It took a furious rush at the end and an epic collapse by the Mets. But as the shadows lengthened over Citizens Bank Park late yesterday afternoon, the fans were cheering themselves hoarse as the Phillies celebrated clinching their first trip to the postseason since 1993, and just their second appearance since 1983.
So, fair is fair. In the end, it always comes down to the players on the field, the manager and coaches. But the guys upstairs must have done something right, too.
Gillick caught most of the flak during the long, hot summer and it's not hard to see why. He made a trade with the White Sox that brought in Freddy Garcia. For his $10 million salary, Garcia won one game before being sidelined for good in June with shoulder problems that eventually required surgery. He was unable to retain lefthander Randy Wolf and then turned around and signed Adam Eaton for $24.5 million over 3 years. Eaton's 6.29 earned run average was the highest for any qualifying starter in baseball and it appears highly unlikely he'll even be included on the postseason roster.
As Gillick stood just outside the raucous clubhouse, though, he shrugged off the criticism he'd received.
"I'm happy for the city of Philadelphia," he said. "The last time I was here before I was hired was in 1993 when I was here [with the Blue Jays for the World Series]. I know the frustration people were feeling then. When you talk about the fans here, there's been a lot of frustration for a long period of time, so there's going to be some negativity."
He could also take some quiet satisfaction in the fact that even if the big, headline-grabbing deals didn't pan out, several of the seemingly minor transactions that occurred in the margins did. The Phillies wouldn't have been spraying champagne yesterday without the contributions of J.C. Romero, Jayson Werth, Tadahito Iguchi and Greg Dobbs.
