Celebrating An Accomplishment, Like The Phillies Making the Playoffs, Is Good
I am shocked that I have to write this because it should be the most obvious thing in the history of history, but there are some who are saying that the Phillies shouldn’t have celebrated making the postseason for the 2nd season in a row. Two years in a row in the postseason is very rare in Phillies history. The suggestion that celebrating is wrong is preposterous and doesn’t deserve a response, but I like being messy so let’s get after it.
John Kincade (who I love) from the John Kincade show and apparently, many others feel that the Phillies should have celebrated because the Braves finished ahead of them in the standings and had already celebrated. Using that logic, we would never celebrate Christmas because Thanksgiving happened 1st.
The Phillies are also the 1st wild card. They aren’t the 3rd wild card like last year when everyone was good with the celebration. The wild card is in its 30th season. It started in 1994. Why are we worried about the pre-Bill Clinton era? Why do we want to go back to when pitchers were judged by wins, and they would be punished if their offense was bad? The game has evolved, and with-it common sense.
Everyone has celebrated the wild card because it is hard to obtain. Look at everything this team went through this year. They started the season without their best player. Bryce Harper then returned far ahead of schedule just in time for Trea Turner to have a 3-month long stretch where he played the worst baseball of his life. The fans remedied that with an out-of-nowhere standing ovation, and he then had the best stretch of his career. Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, and Johan Rojas emerged as real major league players.
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The Phillies hit more home runs in the month of August than any team in Phillies history. Their record the last 100 games was 63-37! Again, if we go back to the 80s there would be no celebration. We are in 2023 though and it is poppycock to suggest that it isn’t an accomplishment to make the postseason. It was fun seeing the guys having well-deserved fun.
Where do we draw the line on celebrating if the Phillies can’t celebrate this? Do we stop celebrating the birth of children? Do we stop celebrating our birthdays? New Years? Do we celebrate retirement? Where does it stop?
The people bringing up that the Braves are missing the point completely anyway. The Braves have been the best team in the regular season. The Phillies are celebrating the fact that they get to go topple them and everyone else in the postseason when it really matters. The Phillies earned the right by having a good regular season. Nobody outside of Atlanta will care how many games the Phillies finished behind the Braves if the Phillies go handle their business like they almost did last year. Now we will see if they can have a great postseason and provide us with an early November parade.
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