The Four Splinters? Never work.
Casterioto was kidding, of course.
The Four Aces made this place the top attraction in both the Grapefruit League and the Cactus League a year ago. Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels captured the imagination of the baseball world as the national media converged on Bright House Field for a standing-room only news conference the day pitchers and catchers reported for work.
This year, there was more interest in getting to the bottom of last season's beer-and-fried-chicken controversy down at the Boston Red Sox camp in Fort Myers, Fla. There's more interest in Albert Pujols' move from the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals to the Los Angeles Angels. There's more interest in Prince Fielder's surprising move from Milwaukee to his father Cecil's former home in Detroit.
Charlie Manuel does not care too much what other people think about his team. His level of enthusiasm is exactly the same.
"Somebody said to me, 'What do you got?' " the Phillies manager said. "I looked over and said, 'We got Halladay, Lee, Hamels and [Vance] Worley. That's a good start.' "
Halladay, Lee and Hamels alone would give the Phillies one of the best rotations in the league, and Worley was more of an ace than Oswalt a year ago. You have that much starting pitching, and you have just as much of a chance to win the World Series as any team in baseball.
"I don't know how people feel, but I feel the same way [as always]," Manuel said. "I'm excited about our team. I'm excited about our pitching staff. I've been ready to go for a long time."
Hype is often overrated, as we saw with the Phillies, Eagles and a lot of other professional teams a year ago.
"All hype means is that your general manager has put together a good team," former Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.
All that matters is being the best team at the end.
Vastly underrated are the stories that develop over the course of a season.
