman, Freddie

Freese, David

Fregosi, Jim

Fresh, Benny

Fronek, Jan

Fronek, Jeff

Furcal, Rafael

Furtak, Mark

Gallardo,Yovani

Galvis, Freddy

Garber, Bob

Garcia, Freddy

Garcia, Mike

Gayton, Bill

Giambi, Jason

Gibson, Bob

Giles, Bill

Gillick, Pat

Gillies, Tyson

Glavine, Tom

Gload, Ross

Goldschmidt, Paul

Gonzalez, Adrian

Gonzalez, Alex

Gooden, Dwight

Gordon, Brian

Gose,Anthony

Graves, Danny

Green, Dallas

Greenberg, Chuck

Greene, Khalil

Gregg, Kevin

Greinke, Zack

Gross, Greg

Guccione, Chris

Hairston, Jerry, Jr.

Hairston, Scott

Hall, Robbie

Halladay, Roy

Hamels, Cole

Hampton, Mike

Hansen, Cameron

Happ, J. A.

Harkey, Mike

Hart, John

Heard, Scott

Heintzelman, Ken

Helms, Wes

Hernandez, Angel

Hernandez, Felix

Hernandez, Jose

Hernandez, Livan

Herndon, David

Hershiser, Orel

Hewes, Tim

Heyman, Jon

Higginson, Bobby

Hinske, Eric

Hoffman, Trevor

Holiday, Rob

Holliday, Matt

Houston Astros

Howard, Ryan

Hunter, Jim “Catfish,”

Ibanez, Raul

Iooss, Walter

Iwamura, Akinori

Iwamura, Kobayashi

Jackson, Edwin

Jackson, Steven

James, Bill

Jeter, Derek

Johnson, Andre

Johnson, Calvin

Johnson, Dan

Johnson, Davey

Johnson, Josh

Johnson, Randy

Johnson, Walter

Jones, Chipper

Jones-Drew, Maurice

Jordan, Michael

Jordan, Pat

Jurrjens, Jair

Kalas, Harry

Kansas City Royals

Kazmir, Scott

Ke$ha

Kendrick, Kyle

Kennedy, Ian

Keough, Matt

Kerfeld, Charley

Kerrigan, Joe

Kershaw, Clayton

Killebrew, Harmon

Kimbrel, Craig

Klobedanz, Fred

Knapp, Jason

Kobayashi, Takeru

Koufax, Sandy

Kratz, Erik

Kruk, John

La Russa, Tony

LaMar, Chuck

Landry, Greg

Lannan, John

Lawrence, Ryan

Lee, Cliff

Lee, Kristen

Lee, Travis

Lemon, Bob

Lewis, Allan

Lewis, Michael

Lewis, Ted

Leyland, Jim

Lidge, Brad

Lidle, Cory

Lieberthal, Mike

Liebrandt, Charlie

Lien, Dong

Lima, Jose

Lincecum, Tim

Loewen, Adam

Lohse, Kyle

Longoria, Evan